The most startling shapes which have hitherto turned up are of the spiral or whirlpool form, of which the annexed representations are specimens. Two very remarkable nebulæ, well known to the mariners, being visible to the naked eye, distinguish the southern firmament. They are cloudy masses of light, called the Nubecula Major and Minor, greater and lesser cloud, but familiarly referred to as the Magellanic clouds, after the navigator Magellan, who was one of their first European observers. However it may savour of the gigantesque, it is sufficiently evidenced that an area of the heavens not exceeding th of the lunar diameter, contains a system of stars rivalling in number those which constitute our firmament, and appearing only as a single faint luminosity to us. Yet there are many areas so occupied. It follows therefore that our firmament is but one of a series, and probably one of the smaller chambers in the great mansion of the universe. All the stars and constellations that shine in the midnight sky, constitute a stellar scheme which is but a unit of a countless number. As seen from the faint objects we discern in the side of Hercules and the sword-handle of Orion, our whole sphere would be compressed into a small streak of light, and appear in space like a snowflake in our atmosphere! We may conclude, however, that as the firmament, which the unaided eye of man surveys, is but a member of a vast family of systems which his assisted vision scans, so that family may be no more than as a drop to the ocean, a grain of sand to the mass of the globe, compared with what lies beyond the bounds of telescopic sight, hid in regions which mortal gaze will never explore or visit. Suppose we could actually travel across the space through which the terrestrial eye can penetrate, and take our station at the point which is now the limit of vision, would there not be a territory lying before us, equal to that we should have left behind, in the number, grandeur, and variety of its works? That the Divine capability has operated no further than where a limit is put to human investigation-that the length and breadth of the Divine dominions have been surveyed, when we have arrived at a point which we cannot pass-it were folly and presumption to imagine. That part of space beyond which the art and genius of man fail to conduct his glance, simply reminds us that we are finite beings, and that we have reached the limit which for the present circumscribes finite powers. It is not the boundary of the Creator's workmanship, but a point of indication, that His house, to us, is, like Himself, illimitable, and that its measurement is a task to which His infinitude alone is equal. With these notices, the view proposed to be taken of the SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS concludes. It cannot close more appropriately than with the advice to Adam, which Milton puts into the mouth of the angel : 3. The Moon. Mean distance from primary, 29·982175 times diam. terr. equator, above 237,000 miles. 27d. 7h. 43m. 11s. 27d. 7h. 43m. 4s. 29d. 12h. 44m. 2s. 13° 10′ 35′′ 5° 8' 47" 1° 30' 10" 33' 31" 31' 07" 29′ 21′′ 2160 miles. 1-49 0.615 One certain; periodic time, approximately, 5d., 21h., 2m., 43s. ; mean distance, about 21 semi-diameters of the planet. |