THE BODIES OF SPACE. 



THEIR ARRANGEMENTS AND FORMATION 



It is familiar knowledge that the earth which we in- 

 nabit is a globe of somewhat less than 8000 miles in di- 

 ameter, being one of a series of eleven which revolve at 

 diiferent distances around the sun, and some of which 

 have satellites in like manner revolving around them. 

 The sun, planets, and satellites, with the less intelligible 

 orbs termed comets, are comprehensively called the so- 

 lar system, and if we take as the uttermost bounds of this 

 system the orbit of Uranus^ (though the comets actually 

 have a wider range,) we shall find that it occupies a por- 

 tion of space not less than three thousand six hundred 

 millions of miles in extent. The mind fails to form an 

 exact notion of a portion of space so immense ; but some 

 faint idea of it may be obtained from the fact, that, if the 

 swiftest race-horse ever known had begun to traverse it, 

 at full speed, at the time of the birth of Moses, he would 

 only as yet have accomplished half his journey. 



It has long been concluded amongst astronomers, that 

 the stars, though they only appear to our eyes as brilliant 

 points, are all to be considered as suns, representing so 

 many solar systems, each bearing a general resemblance 

 to our own. The stars have a brilliancy and apparent 

 magnitude which we may safely presume to be in propor- 

 tion to their actual size and the distance at which they 

 are placed from us Attempts have been made to ascer- 

 tain the distance of some of the stars by calculations 

 founded on parallax, it being previously understood that 

 if a parallax of so much as one second, or the 3600th of a 

 degree could be ascertained in any one instance, the dis- 

 tance might be assumed in that instance as not less than 

 19,200,000 millions of miles ! In the case of the most bril- 

 liant star, Sirius, even this minute parallax could not be 

 found : from which of course, it was to be inferred that 

 the distance of that star is something beyond the vast dis- 

 tance which has been stated. In some others, on which 



