cluded the intrinsic light of Sirius to be nearly that of FOURTEEN SUNS." Sir William Herschel informs us that, with a magnifying power of 6450, and by means of his new micrometer, he found the apparent diameter of Vega or a Lyre to be 0355: this will give the real diameter of this star about thirty-eight times that of the sun, or 33,440,000 miles, supposing its parallax to be one second. Were this its true estimate, its solid contents would be 19,579,357,857,382,400,000,000,* or above nineteen thousand five hundred and seventy-nine trillions of miles; which is fifty-four thousand eight hundred and seventy-two times larger than the solid contents of the sun. The magnitude of such a globe is altogether overpowering to the human imagination, and completely baffles every effort to approximate to a distinct conception of an object of such amazing amplitude and splendour. We have formerly shown? that the sun is a body of so vast dimensions that the human mind, in its present state, can form no adequate conceptions of it; that it is more than 500 times greater than all the planets, satellites, and comets of our system; that it is equal to thirteen hundred thousand globes as large as the earth; that its surface contains an amplitude fifty-three millions seven hundred and seventy thousand times larger than the view from Mount Etna, which comprises an extent of 45,000 miles; and that, were a landscape on the sun of this extent to be contemplated every two hours, it would require twentyfour thousand five hundred years before the wole surface of this luminary could be in this manner surveyed. What, then, shall we think of the probable existence of a luminous globe fifty-four thousand times greater than the expansive globe of the sun!

However amazing the magnitude of such a body may appear, we ought not on this account to consider the existence of such an orb as either improbable or incredible. Prior to the first discoveries of modern astronomy two or three centuries ago, no one could have believed that the sun is a body of such an immense size as he is now found to be, or that the planetary system occupies so extensive a range as astronomers

* In some editions of the " Improvement of Society" (p. 236), this number is inaccurately stated, the cube of the diameter having been by mistake substituted for the solid contents of the body; but the general result of the comparative magnitudes of the two bodies is the same.

↑ "Celestial Scenery," chap. iii., sect. 10, p. 222 and 223.

have now determined it. And we are not to conceive that even the immense amplitude of the sun is the highest scale of magnitude which the Creator has prescribed to himself in his arrangements of the universe. From the knowledge we have already acquired of the vastness of the scale on which creation is constructed, we have reason to believe that bodies exist in it far surpassing, in magnitude and grandeur, any of the globes to which we have alluded. There are certain lucid specks in the heavens which can only be perceived by the most powerful telescopes, which we are quite certain, from their immense distance, must comprise a mass of matter thousands of times larger than our sun; either a distinct mass of materials, or a congeries of shining globes so near each other that the separate bodies cannot be distinguished. As the distances between the greatest globes of the universe are incomprehensible by limited intellects, so the magnitude of some of these bodies may be so great as to surpass every estimate and every conception we may have hitherto formed on this subject. Such views of the magnitudes of creation are quite in accordance with the ideas we ought to entertain of a Being who is eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, and incomprehensible.

But, without going beyond the strict deductions of science, we may fairly conclude that there are few stars in the concave of our sky that do not equal, and even surpass, our sun in size and in splendour; and if so, what a glorious and overwhelming scene does creation present to an intelligent and contemplative mind! Here we are presented with a scene on which the highest order of created beings may expatiate for myriads of ages, and objects, ever wonderful and ever new, may still present themselves to the astonished mind throughout the whole length of its immortality; so that the most expansive intellects shall never want subjects of sublime investigation during all the revolutions of an interminable existence.

We are not to imagine that all the stars, even those which appear with the same brilliancy, are of the same size. We have reason to believe that a variety, in this respect, exists among the distant orbs, as well as among the bodies which compose the planetary system, and in other departments of nature. Various considerations tend to show, that "one star differeth from another star in glory," not only as they appear

to the naked eye, but in reality, as to their intrinsic magnitude and splendour. Some of the telescopic stars appear of very different colours, one exhibiting rays of an orange or ruddy hue, another blue, another yellow, and another green, indicating a difference in their constitution, and in the nature of the light they emit. Among the double stars, the one which is found revolving around the other is evidently the smaller body, as its light is not distinguishable without a high magnifying power, and yet its distance from the earth must be nearly the same as that of the larger star around which it revolves. Recent observations tend to prove that some of the smaller stars have not only a greater annual parallax than those which are most brilliant, but an absolute motion in space much greater than those of the brightest class, which indicates that there is a difference in the real size of those bodies, and that some of the stars which appear smallest to our eye may be the largest in real dimensions; but the smallest of them are, undoubtedly, bodies of such magnitudes as surpass our distinct comprehension.

Some readers, from their ignorance of the mathematical principles of astronomy, and from being incapable of appreciating the observations to which we have referred, are apt to view with a certain degree of skepticism the conclusions which astronomers have deduced respecting the distances and magnitudes of the stars. Perhaps the following consideration, level to the capacity of every man of common sense, may have a tendency to convince even the most skeptical that the stars are situated at an almost incalculable distance from the earth.

Suppose a telescope to magnify 400 times, that is, makes a distant object appear four hundred times nearer, and four hundred times larger in diameter, than to the naked eye. With an instrument of this description I have been enabled to read a person's name, the letters of which were not above half an inch in length or breadth, at the distance of more than two miles. When this telescope is directed to the moon, it enables us to perceive the shadows of its mountains, and other minute portions of its scenery, and even to distinguish rocks and cavities less than a mile in diameter. When directed to

the planet Venus, it exhibits it as a large splendid body, with either a gibbous, a half moon, or a crescent phase. When directed to Jupiter and Saturn, it makes these orbs appear sev

eral times larger than the moon does to the naked eye, and enables us to see the dark belts which run across the one, and the rings which surround the other. Now if this same instrument be directed to the fixed stars, it shows them only as so many luminous points, without any well-defined diameters. It brings to view hundreds and thousands of stars which the naked eye cannot discern; but, although they appear somewhat more brilliant, they appear, on the whole, no larger in diameter than the stars in general do to the unassisted sight. This circumstance I consider as a palpable and sensible evidence of the immense distance of the fixed stars; for bodies at the distance of nine hundred, and even of eighteen hundred millions of miles, appear magnified in proportion to the power of the instrument; and why should not the fixed stars appear magnified in the same proportion, and present to the eye large disks like the planets, were it not on account of their incalculable distance? Were they only at a moderate distance from the planetary system-suppose ten times the distance of Saturn, or nine thousand millions of miles-this would undoubtedly be the case; but observation proves the contrary. When we view a planet-for example, Saturn, which is distant nine hundred millions of miles-through a telescope magnifying 400 times, we contemplate it as if we had been carried to a point only the four hundredth part of its distance; that is, we view it as if we were brought_within little more than two millions of miles of its surface. In other words, we see it of the same magnitude, and nearly with the same distinctness, as if we had surmounted the law of gravitation, and been transported more than 897 millions of miles from our present abode in the direction of that orb.

When such an instrument is directed to the fixed stars, it does not lose its power as a telescope; this is proved by its presenting the nebula, which are invisible to the naked eye, as large, well-defined spaces in the firmament. It carries us within the four hundreth part of their actual distance, and enables us to contemplate them just as we would do if we were 400 times nearer them than we are. Let us suppose, as formerly, the distance of the nearest stars to be 20,000,000,000,000, or twenty billions of miles, we contemplate such stars by this instrument as if we were carried to a station nineteen billions nine hundred and fifty millions of miles from the place we now occupy, where we should still be fifty thousand millions

of miles* distant from these bodies. Supposing the sun were removed to a point fifty thousand millions of miles from the place he now occupies, which is 526 times his present distance, he would appear 526 times less in diameter than at present, or under an angle of little more than 3 seconds, which is less than the apparent diameter of Uranus, a body which is generally invisible to the naked eye; so that if a star be distant twenty billions of miles, and equal to the sun in magnitude, it should appear no more than a point when viewed with a telescope magnifying 400 times. Supposing, then, that we were transported through the immense space of 19,950,000,000,000 miles, we behooved to be carried forward several thousands of millions of miles farther before those distant orbs would appear to expand into large disks like the moon, or like Jupiter and Saturn, when viewed through tele

scopes.

The above considerations prove to a demonstration that the nearest stars are removed from us at immense and inconceivable distances; and if their distance be so great, their magnitudes must likewise be astonishing, otherwise they would be altogether invisible either to the naked eye or by the telescope; for a distant visible object must always be considered as having a magnitude proportional to its distance and its apparent diameter.

* The following is the calculation expressed in figures: 400) 20,000,000,000,000, dist. of the star.

50,000,000,000, dist. as viewed by the telescope.

19,950,000,000,000, dist. from the earth at which we view it