Rutland herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1823-1847, 1840-02-18
ANIpEA oF TIE UNIVERSE.


,ingushtd DR.. Thomas Dick, so well known
in this country by his works on various sub
jccts, Kindred TO that indicated 10y the heading
above. Tie length OF this essay makes It inn
posslrf 10 cite much of il in our columns, and
as the tolume itself will reach comparatively
few offsir readers. we have concluded TO give
them pc Doctors leading notions in our own
wordsl
lie begins with what the sense of man com
mand4 rcund him IN the way of a landscape,
and, e3Hff.arsse ,.is little space with what is
immed safely around us ON all sides, observes
TINT j, would be requsiie--taklng the general
average of a pretty extensive landscape-that
more than nine hundred thousand landscapes of
the extent we generally behold, should pass
before our view ere we could form an adequate
conception of the bulk of the whole earth
The surface of the globe, he says. contains no
less than 1877 millions of square miles. No
human mind can form conception of this.
The earth, however, is but an nconsdera-
bic ball when compared with other planets of
our system One of these bodies could con-
tain within its dimensions nine hundred globes
as large as the earth; another fourteen hun
bred and were five hundred globes as large
as that on which we dwell, laid upon vast
plain, the outermost ring of the planet Saturn,
which is six hundred and forty-three thousand
miles in circumference, would enclose them
all. And yet these bodies seem only small
bright specks on the concave of our sky.
Again-earth, planets, comets, and all--the
whole subordinate solar systenI-how small is
it compared with its central lumnary. Noin-
telect can reach to the slightest conception of
such body The sun is five hundred times
larger than the whole, and would contain with
in its circumference, thirteen hundred thou
al n & larUp ne world
template all the variety of scenery on the sur
face of this lumnary would require more than
fifty thousand years, although landscape five
thousand miles in extent, were to pass before
our eyes every hour. What a scope were
this for the explorations OF intellect and mag
ination throughout eternity
But this system, with its sun is but a point
in the armament Before we could arrive at
the nearest object in this armament we should
have 10 pass over a space at least twenty bill
IONS Of miles in extent-a space which a can
non ball, flying with its utmost velocity, would
not pass over in less than millions OF years.
What hosts of orbs are visible here of a win
ter's night How vast they must be There
10 raaS,n o '-li~"~ tim. tho least twinklinQ
star which our eyes can discern, is not less
than our sun in magnitude and glory, and that
many of them are even hundred or a thou
sand times superior in magnitude to that STU
penduous luminary. And as the Creator does
nothing in vain, as he must be supposed always
to actin the plentitudc of his PROJECTIONS, those
thousand stars, which the unassisted eye can
perceive in the canopy of heaven may be con-
sidcred as connected with at least fifty thou
sand worlds, compared with the amount OF
whose population, all the inhabitants Of our
globe would appear only ''as the small dust OF
the balance" Here the Imagination might
expate for ages of ages, in surveying this po-
slton ofthe Creators kingdom, and be lost IN
contemplation and wonder, at the vast extent
| the magnitude, and the immense variety OF OBJ
ec,s, scenes, and movements, which would
meet the view in every direction. For here
we have presented TO our view, not only sin
| gle systems, such as that to which we belong
| but suns rejoicing around suns and systems a
| round Neutrality-suspicious. not only double, but
| triple, quadruple, qulntuple, and multiple, al
! in complicated but harmonious motlon-HiO
lions more rapid than the swltest planets IN oul
| system, though some of them move a hundred
| thousand miles in an hour-perlods Of revolu
| ton which vary from thirty to sixteen hun
| dred yelrs-suns with a blue or green lustro
revolving around suns Of white or a rudy
color, and both of them Illuminated uM con
trdsted col0red hgM the same assemblage o
worlds. And if the various orders Of intelli
gences were unveiled TO our view, what
scene of interest, grandeur, variety, diversit,
| of intellect and of wonder and establishment
would be opened to our view
And still we should be on thh verge of crea
ton The visible is as nothing compared Il
the invisible. The Milky Way is found 10 con
sisi of clusters Of stars and the late Sir w
| Herschel, in passing his telescope along
| space OF this zone, fifteen degrees long am
two broad, deserted at least fifty thousand star
large enough to be distinctly counted beside
which he suspected twice as many more whicl
could not be seen only now and then by fam
plimpses, for want Of sufficient light that is
fifty times more than the acutesi eye can dis
Germ in the whole heavens, during the clear
est night and the space which they occnp
is only the ,375ih part ofthe visible canop
Of the sky. On another occasion, tins asiron
omer perceived nearly six hundred stars m o3'
field of view OF his telescope, so that N IN
space Of garter Of an hour one hundred an
sixteen thousand stars passed IN review beior
him. Now. were we 10 suppose every par
of this zone equally filled with stars as thi
spaces now alluded 10, there would be iOun'
i'm the Milky Way alone, no less that 30, 1876,
OOO, that Is twenty thousand times the nun5e
OF those that are visible To the naked eye. II
regard 10 the distance OF some Of these stars, i
has been ascertlined that some Of the NOR
remote are not less Than five hundred time
the distance The nearest fixed star, that is
at least 100000 600 900, 600, or nearly Tel
+ thousand billions Of miles distance so grea
that hgAf, which fies at the rate Of twelve mil
lions Of miles every minute, would require on
thousand sit hundred and forty years, before
could traverse this mighty interval
Such is the explanation Of that apparently
irregular belt which appears only like an ar
eidehfai nage on me face u he frmDaeaf. -