138 
HAROLD'S DISCUSSIONS. 
Are those at the end of the universe ? No. Think 
far beyond that star, and you can not think the end 
is there. Well said Buff on, “ The center of the uni¬ 
verse is everywhere and its circumference nowhere.” 
All this space seems to he full of shining suns. 
“ Stars which stand as thick as dewdrops on the field of heaven.” 
“ Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven. 
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.” 
—Longfellow. 
How would it impress you if the stars were ar¬ 
ranged in a row like the corn in our fields ? Their 
irregular arrangement impresses us all the more with 
the idea of infinity. We can never properly estimate 
their influence on the world. Imagine these heavenly 
hearth-fires put out, never to he seen again, and the 
sky always as dark as it sometimes is when dense 
storm-clouds shut them out; that, night after night, 
year after year, there should he no stars; never again 
cheer, no more inspiration, in the dark hemisphere. 
In all ages man has been touched with a feeling 
of interest in these celestial neighbors. lie has ever 
dreamed that somehow they have something to do 
with his happiness and destin}^ And so it happened 
that the first science we know anything about was 
astrology. At first this was a code to predict future 
events in the life of men and nations. Later it in¬ 
cluded the effect of stars and planets upon indi¬ 
viduals, particularly at birth. 
The primitive mind saw figures in the various 
star-clusters—figures of men and beasts—and gave 
them names. How far back it was we can not tell. 
