Year: 1868

Far away from the earth on which we dwell, in the blue ocean of space, thousands of bright orbs, in clustering and conhgurations ot ex- ceeding beauty, invite the upward gaze of man. and tempt him to the examination Of the wonderful sphere by which he is surrounded. The starry heavens do not display their gilt tering constelations in the glare of day, while the rush and turmoil of business incapacitate man for the enjoyment of their solemn gran deur It is in the stiffness of the midnight hour, when all nature is hushed in repose, when the hum of the worlds on goings is no longer heard, that the planets roll and shine and the bright stars troopiug through the deep heavens, speak to the willing spirit that would learn their mysterious being. Often have 1 swept backward six thousand years in imagination, and stood beside our Great An cestor. as he gazed for the first time on the going down of the sun. What strange sen sations must have swept through his bewll- dered mind, as he watched the last departing ray of the sinking orb unconscious whether he should ever witness its return.

 Wrapt in a maze of thought, strange and startling, his eyes finger about the point which the sun had slowly faded from his view. X mysterious darkness hitherto unexperi- enced, creeps over the face of nature. The beautiful scenes of earth, which through the swift hours of the first wonderful day of his existence. had SO charmed his senses, are slow ly fading one by one from his dimmed vision. A gloom deeper than that which covers earth, steals across the mind of earth's solitary in- habitant. He raises his inquiring gaze tow ards heaven, and To a silver crescent Of light clear and beautiful, hanging in the western sky meets his astonished eye. The young .1, al him upward to her bright attendants, which are now stealing one by one, from out the deep blue sky The solitary gazer bows, and wonders and adores. The hours glide by the silver moon is gone-the stars are rising slowly ascending the heights of heaven and silently sweeping downward in the stiffness of night. The first grand revolution tO mOr- tai vision is nearly completed. A faint streak of rosy light is seen in the east-it brightens the stars fade-the planets are extinguish- ed-the eye is fixed in mute astonishment on the growing splendor, till the first rays of the returning sun dart their radiance on the young earth and its solitary inhabitant. To hin "the evening and the morning were the first day"

 The curiosity excited on this first solemn night-the consciousness that in the heaven God had declared his glory-the ager desir, to comprehend the mysteries that dwell II these bright orbs, have clung to the descend ants of him who first watched and wondered through the long lapse of six thousand years In this boundess field of investigation hu man genius has won its most signal victories Generation after generation has rolled away age after age has swept silently by, but eacl has swelled by its contributions the stream o discovery One barrier after another has giyel way to the force of intellect-mysteriou movements have been unrolled-mighty law have been revealed ponderous orbs hav been weighed, their reciprocal influence computed, their complex wanderings mad clear, until the mind, majestic in strength has mounted step by step, up the rock height, up it's self-built pyramid, from who's star-crowned summit it looks out on the grar deur of the universe, self-clothed with tn presence of God. With resistless energ it rolls back the tide of time, and lives in th confguration of rolling worlds thousan years ago, or more wonderful it sweeps ava the dark curtain from the future, and behold those celestial scenes which shall greet th vision of generations when a thousand veal have rolled away, breaking their noiselei waves on the dim shores of eternity.-.Hitc elps Planetary and Siellqr Worlds