Washington telegraph., 1849-12-26
Definition OF the Universe.

Baron Jach, all eminent astronomer;
computes that there may be thousand
millions of stars in the heavens. and then
TO illustrate or describe the immenSlty OF
the universe, he says;
eff we suppose each star to be SUM-
and attended by ten planets, (leav1ng
comets out of the calculation,) we have
tel thousand millions OF globes like the
earth within what ale considered the
bounds of the known universe. AS there
are suns 10 give light throughout all these
systems, we may infer that there are eyes
also to behold it, and beings, whose ma
ture in this one important particular Is
analogous to our own
"But even this is exclusive, probably,
nj millions of suns, bosomed in the un-
known depths Of space, and placed forever
beyond our ken, or the light OF which
NAV not have had time to travel down to
us since the period of their creation"
But this is not very satisfactory illus
tration, for "what are his one thousand
millions of stars and ten thousand millions
of globes, when compared with the in
comprehensible numbers that actually
exist?'
The best definition ofahe universe, says
the Washington Globe, and one that can
never be improved, has been given by
Pascal, whose fame is so great and so
we'll deserved, as all able, eloquent, and
intrepid advocate of moral and religious
truth, against error, intolerance, and i'm
posture, that as man profound in science
and in the learning of his day. as he was,
he is comparatively little known. His
definition is, that the centre OF the wn5-
gerse IS every aohere and the .carcunJer-
ence of 1t nOaOhere: which is at once as
Economically exact and nllimproveably
concise and elegant
1--WE will proceed ito illustrate this:
Our planet, the earth, for instance, is a
center, according to Pascal; then we will
ina a point so remote from US that
telegraphic dispatch conveyed at the
rare of nearly two hundred miles per Sc
cond, would not reach it in less than ten
millions of billions of years. expressed in
figures thus: 1O,OOO,000,O 600, O00, ,006, 600.
Now this inconceivably remote point
would be centre also. and any other
point million times as remote; but the
circumference is not even approached IN
any degree for there is none.
"No matter what may be the magni-
tude of thing finite In its nature, and
circumscribed by limits and metes and
bounds, it cannot constitute even an
atomic portion of what is in its nature in
finite, and which is circumscribed by no
limits. Therefore the whole solar system.
or the whole of the universe itself, as far
as the telescope has reached it, will not
bear as great proportion to the stupen-
dous whole as one drop of water would
bear to all the water fresh ard salt, on
our globe.
"Baron Jach or his commentator, says
that "there are suns placed so far beyond
our ken that the light of them may not
have had time to travel down to us since
the period of their creation.
"To this we subscribe, emitting the
word dorm, which is not astronomically
used, for there is no up or down III the
case Those suns are as much dOacn to
lis as we are to them. And we will add,
that whilst there are stars or suns whose
light have not yet reached us, there are
OLn6TS WuOSc liz lCSOl Sdli tCoCl ''c,
supposing no obstacle to its transmission
except distance.
"To illustrate further the total absence
of any kind of proportions or relations be-
tween things finite and infinite, it may be
observed, that million of billion OF years
which would be period of time utterly
inconceivable by the human faculties, is
certainly not the smallest appreciable Or
conceivable part of eternity-the proof of
which Is that an immortal being having
arrived at the end of that term, would be
no nearer the end of eternity than he was
at the beginning of the term. He would
have made no progress whatever, nor can
any be made
The WHEELING BRIDGE.-Litigation
respecting this public improvement will
most probably soon be commenced. Dur
ing the late high water the Hibernla No.
2, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati packet,