Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-07-10
The Universe as seen by an Astronomer.
The North British. .Revieic has the following


In waiting ourselves in imagination to our
own satellite, the moon-the nearest of our
celestial bodies-we have passed over dis
tance equal to thirty times the diameter of
eur globe. In advancing TO the sun we travel
over distance equal to thirty times that of
the moon; and before we reach Uranus, the
remotest of the planets, we have traversed
space equal to twenty times the earth's dis
tance from the sun. Thus placed at the limits
of a system inclosed in circle of eighteen
hundred millions OF miles in radius, our ap-
probation Of ofdistance would appear to be ex-
hausted, and we seem to be as on the margin
of an unfathomable abyss. The telescope,
however, and the mural circle, enable us to
span the void, and the genius of man, proud
of the achevement-an justly, if humbly
proud-has crossed the gulf twelve thousand
times the radius of his own system, that we
may study the nearest world in the frma-
ment of heaven. Beyond this frontier lies
the whole universe of stars-their binary
systems, their clusters, and their nebulous
| combinations.
The observed parallax of one-fourth of a
second in Lyra, carries us four times as far
into the bosom of space; though beyond this,
as we have no positive measure of distance,
| il would be as unphilosophical to assign limits
to creation, as to give 1t an infinite range.
In this rapid flight into space we have ira
L 4
which we have traced is but a unit in the
scale of celestial distance Creation, in its
| wide panorama, is still above us, beneath us
and around us. The over-arching heavens
still inclose u.s. and innumerable worlds
sparkle in its canopy.
II from this bourne, from which the astro-
nomical traveller alone returns, we look upon
our course, our own planetary system ceases
TO be perceived. Its sun is dim-itself but
an invisible point in the nebulous light that
intervenes. Where, then, is our terrestrial
ball; its ocean-its continents-its mount
ains-its empires-its dynasties--its thrones
Where is our fatherland-its factions-it.
Christians, disunions-its slave crimes, ant
its unholy warsp Where is our home-it
endearments-its hopes-and its fears
Where is man, intellectual monad-the only
atom of organic life that can pierce thu
depths and interpret the enigma of the uni
, verse? and yet the only spark Of a spiritua
nature which diselaims the authority anC
resjsts the will of the universal Kingl
They have all disappeared in. the far-of
perspective-the long vista of space, who's
apex were it a sun, the hugest telescop
would fail to descry. No living thing her
meets the eye, and no sentiment associate
with life presses on the affections The tin
r organisms of earth and ocean-every thin
that moves and breathes-that lives an
dies--all are engulphed in the great conceI
ton of the universe. The straining mind ca
l not unite the immeasurable extremes. Th
7 infinite in space, the eternal in duration, th
omnipotent in power, the perfect in.wisdon
p | alone fill the expanded soul, and portray /
their awful combination--the Creator of tn
| Universe r... .I .t NH p