CHAPTER IV. 



INTELLECT. 



That region of the universe which is visible to mortal 

 eyes has been named the solar system : it is composed 

 of innumerable stars, and each star is a white hot sun, 

 the centre and sovereign of a world. Our own sun is 

 attended by a company of cold, dark globes, revolving 

 round it in accordance with the law of gravitation ; 

 they also rotate like joints before the fire, turning 

 first one side, and then the other, to the central light. 

 The path that is traced by the outermost planet is the 

 limit of the sun's domain, which is too extensive to be 

 measured into miles. If a jockey mounted on a 

 winner of the Derby had started when Moses was 

 born, and had galloped ever since at full speed, he 

 would be by this time about half the way across. Yet 

 this world seems large to us, only because we are so 

 small. It is merely a drop in the ocean of space. 

 The stars which we see on a fine night are also suns 

 as important as our own ; and so vast is the distance 

 which separates their worlds from ours, that a flash of 

 lightning would be years upon the road. These various 

 solar systems are not independent of one another; 

 they are members of the same community. They are 

 sailing in order round a point to us unknown. Our 

 own sun, drawing with it the planets in its course, is 

 spinning furiously upon its axis, and dashing through 

 space at four miles a second. And not only is the 



