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Article THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEAVENS. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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The Architecture Of The Heavens.
results . " These events were the power ofthe telescope , then first made known , of sounding the uttermost profundities of space , and thc peculiar aptitude of the elder Herschel to work out that power patiently , and ( all but ) perfectly . Tire primary great revelation thus obtained , was a splendid perspective . " Divided from our firmament and each other by measureless intervals , NUMEROUS FIRMAME-NTS , glorious as ours , float through immensitydoubtless forming one stupendous wholebound
, , together by fine relationships . These remarkable masses" ( remember each as complete and extensive a system as all that the naked eye gathers in , including the milky-way of our Solar System , ) " are located so deep in space , that to inferior telescopes they seem like faint streaks or spots of milk y light upon the blue of the sky ; but the instruments which had just been summoned into being , resolve their mystery , and disclose their myriads of stars . " One of the most brilliant of these clusters of stars is
in the constellation Hercules , and so surprisingly gorgeous does it seem , even to our telescopic vision , that we may well forgive its indwellers if they believe its mass to be infinite . " What wonder that the inhabitants of a planet revolving round one of its central suns , should have mistaken his own magnificent heaven for the universe , and needed the distant ancl dim vision of our firmament appearing to his telescopes a starry speckto remove the veil from his mindancl ive him juster notions of
, , g the majesty of creation I " From tlie revelations thus made to us it becomes evident that we too are in the midst of a mere group , or cluster of stars ; and that in configuration it is narrow , but greatly elongated in the line of the milkyway . While , as if to show us a mirrored resemblance of our whole
system , the Great Architect has hung up at a distance as inappreciable to human reason , as incalculable by human means , a facsimile of our system , —suns , planets , satellites , stars , a milky-way ! Herschel next charted the visible firmament . He turned his tele scope in all directions , counted the number of stars in its field in each position , calculated upon this basis the corresponding distance of this earth from the extremities of the cluster , approximated the true
dimensions of our visible firmament , and from at least seven hundred known observations determined the elements of a suitable and accurate sketch . It was Herschel ' s idea that towards the sides and shallow parts of the cluster of stars , upon one of which our earth is but an attendant , there might be a line of forty successive stars , at equal distances from each other , between our sun and its extremities ; while in the direction of the milky-way , the outside , or more correctly speaking , the more distant
rim of the cluster , there were in some places upwards of nine hundred ! Pause a moment and imagine , if you can , what it is that the discoveries of Herschel have thus unfolded , —a distance between this earth and the remotest visible system we behold with the unhelped eye , nine hundred times greater than that of the sun from the earth . Then bear in mind that such another system of stars is hung up in distant space , for no other objectat least as apparent to terrestrial manthan to serve as a
, , specular resemblance of that which , until the other day , he fancied was infinite . It is thus only that we can conceive of the Great Architect of the Heavens , -until the purification of Death shall quicken the mortal conception . Singular affinity of forms between our system and that alluded to . " Whatjink ! " asks Professor Nichol in subdued amazement , " what far reaching sympathy can connect these twin masses , —that unfathomed firmament and ours ? What virtue is there in a shape so
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Architecture Of The Heavens.
results . " These events were the power ofthe telescope , then first made known , of sounding the uttermost profundities of space , and thc peculiar aptitude of the elder Herschel to work out that power patiently , and ( all but ) perfectly . Tire primary great revelation thus obtained , was a splendid perspective . " Divided from our firmament and each other by measureless intervals , NUMEROUS FIRMAME-NTS , glorious as ours , float through immensitydoubtless forming one stupendous wholebound
, , together by fine relationships . These remarkable masses" ( remember each as complete and extensive a system as all that the naked eye gathers in , including the milky-way of our Solar System , ) " are located so deep in space , that to inferior telescopes they seem like faint streaks or spots of milk y light upon the blue of the sky ; but the instruments which had just been summoned into being , resolve their mystery , and disclose their myriads of stars . " One of the most brilliant of these clusters of stars is
in the constellation Hercules , and so surprisingly gorgeous does it seem , even to our telescopic vision , that we may well forgive its indwellers if they believe its mass to be infinite . " What wonder that the inhabitants of a planet revolving round one of its central suns , should have mistaken his own magnificent heaven for the universe , and needed the distant ancl dim vision of our firmament appearing to his telescopes a starry speckto remove the veil from his mindancl ive him juster notions of
, , g the majesty of creation I " From tlie revelations thus made to us it becomes evident that we too are in the midst of a mere group , or cluster of stars ; and that in configuration it is narrow , but greatly elongated in the line of the milkyway . While , as if to show us a mirrored resemblance of our whole
system , the Great Architect has hung up at a distance as inappreciable to human reason , as incalculable by human means , a facsimile of our system , —suns , planets , satellites , stars , a milky-way ! Herschel next charted the visible firmament . He turned his tele scope in all directions , counted the number of stars in its field in each position , calculated upon this basis the corresponding distance of this earth from the extremities of the cluster , approximated the true
dimensions of our visible firmament , and from at least seven hundred known observations determined the elements of a suitable and accurate sketch . It was Herschel ' s idea that towards the sides and shallow parts of the cluster of stars , upon one of which our earth is but an attendant , there might be a line of forty successive stars , at equal distances from each other , between our sun and its extremities ; while in the direction of the milky-way , the outside , or more correctly speaking , the more distant
rim of the cluster , there were in some places upwards of nine hundred ! Pause a moment and imagine , if you can , what it is that the discoveries of Herschel have thus unfolded , —a distance between this earth and the remotest visible system we behold with the unhelped eye , nine hundred times greater than that of the sun from the earth . Then bear in mind that such another system of stars is hung up in distant space , for no other objectat least as apparent to terrestrial manthan to serve as a
, , specular resemblance of that which , until the other day , he fancied was infinite . It is thus only that we can conceive of the Great Architect of the Heavens , -until the purification of Death shall quicken the mortal conception . Singular affinity of forms between our system and that alluded to . " Whatjink ! " asks Professor Nichol in subdued amazement , " what far reaching sympathy can connect these twin masses , —that unfathomed firmament and ours ? What virtue is there in a shape so