In the next place, the telescope has been _the means of enlarging our views of the sublime scenes of creation_, more than any other instrument which art has contrived. Before the invention of this instrument the universe was generally conceived as circumscribed within very narrow limits. The earth was considered as among the largest bodies in creation; the planets were viewed as bodies of a far less size than what they are now found to be; no bodies similar to our moon were suspected as revolving around any of them; and the stars were supposed to be little more than a number of brilliant lamps hung up to emit a few glimmering rays, and to adorn the canopy of our earthly habitation. Such a wonderful phenomenon as the Ring of Saturn was never once suspected, and the sun was considered as only a large ball of fire. It was suspected, indeed, that the moon was diversified with mountains and vales, and that it might possibly be a habitable world; but nothing certainly could be determined on this point, on account of the limited nature of unassisted vision. But the telescope has been the means of expanding our views of the august scenes of creation to an almost unlimited extent. It has withdrawn the veil which formerly interposed to intercept our view of the distant glories of the sky. It has brought to light five new planetary bodies, unknown to former astronomers, one of which is more than eighty times larger than the earth--and seventeen _secondary_ planets which revolve around the primary. It has expanded the dimensions of the solar system to double the extent which was formerly supposed. It has enabled us to descry hundreds of comets which would otherwise have escaped our unassisted vision, and to determine some of their trajectories and periods of revolution.