The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1882-08-16
The GlOrieS of the Starlit Heavens.

INV hIulltN VI tUt St'HIlt tlPUNtHNs
II the eye could gain gradually in
light;Gathcring power, until it attained
something like the range Of the great
gauging telescopes Of the llerschels,
how utterly would what we see now seem
lost in the inconcciyable glories thus
gradually unfoldcd. Even the reycla-
tons Of the telescope, save as they APP
peal to the minds eye, would be AZ
nothing to the splendid scene revealed,
when within the spaces which now show
black between the familiar stars Of our
consultations, thousands of brilliant
OrbS would be revealed. The milky
luminosity of the Galaxy would be seen
aglOw with millions of suns, its richer
portions blazing so resplendently that
no eye could bear TO gaze long upon the
wOndrous display. But with every in
crease Of power more and more myr.
lads Of stars would break into view,
until at last the scene would be unbear-
able in its splendor. The eye would seek
for darkness rs for rest. The mind
would ask for a scene less oppressive in
the magniicencc Of its inner meaning (;
for even rs seen, wonderful though the
display wonld be, the glorious scene
would scarce express the milliOnth part
of its real nature, as recognized by a
mind conscious that each point of light
was sun like ours, each sun the CEN
ter of n scheme of worlds such as that
globe on which we "live and move and
have our being"
Who shall pretend to picture r scene
so glorious? II the electric light could
be applied to illumine fifty million lamps
over the surface Of black domed vault,
and those lamps were here gathered in
rich clustering groups, there strewn
more sparsely, after the way in which
the stars are spread over the vault of
heaven, something like the grandeur of
the scene which we have imagined would
be realized-but no human hands could
every produce such an exhibition Of
celestial imagery. As for maps, it IS
obviously impossible by any maps which
could be drawn, no matter what their
scale or plan, to present anything even
approaching to correct picture of the
heavenly host. There is no way even
of showing their numerical wealth in
single picture.
1t is not till we have learned to look
on all that the telescope reveals as in its
turn nothing, compared with the real
universe, that we have rightly learned
the lessons which the heavens teach, so
far, at least, as it les within our feeble
powers TO study the awful teaching of
the stars. The range of tho puny in
strumcnts man can fashion is no meas
IRE, we may be well assured, of the uni
verse as it is. The domain Of telescop-
ically visible space, compared with which
the whole range Of the visible universe
of stars seems but n point, can be In
turn but as point compared with those
| infinite realms of star-strewn space
which lie on every side OF our universe,
beyond the range-milions of times
further than tho EXTREMIST ScOpe-of tho
Instruments by which man has extended
the powers of visions given to him by
the Almighty. The linite-for after all,
infinite though it seems to us, the region
of space through which we can extend
our survey is but fnite-can never bear
any proportion to the infinite save that
of infinite disproporlion. All that we
can see is as nothing compared with that
which is; all VIC can know is as moth
ing; though our knowledge grow from
more to more seemingly without limit.
In fine, we may say Gas our gradually
widening vision shows us the nothing
ness of what we have seen, of what we
see, of what we can ever see), not, as
Laplace said: "7he KnOwn is LiHic,h
but "rIE KNOWN is NornNG;n not
"7He Rk,NoWn is Immense" but "rHE
UNKNOWN IS INFINITE. "-PrCJ. Proc
! to-, IN KnOWlcige.