The Sky is the familiar name used to express that wonderful and vast
expanse of space which extends on all sides far beyond our knowledge
or conception, and in which the earth and millions of other orbs move
round suns as their centres. Countless millions of these suns exist
at immense distances apart and of the most prodigious magnitudes
(many thousand times larger than this earth), these are the stars
which on clear nights we see twinkling so brightly in the sky; our
sun is one of them, but being very much nearer to us than the others
it appears proportionately larger and brighter, and is our centre of
attraction and circulation. There is but little doubt that every star
has its circulating worlds or "planets," but these are too small to
be seen even with the best telescopes; this may be understood when it
is considered that the stars themselves, by the most powerful aids,
appear but as bright points or specks, and they are thousands of times
larger than the worlds which would circulate round them. But though
their planets cannot be perceived by the naked eye, yet analogy teaches
us that they in all probability exist, for very many of the heavenly
bodies have satellites revolving round them, of such are our moon and
the moons of Jupiter, and in this sense the planets themselves may
be considered as the satellites of the sun, and as the sun has its
satellites revolving round it, it is fair to conclude that it is not
the only one of all the stars which has. All these thousands of suns
and planets, millions of miles apart, and occupying space, the extent
of which we have no terms to express, form but one system of stars out
of many, for by comparison with infinite space they occupy but a point,
telescopes of the greatest power having revealed that beyond all these
stars, there is an immense space in which are seen other systems of
stars, as great and numerous as our own, to which the name "Nebulæ"
has been given. The mind fails to reach to such magnitude, and it is
certain that the study of these great things, brings us to regard
size and space (like time) as nothing; for it appears that God has
expanded or contracted His works at will to suit His plan of creation
without regard to limit; whether we look at the most minute shell or
the greatest orb, still His marks of design are equally evident. If we
consider it wonderful that God should take up hundreds of millions of
miles for one system, and that He should scatter through space millions
of such systems, then let us lay aside the telescope and, after an
exclamation of adoration, take up the microscope, by which we shall
learn that God has also placed millions of systems equally wonderful
within the compass of an inch! We shall at once acknowledge that he
is "Lord of all," and that size, space, quantity, and time, are mere
fictions of our own imperfect minds, and that to an Infinite God there
is no difficulty from such sources.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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