Great and sublime as our conceptions of the Deity must be, when we contemplate the earth and its inhabitants――if we turn our attention to the solar system, our world dwindles into a little insignificant ball. Yet if we cast our eyes still beyond, and contemplate the eighty millions of fixed stars, which a good telescope brings to our view, each the centre of a mighty system of revolving worlds; and then reflect that all this is only one little dark corner of creation, we are lost in the magnitude of the contemplation. But when we come to consider each of these fixed stars, with their planets, and they with their satellites, all consisting of concentric spheres, revolving within each other, in due order, and adapted to the support and comforts of life, for countless millions of beings; we are struck with ten-fold astonishment and admiration, and bow with reverential awe, before Him who sits at the head of the universe, and governs the whole by unvarying laws. It would seem to me, that in contemplating this new order of creation, the imagination must break through and soar beyond its old boundaries. It would seem that on embracing this doctrine, the spirit must expand with increased devotion, and be entirely absorbed in the infinite wisdom and power of Him, who was competent to devise, and able to execute, such a beautiful arrangement of matter. FOOTNOTES: [38] Physical World, p. 105. [39] Barrington and Beaufoy, p. 106, and Purchas, v. 3, pp. 499, 500. [40] The late George Adams, in his Philosophy, treating of refraction, states, that "at the horizon, in this climate, (England) it is found to be about thirty-three minutes. In climates near the equator, where the air is pure, the refraction is less; and in the colder climates, nearer the pole, it increases exceedingly, and is a happy provision for lengthening the appearance of the light at those regions so remote from the sun. Gassendees relates, that some Hollanders, who wintered in Nova-Zembla, in latitude seventy-five degrees, were agreeably surprised with a sight of the sun seventeen days before they expected him in the horizon. This difference was owing to the refraction of the atmosphere in that latitude."――Adams' Philosophy, v. 4, p. 112, Philadelphia, 1807. [41] Keith on Globes, p. 144.―― [42] Ibid, p. 149.