MACHINERY OF THE HEAVENS RUNNING DOWN 425 



gaze at night upon the stellar host we descry the nearest 

 members of a cluster of suns, which, vast as it is, has limits 

 which have been surveyed. Sir William Herschel, with the 

 graduated powers of his great telescope, sounded the depths 

 of the firmament, and determined its extent in every direc- 

 tion. In the midst of this circumscribed cluster of suns 

 our solar luminary holds a position. 



Beyond the confines of the outermost zone of stars lies 

 an empty void. Sir William Herschel, with the higher 

 powers of his instrument, looked through the loop-holes 

 of our firmament, and sent his vision across the cold and 

 desert space which spreads out on every side. The cheer- 

 ing starlight that had accompanied every farther stretch 

 across the populated fields of our firmament now forsook 

 him, and he gazed only upon dread emptiness and black- 

 ness. For a moment he imagined he had caught a glimpse 

 of infinity ; but lo ! across that measureless void appears 

 another firmament ! And still other firmaments, on every 

 side, beam on us with a blended gleam which fuses their 

 constituent suns into a cloud. These are the nebulae. 



To what order of distances are they removed? Are their 

 histories identical with the history of our firmament ? Is 

 infinite space occupied by an endless succession of such 

 starry clusters ? These are questions which we shall find 

 answered when thought is permitted to penetrate one step 

 farther, and set foot within the bounds of the supernatural 

 world. 



These systems of suns, with their probably attendant 

 planets and satellites, all exist under one constitution. 

 The spectroscope has demonstrated that the light of the 

 different heavenly bodies is substantially identical. It has 

 demonstrated the identity of the luminous matter of sun, 

 and comets, and stars, and nebulae. It has declared the 

 existence of carbon in the comets, of hydrogen, potassium, 



