387 
and the stars which God hath ordained,” we cannot but think 
of what we have been taught to believe respecting their light, 
and their distances from “ this spot of earth ” on which we 
stand. And, first, let us give our attention to what our modern 
astronomers have taught us respecting what are called the 
“ fixed stars.” 
18. The fixed stars are supposed to be suns, like our own 
sun, and to be the centres of systems, like what is called our 
“ solar system.” They are distinguished by their twinkling 
from the planets, which shine with a steady light ; and in the 
field of the most powerful telescope they present no real 
measurable disc, however brilliant (which the planets do), but 
appear only as illuminated points of greater or less brilliancy. 
Their brilliancy is, as a rule, considered the criterion of their 
nearness to the earth ; and they are divided into stars of the 
first, second, third, or fourth “ magnitude,” and so on, accord- 
ing to their decreasing brightness ; but this really means 
(according to the current theory) that they are regarded as 
stars at greater and still greater distances from the earth ; 
and these distances, I need only add, are enormous. The 
exceptions to this general rule are so rare, as not to require to 
be further noticed in a paper like the present. This theory, 
that the decreasing brightness of the fixed stars indicates 
increasing distance, involves iC the probable supposition that 
they would all yield the same quantity of light at the same 
distance ; ” * and this really means that they are all of the 
same size, and that they vary in brilliancy merely as they vary 
in distance from us. By this method of computation Sirius , 
the nearest fixed star, is supposed to be about 140,000 times f 
more distant than the sun, or, in round numbers, to be about 
140 thousand times 91 millions of miles distant from the 
earth i Taking the distance of the earth to the sun (91 mil- 
lions of miles) as unity, therefore, the distance of Sirius is 
as 140,000 to 1 ; and the distance of the bright star, a Lyrce, 
is as 800,000 to 1 ; i. e., it is distant from us 800 thousand 
times 91 millions of miles ! I need scarcely say that the 
human mind can really form no distinct conception whatever 
of such figures ! 
19. Another mode of astounding our conceptions as to the 
imagined distances of the fixed stars, according to current 
theories, is by estimating the time their light would take to 
reach this earth. On this point I need only say that, accord- 
ing to the computations of Struve and Peters, it was inferred 
the light of stars of the second magnitude would take twenty- 
* Grant, Hist, of Phys. Ast., p. 542. 
t Ibid., pp. 546, 547. 
