This elaborate Machine is 20 feet diameter:
it stands vertical before the spectators;
and its globes are so large, that they
are distinctly seen in the most distant part of
a Theatre. Every Planet and Satellite seems
suspended in space, without any support;
performing its annual and diurnal revolutions
without any apparent cause. It is certainly
the nearest approach to the magnificent
simplicity of nature, and to its just proportions,
as to magnitude and motion, of any
Orrery yet made: and besides being a most
brilliant and beautiful spectacle, conveys to
the mind the most sublime instruction: rendering
astronomical truths so plain and intelligible,
that even those who have not so much
as thought upon the subject, may acquire
clear ideas of the laws, motions, appearances,
eclipses, transits, influences, &c. of the planetary
system.
THE SUN AND EARTH:
With the Zodiacal Constellations.
As information is the primary object of this
lecture, it is thought more useful to exhibit
parts of the solar system, separately, before
a grand display was made of the whole. This
scene therefore, opens with only the Sun and
the Earth. The Sun seems suspended in the
middle of the system, and by spots on his
face, is seen to turn round on his axis in 25¼
days; light issues from his orb in all directions;
in the blaze of which is suspended the
Earth, turning on its axis to produce day and
night, and revolving round the Sun to produce
the seasons: its axis inclines 23½ degrees
from a perpendicular to the plane of its
orbit; and by that axis keeping parallel to
itself during this annual journey, the northern
and southern hemispheres are alternately addressed
to the Sun; shewing, when it is summer
in one, it is winter in the other, and vice
versâ. This scene so naturally exhibits the
cause of day, night, twilight, summer and
winter, spring and autumn, long and short
days, &c. that a bare inspection of the Machine
is sufficient to convey the clearest idea
of these phænomena.
The Earth in this scene ought to be unshackled
with meridians or parallels of latitude:—to
be a free and independent ball,
with land and water represented as they would
appear to a distant spectator looking at the
real Earth. But as globes are seldom seen
without these appendages, a globe of two feet
in diameter, equipped with meridians and parallels
of latitude (being requisite for illustration)
will perform a diurnal and annual motion
round the Sun, and explain the above phænomena
on so large a scale, that their effects on
the smallest island may be seen from the
most distant part of the theatre.
This scene is surrounded by transparent
paintings of the twelve signs of the Zodiac,
shewing how the Sun, or rather the Earth, enters
and passes thro’ Aries, Taurus, Gemini,
Cancer, &c.
Auxiliary scenes accompany this, to shew
the principles of planetary motion; the formation
of the constellations and their allegorical
history; the oblate, yet nearly globular
figure of the Earth; how ships and mountains
appear at sea; with ships moving round a
large globe of six feet diameter, &c. proving
that the Earth can contain inhabitants on all
sides, &c.
SUN, EARTH, AND MOON:
PHASES AND ECLIPSES.
Consists of the Sun, the Earth, and the
Moon. The object of this scene is to display
the cause of the waxing and waning of the
Moon, and of solar and lunar eclipses: for
this purpose the Earth perform its annual and
diurnal motions, and projects a conical shadow
opposite to the Sun during its journey
round him. The Moon borrows her light
from the Sun; and which, in reflection to the
Earth, is not more than one three hundred
thousandth part so strong: and performing
her rotation round the Earth, every 29d.
12h. 44m. will sometimes shew us more and
sometimes less of the enlightened part of her
body. Hence, when she is between the Earth
and the Sun, her dark side is towards us, and
we lose sight of her, and call this part of her
period the change; but as she revolves
round the Earth from West to East (the same
way the Earth turns on its axis) in a few
days we see her above the Sun in the West,
and seeing a small part of her enlightened
face, call the appearance the Horned, or
new Moon: (for her dark side, receiving no
reflection of light from any neighbouring body,
cannot be seen except in very clear weather).
As she proceeds on her monthly journey,
when the Sun sets in the West, we see
her near our meridian, and then she appears
an half Moon, and we say she is at the first
quarter; as she approaches the full, more
of her enlightened side may be seen, and she
assumes an oval or gibbous appearance. At
the full she is opposite to the Sun, when the
inhabitants of the Earth look at her in the
same direction as the rays of that luminary,
and of course see the whole of her enlightened
face. In performing the other half of her
journey, she wanes; and exposing less and
less of her enlighted side to us, again disappears.
This scene receives also auxiliary illustration,
before the grand scene opens: and in
maps of the Moon during its exhibition, particularly
one of five feet diameter, made from
telescopes of the largest magnifying powers,
and laid down with the most minute correctness,
with maps of the appearance of the
Earth as seen from the Moon, indicating from
this similarity, that they are worlds of nearly
similar construction.
In the thirteen revolutions she will make
while the Earth travels round the Sun, it will
evidently appear that the Earth is a Moon to
her, but appearing thirteen times as large as
the Moon to us; that she does not shine by
her own light; that she has no diversity of
seasons; that she keeps the same side always
turned towards the Earth, and therefore turns
on her axis every 29½ days; that her surface
is mountainous[1]; and that she shines without
setting, every second fortnight, on the arctic
or antarctic parts of our globe, during winter:
a very sublime and simple provision for the
otherwise long continued darkness that at opposite
seasons of the year would invelope the
polar regions of the Earth.
If the Moon moved in the same plane or
level with the Earth, we should have an
eclipse every full and change; but as she travels
5¾ degrees to the North of it, and the
same to the South of it, every lunation, she
only crosses the plane of the Earth’s orbit in
two places, which points of intersection (called
the Moon’s nodes) though in a trackless
path, move 19¾ degrees towards the West
every year, and therefore pass round the Heavens
in 18 years and 225 days; which is the
golden number of our calendar. Hence, when
one of these nodes is between the Earth and
the Sun at the change, the Moon’s shadow is
thrown on the Earth, and she eclipses the Sun;
and if she comes to the full when either node
is opposite to the Sun, she falls into the Earth’s
shadow, and loses for a short time her borrowed
light: hence, as she mostly passes
above or below the Earth’s shadow, we have
Eclipses very seldom. These phænomena are
produced in the Eidouranion as they are in
nature, and perfectly evident on inspection.
THEORY OF TIDES,
ILLUSTRATED.
This Scene also consists of the Sun, the
Earth, and the Moon. But the intention is
to shew how the Earth and Moon agitate each
other round their common centre of gravity,
causing two tides every 25 hours. It is a circumstance
truly astonishing, to see in calm
weather, and under a serene sky, the violent
agitation of the great fluid mass of the ocean,
whose waves roll against the shore with so
grand impetuosity.—This spectacle invites to
reflection, and rouses a desire to penetrate into
its cause: hence the Earth’s three-fold
motion appears in this scene:—that, on its
axis, to produce day and night: that, round
the Sun, to produce the year and our seasons;
and that, round the centre of gravity with the
Moon, to produce spring and neap tides, by
their combined and opposite influences. The
Moon is so near the Earth (240,000 miles at
a medium) in comparison of the Sun (near
100 millions of miles) that the Moon’s attraction
on the waters of the ocean and on the
air of our atmosphere (for there are tides in
both) is to that of the Sun as ten is to three.
So at the change of the Moon, the attraction
of the Sun and Moon being in the same direction,
a power of thirteen influences the
sea, and we have spring tides; but at the
quarters of the Moon, the two luminaries
counteract the attractions of each other, so the
Sun’s power of three being taken from the
Moon’s of ten, leaves only seven operating
upon the sea, and neap tides take place.
A tumbler filled with water, may be whirled
by a string vertically round the head, without
any danger of the water falling out of it. Those
parts of the Earth that come successively opposite
to the Moon, perform a much larger
circle round the centre of gravity, than the
parts immediately under the Moon: hence
the waters opposite the Moon are thrown
off, as it were, by their centrifugal motion,
and rise above the common level, as well as
the waters exposed to the Moon’s immediate
attraction; thus two tides are produced in 25
hours, opposite to each other; and by the
Earth turning through those protuberances,
its waters rise and fall.
The Sun would produce two small, but similar
tides, if the Earth had no Moon; therefore
at the full of the Moon the Sun’s centrifugal
tide being reinforced by the Moon’s attraction,
and the Moon’s centrifugal tide being
also assisted by the Sun’s attraction, spring
tides take place at the full, as well as at the
change, of the Moon.
☞ This Scene also receives collateral assistance, exhibiting
and explaining the setting of the tides in all the
large oceans and the principal seas of the Earth.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
This displays the whole Copernican or Solar
System, with every planet and satellite in diurnal
and annual motion! With awe and deference
I offer this daring but humble transcript
of creation! Enough, if one idea can
be added, to the ingenuous mind, of the attributes
and perfections of the Deity.
The Sun, a huge globe of fire (957,942
miles diameter, and consequently a million
times as large as our Earth, and intended to
give light, heat, and vegetation, to seven primary
and at least eighteen secondary worlds)
is placed in the centre of the system; and by
spots on his disk is discovered to turn on his
axis in about 25 of our days. These spots
cannot be permanently fixed, because they
are frequently altering in their shape, situation,
number, &c. tho’ some have supposed
they have seen small indentations on the edge
of the Sun, as the spots have passed it, and
conjectured that a fluid matter surrounded a
dark nucleus, which sometimes becoming
bare, might occasion the transient appearance
and disappearance of the spots.
Mercury is the first planet in the order of
the system; about 3498 miles diameter: he
moves round the Sun with the greatest velocity
of any of the Planets familiar to our system (as
being nearest the Sun) in about 88 of our
days; at the rate of 110,680 English miles every
hour, but the angle of his distance from the Sun,
as seen by us, is so small, that unless by the telescope,
we can seldom discern him[2]; (and
even then an equatorial instrument to direct
to its place, as indicated by the Ephemeris,
will be requisite;) and when we do, it is for
so short a time, and in twilight, that we can
discover no spots on his face, and therefore to
this hour know nothing of the length of his
days and nights: we see him partially enlightened
like the Moon, sometimes like a
small crescent, in other situations half enlightened,
and sometimes gibbous or oval, and are
therefore certain he derives his light from the
Sun, as she does: so that no doubt he is a fellow
world, with inhabitants adapted to the heat of
his situation: altho’ this heat is seven times as
great as that of the Earth. He is not much
larger than the Moon. Our Earth, viewed
from Mercury, must appear much larger and
more luminous than any of the Planets, except
Venus, appears to us.
Venus is the next planet in the order of
the system, and distinguished by her superior
brilliancy, as the Sun’s light is twice as great
to this planet as to the Earth; from this cause
she is sometimes visible to the naked eye in
full day-light. She is about 70 millions of
miles from the Sun, or about twice the distance
of Mercury; and like him, but much
longer and more conspicuously, appears under
the different phases of the Moon. These,
as we have said, are proofs that both planets
borrow their light from the Sun. The orbits of
these planets (as well as those of the rest of
the system) are inclined to the orbit of the
Earth. Hence when Venus and Mercury are
found in the nodes of their orbits between the
Earth and Sun, they are transferred upon the
Sun’s face like small round black spots, and
which in fact are partial Eclipses of the Sun;
these are called the transits of Mercury,
or Venus.
Venus is a little larger than the Earth, or
9360 miles diameter; and moves round the
Sun in 224½ of our days, at the rate of 80,955
miles every hour. From faint spots seen upon
her surface, Mr. Shroeter apprehends she revolves
on her axis in 23 hours, 21 minutes;
that her surface is irregular like that of the
Moon, and some of her mountains four miles
high. The atmosphere of Venus has been
calculated to be 50 miles high: and the Sun
would appear to the inhabitants of this planet
twice as large as to us. When Venus is to the
west of the Sun, she is a morning star; when
to the east of him, an evening star: her orbit
or track is included by the Earth’s, and as both
move the same way, she appears to be on one
side of the Sun longer than the 224½ days she
is in going round him. The axis of Venus is
said by some astronomers to incline 75 degrees
to the axis of her orbit: and therefore her seasons
vary very fast, the Sun passing over more
of her from pole to pole in one day, than over
the Earth in a quarter of a year. Hence the
heated places of this planet have time to cool:
which suggest to our ideas that provision has
been made for inhabitants, that they might not
suffer by their vicinity to the Sun; this circumstance
also gives her two winters and two summers
at her equator, and indicates her inhabited.
The discovery lately made by Mr. Shroeter,
of a light faintly extended beyond the
bounds of direct solar illumination, when she
has her falcated appearance like the Moon
near to her change, strengthens this probability:
as these are signs of twilight, and of an
atmosphere. This astronomer has also observed
her to have considerable mountains; another
character of a globe suited for habitation.
The Earth is the third planet in the order
of the system: 8244 miles diameter—moves
at the rate of 68,856 miles every hour, and
hence completes its revolution in its orbit (the
Ecliptic) in 365 days and ¼. The Moon’s
diameter is 2183 miles; she moves with respect
to the Earth 2290 miles in her orbit
every hour; and goes round the Earth from
change to change in 29 days and a half. But
having devoted so much of this tract to the
phænomena of the Earth, as well as its satellite
the Moon, we proceed to
Mars, known in the heavens by his peculiarly
red appearance, arising from a very thick
and dense atmosphere. This Planet is next
above the Earth, and hence has considerable
less light from the Sun than we have; is much
smaller than the Earth, or about 4470 miles
diameter. He is near 150 millions of miles
from the Sun, and goes round him in something
less than two of our years, moving at the
rate of 55,783 miles every hour. His day and
night is rather longer than ours, or 24h. 39m.
22s. and uniform throughout his year, so that
his axis being perpendicular, he has no variety
of seasons. When we pass between the Sun
and him he has a most fiery and alarming appearance,
and is often mistaken for a Comet;
but when we are on the opposite side of our
orbit, he appears small, and scarcely to be
distinguished from a fixed star.
Jupiter, far the largest of our Planets,
near 1300 times the size of the Earth, or
93,333 miles diameter, is the next above
Mars, at five times the distance from the Sun
that we are; so that he enjoys but a twenty-fifth
part of the light, heat, and attraction of
that luminary we do.—Though indeed of the
light and heat he may still possess, we are
not so certain as of the degree of attraction:
that being invariably proportioned to the distance;
while these will be relative to the density
and other circumstances of the atmosphere,
and the aptness of the surface of the Planet to
acquire and retain heat: after Venus he appears
the most brilliant Planet of the Universe.
He is attended with four satellites that revolve
very regularly round him. The three first
are eclipsed every revolution, and every seventh
day come in conjunction with him and
one another, as may be seen on the Eidouranion.
Longitude, at land, can be ascertained
by the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites, as well
as by a transit of Venus; and these would supercede
the necessity of a time-keeper, if they
could be observed at sea; hence, in the Nautical
Almanack, these eclipses are very exactly
calculated for the meridian of Greenwich, and
answer very good geographical as well as nautical
purposes. Jupiter is near twelve years
in making his way round the Sun, altho’ he
moves at the rate of 30,193 miles every hour;
he turns round his axis in about ten of our
hours, so that his days and nights are but five
hours each: and he has no variety of seasons;
for his axis is perpendicular to the plane of his
orbit. Turning so swiftly on his axis, his figure
becomes more oblate than that of the Earth,
being more than 6000 miles longer in diameter
from one side of his equator to the other,
than from pole to pole, or in the proportion of
13 to 14.[3] This swiftness of his diurnal motion
also draws his clouds and vapours into
streaks or lines over his equatorial parts, forming
what are called Jupiter’s Belts. An eclipse
of the Sun, by this great planet, would be a
striking object even to the unassisted sight as
viewed from Saturn.
Saturn, 85,782 miles in diameter or about
1000 times as large as the Earth, is still a more
remote planet from the Sun, round which he
revolves in about 30 of our years, at the distance
of 916 millions of miles. He moves in
his orbit at the rate of 22,298 miles every hour,
and upon his axis in 10h. 16m. by this swift
revolution on his axis his figure becomes oblate
in the proportion of 11 to 10, and his atmosphere
and vapours are drawn like a quintuple
belt of 3 darker parts and 2 lighter upon
his body. Saturn is attended by seven Satellites,
the outermost has been long known
to have a period of apparent augmentation
and diminution, and hence probably to have a
revolution on its axis, and be composed of land
and water.
A large, broad, double, and luminous ring
of 200,157 miles diameter, surrounds Saturn,
at a distance from the planet equal to the
breadth of the ring.—This ring inclines about
30 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic, and
must appear like a great arch of light to the
inhabitants of Saturn. It has a revolution
every eleven hours on an axis perpendicular
to its plane, and keeps parallel to itself at all
times; hence it disappears twice every 30
years, when its edge is presented to us; the
Sun shines for near 15 of our years together on
the northern plane of the ring; and then leaving
it, illumines the southern side for the same
period; so there is but one day and one night
on each side of the ring, but each will be of
15 years continuance without intermission.
The Sun’s direct light being but about a
90th part so strong to Saturn as to the Earth,
this ring is no doubt intended to increase it, by
reflecting a very considerable portion upon the
planet, which added to that from his seven Satellites,
must render him a very comfortable
abode for rational and brute inhabitants.
The Georgium Sidus, or Georgian Planet
(so called by Dr. Herschell, its ingenious and
indefatigable discoverer) makes the seventh in
the order of the system; the other planets we
have described have been known as such to
the highest antiquity, but from its extreme
smallness, this has escaped ascertainment till
the year 1781, although it had been recognized
as a very minute star by several astronomers.
It is near twice Saturn’s distance
from the Sun, and will be near eighty-two
years and six months in going round him; is
of a pale colour, and much larger in its telescopic
appearance than the fixed stars, being
100 times as large as the Earth, or 37,230
miles diameter, and, on a clear evening, is visible
to the naked eye. The Dr. has discovered
six satellites to this planet, some of
which are said to move retrograde. As familiarity
is the principal design of this Treatise
and Lecture, it may be useful to exhibit the
distances of the planets from the Sun in the
most concise form, and in numbers they will
stand thus:—if the distance from the Sun of
| Mercury— |
Venus— |
Earth— |
Mars— |
Jupiter— |
Saturn— |
Georgium Sidus |
| is 4 |
will be 7 |
10 |
15 |
52 |
95 |
190 |
or, if a body projected from the Sun should
continue to fly at the rate of 480 miles per
hour, (which is about the swiftness of a cannon-ball),
it could reach the orbit of Mercury
in 9 years, Venus in 16 years, the Earth in 23
years, Mars in 34 years, Jupiter in 118 years,
Saturn in 216 years, and the Georgium Sidus
in 432 years.
These we consider as the regular bodies of
our system; so regular, indeed, that every
phænomenon respecting them is calculated for
years before hand, and it is almost considered
as a criminal error to be a minute of time
wrong in the calculation. But we are sometimes
visited by Comets, which may also be
recognized as a part of our system: of these
our knowledge is very imperfect. By supposing
that the same Comet has appeared at
equal intervals of time; by observing that, like
the planets, they describe equal areas in equal
times; and by having three points in an ellipsis
given to make out its eccentricity; from
these data it was natural for mathematicians
to suppose they could calculate the return of
all Comets that had been scientifically observed:
but the actual return even of that
conspicuous one expected by Dr. Halley, has
been thought by some not to be sufficiently
ascertained: yet, on examining the balance of
probability, as stated by Maupertius, Lalande,
Messire and Martin, for its re-appearance, probably
this doubt will be greatly lessened, if
not removed. As new Comets are almost
perpetually appearing, on which calculation
hitherto has been silent, there is reason to expect,
in a proper period of time, an adequate
number of observations to decide the question,
whether in general they revolve at stated times,
or traverse our system without probability of
return. Perhaps Comets of each description
time and observation may confirm to us. We
know that Comets accompanied with tails
come very near the Sun, and from all quarters
of the Heavens! that the tails keep opposite
to the Sun; consequently they are only visible
to us when seen obliquely to the Sun. Thus
the Comet of August, 1797, was observed to
have little or no train during any part of its
appearance; but a faint hazy light diffused
round it; these trains, like electrical and borealean
light, do not refract the light of the
fixed stars, &c. The appearance of the Comet
of 1682, is copied in the Eidouranion.
It descends from the top of the Machine; its
train increasing in length and lustre till it arrives
at the Sun, diminishing as it ascends. Its
orbit is so eccentric that the small part of it
visible is not sensibly to be distinguished from
the parabolic curve; and in this representation
it finally disappears in the roof of the Theatre;
it being impossible, if its return were
ascertained, to represent the extent of such an
orbit, and its motion in it, with any degree of
suitable proportion. The velocity of such of
these as approach nearest to the Sun, particularly
of the Comet of 1680, (whose appearance
was tremendous) exceeds any swiftness
that falls within observation; except that of
the rays of light; it being nearly 2000 times
greater than the swiftness of a cannon-ball, at
the instant of its discharge; yet scarcely a
thousandth part of the velocity of light passing
from the Sun[4]. This Comet approached to
within 40,000 miles of the Sun’s surface, and
was calculated to be heated 2000 times hotter
than red hot iron; a globe of iron the size of
the Earth in this heat, would be 50,000 years
in cooling. These amazing visiters, whom
philosophy contemplates with awe very different
from that terror with which superstition
had long viewed them, moving in such amplitude
of space, so numerous as they are, and
so great as some of them, must have functions
assigned to them proportionally important:
either occasionally of terrific revolution; or
more generally of recruiting the atmosphere
of the planets in their successive appulse to
any of them, and supplying the diminution of
the solar fires. Perhaps too they are useful in
preventing the central tendency of the planets
to the Sun, from increasing more than in a
certain degree; so that the apparent disturbances,
thus produced, will be part of the necessary
order and harmony of the system.
It is probable (though their orbits are so
much oblique in all directions to those of the
planets, that it can rarely happen) that Comets
may be instrumental to great shocks; either
by direct collision, the effect of which,
considering the velocity and mass of some of
them cannot be estimated, or by near approach:
and of this latter a possible result,
and such as seems, in one instance at least, to
have already taken place, is noticed in the
Remarks annexed to this account of the
Eidouranion. But the philosophic observer
will have this reflection presented to him from
the phænomena of the Universe; that the apparently
disturbing and destructive powers
are secondary and subservient; while those
of the preserving and meliorating kind are
primary, continued, and universal. And those
incidental causes of a melancholy and distressing
aspect, when resolved into their ultimate
tendency and necessary effects, manifest themselves,
in so far as we can trace them, to be
parts essential to the system of pure and perfect
benevolence. Stability and duration are
stamped on the Universe, and the imagination
is lost in the immensity of the prospects; and
whether we turn to the past or to the future,
our conception vainly pants to grasp the idea
of boundless Eternity.
But when we launch in idea into infinite
space, and contemplate the systems without
number that fill it; here indeed we have a subject
truly worthy of the Deity! Whoever
supposes the fixed stars placed in a concave
sphere, as they appear to us, must have a narrow
and contracted idea of the Supreme Being;
for one star appears large and another
small, because one is immensely distant from
us in comparison of another. Through Dr.
Herschell’s large telescope many fixed stars
appear double: the Polar star is double; (but
they are only stars at different distances from
us appearing nearly in the same line) some appear
like a topaz, others azure, others red; all
are round, and many as perfectly defined as a
shilling is on black cloth. By telescopes we
formerly could see three times the number we
can by the naked eye; and now, telescopes
having received further improvement, in the
most crouded part of the milky way, 116,000
have passed before the instrument in a quarter
of an hour. The Nebula of Andromeda
must be composed of the united lustre of many
millions of stars. Agreeably to this, Dr.
Herschell has noticed single nebulous stars
surrounded with a faint equable whiteness;
such as a system of Planets viewed at that distance
from us might be supposed to give:
others he has seen, which have the appearance
of yet unformed systems. And there are, we
may presume, points of view, in the immensity
of the Universe, in which all the fixed
stars, accessible to the eye or telescope from
this station of ours, and all the inconceivable
space, through which they extend, vanish into
a nebula, and almost an indiscernible point.
Such is the order and greatness of that Empire,
which these Discoveries, the farther they are
pursued, must for ever more and more present
to our increasing admiration. Such the relation
of parts so astonishingly remote! Such
the unity of intelligence, power, and preserving
goodness which pervades the whole! And
why may not stars be so remote, that their
light may not have reached the Earth even
since the creation! We know that light takes
more time in travelling from the nearest stars
to us, than we in making a West India voyage,
(which is usually performed in six weeks)
a sound would not arrive to us from thence in
50,000 years, nor a cannon-ball in a much
longer time. The Sun’s light could not therefore
reach the fixed stars, and be reflected
back again with their lustre; of course they
shine by their own light—if so, they shine as
our Sun, and consequently are Suns themselves.—Now,
as a principal of uniformity
runs through the variety of nature, it is reasonable
to conclude these Suns to be centres
of systems like ours; and destined for the
same noble purposes, viz. that of giving light,
heat, and vegetation, to various worlds that
revolve round them, but which are too remote
for discovery, even with our best telescopes!
This idea is infinitely too great for the human
mind; or indeed for that of any created Being!
For how inadequate must the utmost stretch
of finite faculties be to represent infinity! The
stars, disposed in constellations, and surrounded
by concentric circles, may perhaps assist
the imagination a little: The attempt in
Scene V. if not admired, we hope will be
forgiven. But was it possible we could actually
take our flight into infinite space, or
be borne on the wings of lightning, to the
most distant fixed Star we can now see, even
there, perhaps, we should find ourselves on the
confines of creation, and see as many stars before
us as we left behind! For space has neither
top nor bottom in it: it is a circle whose
centre is every where, but whose circumference
is no where! Even systems themselves
may have revolutions round one another; and
account for that difference of distance that we
are constantly observing to arise amongst the
fixed stars; for new stars appear, rise into
magnitude, and then diminish and disappear,
which would also be accounted for by supposing
that our Sun himself is in progressive
motion towards some part of infinite space,
and carrying his system of worlds along with
him. Stars of the first magnitude, in Flamsted’s
time, dwindle into those of the third or
fourth, in our time. Some of the stars change
their magnitude periodically: as Algol, in Medusa’s
Head, which rises from the third magnitude
to the second, in two days and twenty-one
hours.—Where such periodical disappearances
are short, they have been referred
with probability to quick revolutions of such
stars on their axis, with part of their disk
opaque; or to the regular intervention of
some very considerable Planet to intercept
them from us. But re-appearances of this
kind, after very long intervals, would indicate
rather a revolution in a great orbit. By analogy
we conclude, that at a proper distance
our Sun would dwindle into a fixed Star among
the rest, and his system of worlds disappear.
Now as we see that almost every particle of
our globe swarms with life and animals, we
cannot suppose the other bodies of our system
to be only intended as a faint spangle for
mortals to gaze at; more especially as they are
as well calculated for inhabitants as ours, revolving
as regularly round the same Sun, and
seeming to have every other convenience for
rational and brute inhabitants[5]. But to carry
this idea into infinite space; to recognize
Suns and Systems, above us, below us, to
the East, the West, the North, the South; to
consider each Sun as the centre of a system
like ours, and every world inhabited!—In
short, the astonished fancy turns round, and
is entirely lost and sunk in the abyss of nature!
Well might the Psalmist say, that,
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament sheweth his handy work.”
Well might he express himself as overwhelmed
with the idea of the power and omnipresence
of the Deity; since all our discoveries
serve only to convince us, that a progress of
inexpressible extent, continued through ages
without number, would find us every where,
as here, surrounded with his infinite energy,
eternity, and immensity, filled with his vital
presence.
