The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1811-08-06
FOR THE ENQUIRER.
THE OLD BACHELOR.
No. XIII.

Niisce stultitism consiliis brevem.
Duce est desipere in loco.
Hor o. XII Lib.4 .. 81.
Mix shor, folly with thy labour'd schemes;
Ills Joyous folly, that unbends the mind.
FRANcIs.
It was pleasant evening in the month of
May I; and M sweet child, my Rosalie, and
had sauntered up to the Castles top to
enjoy the breeze that played around it. and
TO admire the uncloudcd armament that
Ylowed aud sparkled. with unusual lustrc.
from pole to pole. The atmosphere W as in
ITS purest and finest state for vision the
milky way was distinctly developed through
out its whole extent every planet and e.
very star above the horizon, however near
and brilliant, or distant and faint, lent its
lambert light, or twinkling ray, to give va
ricty and beauty to the hemisphere while
the'rnund. bright moon ESQ distinctly de6n.
ed were the lines Of her figure. and so clear
ly visible even the rotundity of her form.)
seemed to hang off from the azure vault.
suspended in midway air ; or STOPPING for
ward from the armament her fair and radi-
ant face, as if to court and to return our gaze.
We amused ourselves for some time in
observing, through telescope. the planet
Jupiter. sailing in silent majesty, withN1fls
squadron Of satellites, along the vast ocs6n
Of space between US and the fixed stars; ;
and admired the felicity. of that design by
which those distant bodies had been parcel
led out and arranged into consultations !;
so as to have served not only for beacons
for the ancient navigator, but, as it were,
for landmarks to astronomers lat this day,
enabling them, although. in different coun-
tries, to indicate to each other. with ease,
the place and motion of those planets, CO.
.~.l -
bit, reyolve and play in the intermediate
space.
We recalled and dwelt with delight on
the rise and progress of the science OF astro-
nomy on that series of astonishing disco
veries. through successive ages. which dis
play, in SO strong light. the force and reach
OF the human mind and on those bold Con-
lectures and sublime reveries which seem
60 tower even to the confines of divinity,
and denote the high destiny to which NOR
tails tend. That thought for Instance, which
IS said to have been first started by Pytha
goras, and which modern astronomers ap
prove /; that the stars which we call fixed
although they appear to US to be nothing
more than large spangles of various sizes
glittering on the same concave surface, are
nevertheless, bodies as large as our sun
shining, like him, with original and not re
tIected light, placed at incalculable distan-
Ces asunder, and each star the solar centre
Sf system of planets. which revolve around
1t, as the planets belonging to our system do
around our sun that this is not only the
case with all the stars in the armament
which our eyes discern, OF telescopes have
brought within the sphere Of our vision, but,
according to the modern improvements OF
this thought, that there are probably other
stars whose light has not yet reached us,
although light moves with velocity, mil
lion OF times greater than that of cannon
ball THAT those luminous appearances
which we observe in the armament, like
flakes of thin white cloud, are windows, as
1t were, which Open to other ornaments, far
far beyond the ken of human eye, or the
power of optical instruments, lighted up
like ours. with hosts of stars or suns tina,
this scheme goes on through infinite space
which is filled with thousands upon thou
sand of those suns, attended by ten thousand
times ten thousand worlds, all in rapid mo-
tion, yet calm, regular and harmonious, in
variably keeping the paths prescribed to
them and these worlds. peopled with . my
riads of intelligent beings" One would
think, that this conception. thus extended
would be bold enough to satisfy the whole
enterprise of the human imagination. But
what an accession of magnifccnce and glo-
ry does Doctor Herschel superadd to it,
when, instead OF supposing all those suns
fixed, and the motion confined to their res
pective planets. he loosens those multitude
nous Suns, themselves, from their stations.
sets them all into motion with their splen
did retinue of planets and satellites. and i'm
AGNES them, thus attended, to perform a stu
pendous revolution, system above system
around some grander, unknown centre, some
where in the boundless abyss of space -
And when, carrying on the process, you sup
pose even that centre itself not stationary
but, also, counterpoised by other masses in
the immensely of space, with which, attend
ed by their accumulated trains ct
"PIanets suns, and adamantinc spheres,
Wheeling, unshaken, through the void in
mense
it maintains harmonious concert, surround
ing, in their vast career, some other cen
ire still more remote and more stipend GUS
which, in its turn" You ovcrwhelm me, u
cried Rosalie, as / was laboring 10 pursue
the imm ense Characterization 49, my mind is
bewildered and lost in the effort to follow
you, and finds no point on which to rest its
weary wiDg."--"Tet. there is point my
dear RosaIie THE THRONE OF THE
MOST HIGH: Imagine that, the ultimate
ceHtre, 10 which this vast and nconcevably
magnificent and august apparatus is attach
ed, and around which it is continually re
yolying. q! what a spectacle for the che
rubin and seraphim, and the spirits of the
Just, made perfect, who dwell on the righ
81 b, l.... Il