BOOK I. 



THE STAES AND IMMENSITY. 



CHAPTEE I. 



THE STARS. 



Kepler, whose genius surmounted all obstacles, was the 

 first to trace the great physical laws of the spheres. All 

 the stars are, according to him, only suns like ours, each 

 of which has its planetary system. And our luminary, 

 with his whole host of satellites, is itself thrown, like a 

 wandering star, into the ocean of worlds, where it forms 

 the central point in the stellar cloud which we call the 

 Milky Way. 



All round the sun, disseminated in immensity, the stars 

 majestically lend life to the vault of heaven. Their sjilen- 

 dour, the dazzling spectacle which they display to our eyes, 

 fill the soul with a sense of humility and nothingness. It 

 is in the valleys of the glowing Thebais, never wetted by 

 a drop of water, that we ought to yield ourselves up to 

 such contemplations. One enjoys there nights which are 

 eternally serene; and under their magnificent dome the 

 stars, these immortal flowers of heaven, as St. Basil calls 



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