Revelations in the Sidereal Heavens. 117 



surement — not of distances in miles, or millions of miles, or 

 diameters of the earth's orbit, but — of the progress of light 

 in free space. The determination, within, no doubt, a small 

 proportion of error, of the parallax of a considerable num- 

 ber of the fixed stars, yields, according to M. Peters, a space 

 betwixt us and the fixed stars of the smallest magnitude, the 

 sixth, ordinarily visible to the naked eye, of 130 years in the 

 flight of light. This information enables us, on the principles 

 of sounding the heavens, suggested by Sir- W. Herschel, 

 with the photometrical researches on the stars of Dr Wol- 

 laston and others, to carry the estimation of distances, and 

 that by no means on vague assumption, to the limits of space 

 opened out by the most effective telescopes. And from the 

 guidance thus afforded us, as to the comparative power of 

 the six-feet speculum in the penetration of space, as already 

 elucidated, we might fairly assume the fact, that if any other 

 telescope now in use could follow the sun if removed to the 

 remotest visible position, or till its light would require 10,000 

 years to reach us, the grand instrument at Parsonstown 

 would follow it so far, that from 20,000 to 25,000 years would 

 be spent in the transmission of its light to the earth. But in 

 the case of clusters of stars, and of nebulae exhibiting a mere 

 speck of misty luminosity, from the combined light perhaps 

 of hundreds of thousands of suns, the penetration into space, 

 compared with the results of ordinary vision, must be enor- 

 mous ; so that it would not be difficult to shew the pro- 

 bability that a million of years, in flight of light, would be 

 requisite, in regard to the most distant, to trace the enormous 

 interval. 



But after all, what is all this, vast as the attainment may 

 seem, in the exploration of the extent of the works of the 

 Almighty ? For in this attempt to look into space, as the 

 great reflector enables us, we see but a mere speck — for 

 space is Infinite. Could we take, therefore, not the tardy 

 wings of the morning, with the speed of the mere spread of 

 day, nor flee as with the leaden wings of light, which would 

 require years to reach the nearest star, but, like unhampered 

 thought, could we speed to the farthest visible nebula at a 

 bound, — there, doubtless, we should have a continuance of 



