730 THE UNIVERSE. 



We see that at the present tune our means of investi- 

 gation have given gigantic proportions to the field of 

 science. When the sidereal world was only explored with 

 the naked eye, the catalogues of stars compiled from an- 

 tiquity up to the Eenaissance, from Hipparchus to Tycho- 

 Brahe, only made mention of about a thousand stars. In 

 our days the vault of heaven, seen through a telescope 

 tAventy feet long, is found, according to M. Struve, to 

 contain more than 20,000,000 stars. 



But Sir W. Herschel pried yet more deeply into the 

 mysteries of the heavens. By means of his telescope, 

 40 feet long, the Milky Way, this long Avhite train Avhich 

 the Arabs called the Heavenly River, has been resolved 

 into a stellar cloud, in which the English astronomer 

 counted 18,000,000 telescopic stars. 



And yet can Ave say that Avitli these overAvhelming 

 numbers, — these numbers Avhicli confound the imagina- 

 tion, — Ave have reached the extreme bounds of science, 

 and that it has traced out the farthest limits of the sidereal 

 universe? Probably not. Other revelations, not less 

 marvellous, may yet astonish our descendants ! 



The aspect of this star-formed cloud, dispersed through 



of art and science." "This magnificent instrument is fixed in the midst of walls 

 which resemble segments of fortifications." The telescopic tube is 55 feet in 

 length, and weighs 14,575 lbs. avoirdupois. With it one can gauge the immeas- 

 urable depths of the heavens. It is thought that by means of this instrument 

 we could easily perceive a monument the size of the pyramids of Egypt, if anj' 

 existed on the moon. The surface of this planet is there as accurately depicted 

 as a terrestrial landscape. 



The telescope of Lord Eosse, says M. Eabinet, would certainly not show us a 

 lunar elephant, but a troop of animals like a herd of American buft'aloes would 

 be quite visible. Troops marching in order of battle would be clearly percep- 

 tible. The observatory at Paris, Notre Dame, and the Louvre would be very 

 easily seen. We must therefore conclude that if we see nothing of this kind on 

 our satellite, it is because its surface, formerly all flame and volcano, and now 

 all ice, did not or does not contain anything of the kind. 



