Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-10-23

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assault The skies. but they shall gain no
conquest in these gliltering fields before
which time shall be forgotten. Rest in
peace, great Columbus of the Heavens, like
him scorned, prosecuted, hroken-hearted, in
other ages, IN distant hemispheres, when
consecration shall dedicate their stately
edifices to the cause of knowledge and
truth, thy name shall be mentioned with
honor.
Much, however, as we are indebted to our
observatories for elcvating our conceptions
of the heavenly bodies, they present even
20 the unaided sight scenes of glory which
words are too feeble to describe. rad uc-
casion. few weeks since, to take the early
train from Providence to Boston, and for
this purpose rose at two O'Clock in the morn
ing. Everything around was wrapped in
darkness and bushed in silence, broken on iy
| by what seemed al that hour the unearthy
clank and rush of the train. 1t was mild,
serene, milo. summers night,--the sky was
without a ud,-the winds were whist
The moon, then in the last quarter, had jus t
risen, and the stars shone with spectral
lustre, bu: little affected by her presence
Jupiter, two hours high, was tie herald of
the day;--the Pleiades just above the hori-
zon, shed their sweet influence in the East;
Lyra sparked near the zenith; Andromeda
veiled her newly discovered glores from the
naked eye in the South; the steady pointers,
far beneath the Pole, locked meeky up from
the depths of the North to their Sovereign.
Such WAS the glorious spectacle as | en-
tered the train. AS we proceeded, The
tiMid approach OF twilight became more pre-
cpptiSle; the intense blue of the sky began
to soften; the smaller stars, like little chill
dren, went first to rest; the sister-beams Of
the Pleiades soon melted together; but the
bright consultations of the West and
North remained unchanged. Steadily the
wondrous TRANSPORTATION went on. Hands
af angels hidden from mortal eyes shifted
the scenery of the heavens: the glories of
night dissolved into the glories OF dawn
The blue sky now turned more softly gray;
the great watch-s,ars shut up their holy
eyes; the East began to kindle. Faint
streaks Of purple soon blushed along the
sky; the whole celestial concave was filed
with the infowing tides of the morning
light, which came pouring down from above
in one great ocean ofradance; till at length,
az we reached the Blue hills, a flash Of pur-
pie FIRE bazed out from above the horizon
aud turned the dewy tear-drops of flower
and leaf into rubies and diamonds. In q
few seconds, the everlasting gates of the
morning were thrown wide open, and the
lord o f day, arrayed in glories too severe for
the gaze of man, began his course.
do not wonder at the supertitions Of the
ancient Magians, who in the morning Of the
world went up 10 the hill-tops of Central
Asia, aud, ignorant of the true God, adored
the most glorious work of his hand. But
am filled with amazement when | am told
that in this enlightened age and in the heart
of the Christian world, there are persons
who can witness this daily manifestation of
the power and wisdom Of he Creator, and
yet say in their hearts There is no God"
We are brought to the bewildcring con-
clusion, that thousands of these misty specs.
the greater part of them too faint to be seen
by the naked eye, are not each universe
like our Solar system, but each swarm
of universe of unappreciable magnitude
(Humboldt Cosmos III. 40 The mind
sinks overpowered by the contem plation.
We repeat the words, but they no longer
convey distinct ideas to the understanding
But, these conclusions. however vast the r |
comprehension, carry us but another step
forward in the realms of sidereal astronomy.
A proper motion in space Of our sun. and ofI
the fixed stars, as we call them, has long
been believed to exist. Their vast distances
only prevent its being more apparent The
great imprt vement in instruments of meas
urement within the last generation has not
established the existence of this motion, but
has pointed to the region in the starry vauI,
around which our whole solar and steIler
system with its myriad of attendant plane
lary worlds appear to be performing mighty
revolution. Ii, then, we assume that out
side OF the system to which we belong and
in which our sun is but star Ike Aldeba.
ran or Sirius, the different nebule Of which
we have spoken,-thousands of which SPOT
the heavels,-constitute each a distinct
family Of universes, we must, following the
guide Of analogy, attribute to each of them
aiso beyond all the revolutions of their in
divdual attendant planetary systems, great
revolution, comprehending the whole; while
the same course of snnalogical reasoning
would lead US still further onward, and in
the last analysis, require US to assume
connection between all these
mighty systems,--a universe of universes,
clrcling round in the infnity of space, and
preserving its equilibrium by the same laws
of mutual attraction which bind the lower
worlds together.
1t may be thought that conceptions like
these are calculated rather to depress than
to elevate US in the scale of being; that
oanshed as he is by these contempIations
to corner OF creation and there reduced 10
an atom, man sinks 70 nothingness in this
infnity of worlds. But second thought
the impression. These vast con-
are we'll calculated to inspire
awe, but not abasement. Mind and matter
are incommensurable. An immortal soul,
even while clothed iii "this muddy vesture
Of decay" Is in the eye of God and reason
a purer essence than the brightest sun that
lights the depths of Heaven. The organi-
zed human eye, instinct with life and soul,
which, gazing through the telescope, travels
up to the cloudy speck in the handle of
Orion's sword, and bids it blaze forth into
galaxy as vast as ours, stands higher in the
order of being than all that host Of lumna-
lies. The intellect of Newton, which dis
covered the law that holds the revolving
worlds together,is a nobler work OF God than
universes of unthnking matter.
If, still treading the loftiest paths OF ana
ogy, we adopt the supposition,--to me
'wn the grateful supPosition,-that the