Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-06-11
The Universe as seen by an As
trOnOmer.

The Northh British Reric10 has the fol-
lowing: In waiting ourselves in imagina-
tion to our own satellite, the moon-the
nearest of our celestial bodies-we have
passed over a distance equal to thirty
times the diameter of our globe. In adj
vancing to the sun we travel over a dis
tance equal to thirty times that number
of the moon and before we reach Uran-
us, the remotest of the planets, we have
traversed a space equal to twenty times
the earth's distance from the sun. Thus
placed at the limits of q system inelosed
in a circle of eighteen hundred millions
of miles in radius, our appreciation of dis,
tance would appear to be exhausted, and
we seem to be as on the margin of an un
fathomable abyss. The telescope, how
ever, and the mural circle, enable US to
span the void, and the genius of man,
proud of the achieyement-and justly,
if humbly proud-has crossed the gulf
twelve thousand times the radius of his
own system, that we may study the near
est world in the firmrnent of heaven
Beyond this frontier lies the whole uni
verse of stars-the binary systems, their
clusters, and their nebulous combina-
tions.
The observed parallax of one-fourth of
a second in a Lyra, carries US four times
as far into the bosom of space; though
beyond this, as We have no positive
measure of distance, it would be as un-
philosophical to assign limits to creation,
as to give it an infinite range In this
rapid flight into space we have traversed
it but in one dimension, and the line
which we have traced it but a unit in the
scale of celestial distance. Creation, in
wide panorama, is still above us, beneath
us and around US. The overarching heav-
ensstill inclose us; and dinnumerable worlds
sparkle in its canopy.
If from this bourne, from which the as
Economical 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 nebulous
light that intervenes. Where, then, is
our terrestrial ball; its ocean-its continent
its mountains-its empires-its dynas-
ties-its thrones? Where IS our father
land-its factions-its Christians, disu-
nions-its slave crimes, and its unholy
wars? Where is our home-its endear-
ments-its hopes-and its fears? Where
is man, intellectual monad-the only at
ON of organic life that can pierce the
depths and interpret the enigma of the
universe, and yet the only spark of spir-
itual nature which disclaims the authority
and resists the will of the universal King.
They have all disappeared in the far-of
perspectiYe-thel long vista of space, whose
apex, were it a sun, the hugest telescope
would fail to descry. No living thing
here meets the eye, and no sentiment as
sociated with life presses on the affections.
The tiny organisms of earth and ocean
everything that moves and breathes-
that lives and dies-all are engulphed in
the great conception of the universe
The straining mind can only unite the
immeasurable extremes. The definite in
space, the eternal in duration, the omnip-
otent in power, the perfect in wisdom.
alone fill the expanded soul, and portray
in their awful combination-the Creator
of the Universe.