that, were we completely animated by this noble principle, and were we permitted to visit those worlds where it reigns supreme, and to mingle with their inhabitants, we should be recognised as friends and brethren, and participate of all those pleasures and enjoyments of which it is the source. The full recognition, then, of the laws to which we have referred, and their complete and uninterrupted influence over the moral powers, may be considered as qualifying the individual for being a citizen of the great moral universe, and for associating with all holy beings throughout the wide empire of omnipotence, should he ever be permitted, at any period of duration, to visit other worlds, and mingle with other orders of rational intelligences.*

These laws, in reference to the inhabitants of our world, diverge into numerous ramifications. The precepts of the moral law, or the ten commandments, are so many branches of moral duty flowing from these first principles; and in the discourses of our Saviour and the practical parts of the apostolic epistles they diverge into still more specific and minute ramifications, bearing upon all the diversified relations of life and the various circumstances connected with moral conduct. But all the particular rules and precepts alluded to are resolvable into the general principles or affections stated above, and bear the same relation to each other as the trunk of a tree to its branches, or as a fountain to the diversified streams which it sends forth. In other worlds relations may exist different from those which are found in human society, and, consequently, particular precepts different from ours may form a part of their moral code, while certain relations which obtain among us may have no place among other orders of beings, and, of course, the precepts which particularly bear upon such relations will be in their circumstances altogether unnecessary. But we may rest assured that all the particular precepts, applicable to whatever circumstances and relations may exist in other regions of creation, will be founded on the universal principles to which we have adverted, and be completely conformable to their spirit, and to the benevolent designs they are intended to accomplish.

In all those worlds where the love of God and of fellow-intelligences reigns supreme, the inhabitants may be conceived

* For more particular details on this subject, the reader is referred to The Philosophy of Religion," particularly chap. ii., sect. vi.

to make rapid improvements in knowledge; for the malignant principles and passions which prevail among men have, in numerous instances, been the means of retarding the progress of useful science and its diffusion throughout society. But where love in all its emanations pervades every mind, society will unite and harmonize in the prosecution of every plan by which the intellectual faculty may be irradiated and happiness diffused. Besides, in such a state of society, truth will be for ever triumphant and falsehood unknown. Every fact will be fairly and truly exhibited without deception, or the least tendency to misrepresentation or exaggeration. There will be the most complete reliance on personal evidence in regard to every fact and circumstance which has been witnessed by any individuals; for want of which confidence in our world, the rational inquirer has been perplexed by the jarring statements of lying travellers and pretended philosophers; erroneous theories have been framed, the mists of falsehood have intercepted the light of truth, the foundations of true knowledge undermined, and science arrested in its progress towards perfection. All such evils, however, will be unknown in worlds where the inhabitants have arrived at moral perfection.

In fine, from what has been now stated, we may conclude that the spirit, the principle, and essence of our holy religion, as delineated in the Scriptures, must be common to all the inhabitants of the universe who have retained their primeval rectitude and innocence.

CHAPTER XIX.

A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE.

HAVING in the preceding pages offered a few sketches in reference to the principal facts connected with the sidereal heavens, which constitute the most extensive portion of creation within the limits of our knowledge, it may not be inexpedient to take a summary view of the range of objects to which our attention has been directed, in order to direct our occasional reflections on this subject, and to enable us to

form an approximate, though faint and limited, idea of that universe over which Omnipotence presides, and of the perfections of its adorable Author.

We can obtain an approximate idea of the universe only by commencing a train of thought at those objects with which we are more immediately conversant, and ascending gradually to objects and scenes more distant and expansive. We are partly acquainted with the objects which constitute the landscape around us, of which we form a part; the hills, the plains, the lofty mountains, the forests, the rivers, the lakes, and the portions of the ocean that lie immediately adjacent. But all the range of objects we can behold in an ordinary landscape forms but a very small and inconsiderable speck, compared with the whole of the mighty continents and islands, the vast ranges of lofty mountains, and the expansive lakes, seas, and oceans, which constitute the surface of the terraqueous globe. It would be requisite that more than nine hundred thousand landscapes, of the extent we generally behold around us, should be made to pass in review before us, and a sufficient time allowed to take a distinct view of the objects of which they are composed, ere we could form an adequate conception of the magnitude and the immense variety of objects on the whole earth. Were only twenty minutes allotted for the contemplation of every landscape, and ten hours every day, it would require ninety years of constant observation before all the prominent objects on the surface of the globe could thus be surveyed. Were it possible to take a distinct mental survey of such a number of landscapes, we might acquire a tolerable conception of the amplitude of our globe, and it would serve as a standard of comparison for other globes which far excel it in magnitude. But I believe very few persons are capable of forming, at one conception, a full and comprehensive idea of the superficial extent of the world in which we dwell, whose surface contains no less than one hundred and ninety-seven millions of square miles. The most complete conception we can form must indeed fall very far short of the reality.

But, however ample and correct our conceptions might be, and however great this earth might appear in the view of the frail beings that inhabit it, we know that it is only an inconsiderable ball when compared with some of the planetary bodies belonging to our own system. One of these bodies

would contain within its dimensions nine hundred globes as large as this earth; another, fourteen hundred of similar globes; and were five hundred globes, as large as that on which we dwell, arranged on a vast plane, the outermost ring of the planet Saturn, which is 643,000 miles in circumference, would enclose them all. Such are the vast dimensions of some of those revolving bodies, which appear only like lucid specks on the concave of our sky. This earth, however, and all the huge planets, satellites, and comets comprised within the range of the solar system, bear a very small proportion to that splendid luminary which enlightens our day. The SUN is five hundred times larger than the whole, and would contain within its vast circumference thirteen hundred thousand globes as large as our world, and more than sixty millions of globes of the size of the moon. To contemplate all the variety of scenery on the surface of this luminary would require more than fifty-five thousand years, although a landscape of five thousand square miles in extent were to pass before our eyes every hour. Of a globe of such dimensions, the most vigorous imagination, after its boldest and most extensive excursions, can form no adequate conception. It appears a kind of universe in itself; and ten thousands of years would be requisite before human beings, with their present faculties, could thoroughly investigate and explore its vast dimensions and its hidden wonders.

But great as the sun and his surrounding planets are, they dwindle into a point when we wing our flight towards the starry firmament. Before we could arrive at the nearest object in this firmament, we behooved to pass over a space at least twenty billions of miles in extent; a space which a cannon ball, flying with its utmost velocity, would not pass over in less than four millions of years. Here every eye, in a clear winter's night, may behold about a thousand shining orbs, most of them emitting their splendours from spaces immeasurably distant; and bodies at such distances must necessarily be of immense magnitude. There is reason to believe that the least twinkling star which our eye can discern is not less than the sun in magnitude and in splendour, and that many of them are even a hundred or a thousand times superior in magnitude to that stupendous luminary. But bodies of such amazing size and splendour cannot be supposed to have been created in vain, or merely to diffuse a useless lustre

over the wilds of immensity. Such an idea would be utterly inconsistent with the perfections of the Divinity, and all that we know of his character from the revelations of his word. If this earth would have been "created in vain" had it not been inhabited,* so those starry orbs, or, in other words, those magnificent suns, would likewise have been created in vain, if retinues of worlds and myriads of intelligent beings were not irradiated and cheered by their benign influence.

These thousand stars, then, which the unassisted eye can perceive in the canopy of heaven, may be considered as connected with at least fifty thousand worlds; compared with the amount of whose population all the inhabitants of our globe would appear only as “the small dust of the balance." Here the imagination might expatiate for ages of ages in surveying this portion of the Creator's kingdom, and be lost in contemplation and wonder at the vast extent, the magnitude, the magnificence, and the immense variety of scenes, objects, and movements which would meet the view in every direction; for here we have presented to the mental eye, not only single suns and single systems, such as that to which we belong, but suns revolving around suns, and systems around systems; systems not only double, but treble, quadruple, and multiple, all in complicated but harmonious motion, performing motions more rapid than the swiftest planets in our system, though some of them move a hundred thousand miles every hour; finishing periods of revolution, some in 30, some in 300, and some in 1600 years. We behold suns of a blue or green lustre revolving around suns of a white or ruddy colour, and both of them illuminating with contrasted coloured light the same assemblage of worlds. And if the various orders of intelligences connected with these systems were unveiled, what a scene of grandeur, magnificence, variety, diversity of intellect, and of wonder and astonishment, would burst upon the view! Here we might be apt to imagine that the whole glories of the Creator's empire have been disclosed, and that we had now a prospect of universal nature in all its extent and grandeur.

But, although we should have surveyed the whole of this magnificent scene, we should still find ourselves standing only on the outskirts, or the extreme verge of creation. What if all the stars which the unassisted eye can discern be only a few scattered orbs on the outskirts of a cluster immensely

* Isaiah xlv., 18.