Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-10-02
VERMONT TELEG RAPH.

uous clusters may be so ilconceivably su
perlor TO the reciprocal distance OF those
fixed stars which belong to the same clus-
ter, as to mark an equally distinct separ-
alton of the clusters, and to constitute each |
of them an individual member of some |
higher and more extended arrangement |
This carries us upwards through another
ascending step in the scale of magnifi-
cence and there leaves US wildering in
the uncertainty, whether even here the
wonderful progression is ended; and at
all events fixes the assured conclusion in
our minds, that, to an eye which could
spread itself over the whole, the mansion
which accommodates our species might
be SO very small as TO lie wrapped in mi
croscopical concealment; and, III refer
ence to the only Being who possesses this
universal eve, we'll might we say, "What
is man that thou art mindful of him, or
the son of man that thou shouldest deign
to visit him 2"
And, afer all, though it be mighty
and difficult conception, yet who can
question it? What Is seen may be noLh-
ing to whit is unseen for what is seen is
limited by the range Of our instruments.
What is unseen has no limit; and, tho
all which the eye of man can take in, or
his fancy can grasp al, We're swept away,
there might still remain as ample field,
over which the Divinity my expatiale,
and which he may have peopIed with in
Vulnerable worlds. If the whole visible
creation were to disappear. il would leave
solitude behind it-but to the Infinite
Mind, that can take In the whole system
of nature, this solitude might be nothing,
small unoccupied point IN that immen-
slty which surrounds it, and which he
may have filled with the wonders of his
omnipotence. Though this earth were
to be burned up, though the trumpet Of
lis dissolution were sounded, though yon
sky We're TO pass away as scroll, and
every visible glory, which The finger Of
Divinity has inscribed on it, were to be
put out tor ever-,-an event so awful, to Us
aud to every world in our vicinity, by
which so many suns would be extinguish
eJ, and so many varied scenes of life and
of population would rush into for2etful-
ness-what is it in the high scale of the
AlmighLy's workmanship mere shred,
which, though scattered into nothing,
would leave the universe of God one en-
tire scene of greatness and Of majesty
Though this earth, and these heavens,
were 10 disappear there are other worlds,
which roll afar; the light of other suns
shines upon them; and the sky which
nantles them, is garnished with ether
stars. Is it presumption to say, that the
moral world extends 10 these distant and
unknown regions that they are occu-
| pied with people ! that the charities of
home and of neiehborhood flourish there ?
that the praises of God are there lifted up,
and his goodness rtjoiced in? that piety
has its temples and It's offerings2 and the
richness of the divine attributes is there
felt and admired by intelligent worship
pers?
And what is this world in the immen-
sity which teens with tbem-and what
are they who occupy it? The universe
at large would suffer as little, in its spen-
dor and variety, by the destruction Of our
planet, as the verdure and sublime mag
nitude of forest would suffer by the fall
of single leaf The leaf quivers on the
branch which supports it, 1t lies at the
mercy of the slightest accident A breath
of wind tears II from the stern, and il
! lights on the stream of water which pass
es underneath. In moment of time, the
! life which we know, by The microscope,
it teens with, is extinguished and, an
occurrence, so Insignificant in the eye of
man, and on the scale Of his observation,
carries IN 1t, TO the myriads which people
this little leaf, an event as terrible and as
decisive as the destruction Of world
Now, on the grand scale of the universe,
we, the occupiers of this ball, which per-
forms It's little round among the suns and
the systems that astronomy has unfolded
we may feel the same litlleness and The
same insecurity. We differ from the leaf
only in this circumstance, that it would
require the operation of greater elements
to destroy US. But these elements exist.
The fire which RACES within, NAV lift its
devouring energy to the surface of our
planet and transform it into one wide and
wasting volcano. The sudden formation
of elastic matter in the bowels of the
earth-and it lies within the agency of
known substances to accomplish this
may explode it into fragments. The ex-
haialIon of noxious air from below, may
Impart virulence to the air that is around
US; 1t may affect the delicate proportion
OF ITS ingredients and the whole of ami
mated nature may wi,her and die under
/ the mallgnty of tainted atmosDhera
blazing comet may cross this fated planet
IN Its orbit, and realize all the terrors
which Superstition has conceived of IL
we cannot anticipate with precision the
| consequences of an event which evaru