South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1882-10-20

Those uho have renal Cd up mill a o'eloek
IN The morning. OF those whose business, like
that of newspAper men, has compelled them to
remain up until that hour. have beea rewarded
by The sight of the greet comet that 10 .reeriug
through the heavens. and that for three weeks
past has been 50 plainly visible about the hour
named IL looks to be about 300 fee, hong, bu,
oil course ~ 70 millions " miles in extent. and
II is 50 f,r Away that astronomers tell Us tha,
has DOLLY escaped collision With the sun aud the
son 10 e5. 10000 Of miles away from The earth.
This comet 10 Travelling at The rate of 400
miles per ssconf, Ut ~. 900 miles per minute, or
Lac, 900 miles per hour, or ~ 500 0Lo every
- hours This is q rate OF speed ns we'll
ss distances that defes the human mind 10 an
pteeists- But The mere statement gives one
some va ne idea Of the :mmsSsity of space, es-
Pecislly when We say that this cvrnet can travel
al this rate for not ,nly months but years ard
be M nearer the cad OF space t'isa it Is to-day.
or than u vas any number OF days ago. There
Is 20 end TO spaee No rate Of speed, no length
OF years. no eternity OF time. can reach its out.
side limit, for there is no outside limit. IL il
on and on and Oh for thousands and millions
OF years. and then on aud on for ever and for
ever. The universe IL simply illiruitabie and
immeasursble aud without length, width or
depth, except as these term, are expressed by
inhniiy. No comet could travel fast enough
aud No time could endure long en- Tough to reach
point OF beginning or ending in any direction
up or down, Or upon any horizontal plane de-
serIoed hast, West, North CT South.
Then what - the earth, or the sun or the
moon or tue stars Mere hy specks in the uni
verse. They do not amount 10 so much AS
pin point in this world. There is possibly some
mathematical relation, although no figures
could exprtss II. between pin point and this
globe OF ours ba, no possible ref mem eut Of b.,
science OF Calculus. eveo imaginary Calculus, rs
ii is called. could give a mathematical propor-
uonate relation between the earth and the uni,
verse. There is none whatever.
These comets are cIeerins through systems
| 49, de f.~ L... IL.
ical telescope. They appear and reappear after
long intervals OF yeas, perhaps a h inbred
years, and where have they been meantime 90.
ing at the rate OF 90 miles per second? II we
they so much as uesred that mysterious center
OF the boundless aud illimitable universe thai
is faihomless and undesirable, and unkpows.
Die and unihinkable. where we are accustomed
to locate an all creative aud all sustaining and
all regulating Personality. Or as they sp.
proach, IL approach were possible, that nysie.
rious centre, do ,hey meet m enanation o: the
ShekinAb, that Ndiates an aureole. within which
nothing 80 material comet may enter
Thus warned away. do these comets circle 10
their course AID al the cod of hundred years.
travelling at a rate faster than thought coma a.
gain within the circle of obser walton from this
insignificant planet OF ours. The question is
too profound for the most abstract epeculat:on
We simply know nothing about it. Space and
iis great Entity aud Entirety, which we call
The Almighty Power, il some hing of which the
subilesi and greatest Intellect can take no ra.
tional cogniZtnce. We accustomed to talk
of millions Of miles to the sun and greater p.il
lions 20 other suns, and hey ond these suns
there are endless beds of suns and fixed stars
whose light has ben travelling since the oriri
nHl Cat and that has only become visible of Ia to-
and Whist do we formulate az a conception .out
of all this talk as to lie immeasurable distances
OF the universe Nothing whatever. II i = be
yond Imagination. Great as is scerce il is
piemy indeed when il giapple3 with the mystic
rious career OF a comet But hal must lie the
awe OF great asir"nt mers mind as he scans
the iea Inns OF the unk. owabie for hight We'll
may great poet have said, ''the undevout as
tronOmcr is mad, '-made mad by the i.lr,ive
thoughts Of his own oyerstruined I'm. giuai!on
- Wheeling Ia'eniyencer.