Here I must close. The intellectual power of man, as exhibited in his wonderful achievements among the planetary and stellar worlds, has thus far been our single object. I have neither turned to the right hand nor to the left. Commencing with the first mute gaze bestowed upon the heavens, and with the curiosity awakened in that hour of admiration and wonder, we have attempted to follow rapidly the career of the human mind, through the long lapse of six thousand years. What a change has this period wrought!

Go backwards in imagination to the plains of Shinar, and stand beside the shepherd astronomer as he vainly attempts to grasp the mysteries of the waxing and waning moon, and then enter the sacred precincts of yonder temple devoted to the science of the stars. Look over its magnificent machinery; examine its space-annihilating instruments, and ask the sentinel who now keeps his unbroken vigil, the nature of his investigations.

Moon, and planet, and sun, and system, are left behind. His researches are now within a sphere to whose confines the eagle glance of the Chaldean never reached. Periods, and distances, and masses, and motions, are all familiar to him; and could the man who gazed and pondered six thousand years ago stand beside the man who now fills his place and listen to his teachings, he would listen with awe, inspired by the revelations of an angel of God. But where does the human mind now stand? Great as are its achievements, profoundly as it has penetrated the mysteries of creation, what has been done is but an infinitesimal portion of what remains to be done.

But the examinations of the past inspire the highest hopes for the future. The movement is one constantly accelerating and expanding. Look at what has been done during the last three hundred years, and answer me to what point will human genius ascend before the same period shall again roll away? But in our admiration for that genius which has been able to reveal the mysteries of the universe, let us not forget the homage due to Him who created, and by the might of his power sustains all things. If there be anything which can lead the mind up to the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe, and give to it an approxim knowledge of his incomprehensible attributes, it is to be fo in the grandeur and beauty of his works.

If you would know his glory, examine the inter of suns and systems which crowd the Milky Way

hundred millions of stars which belong to our own "island universe" by the thousands of these astral systems that exist in space, within the range of human vision, and then you may form some idea of the infinitude of his kingdom; for lo! these are but a part of his ways. Examine the scale on which the universe is built. Comprehend, if you can, the vast dimensions of our sur Stretch outward through his system, from planet to planet, and circumscribe the whole within the immense circumference of Neptune's orbit. This is but a single unit out of the myriads of similar systems. Take the wings of light, and flash with impetuous speed, day and night, and month and year, till youth shall wear away, and middle age is gone, and the extremest limit of human life has been attained; count every pulse, and at each, speed on your way a hundred thousand miles; and when a hundred years have rolled by, look out, and behold! the thronging millions of blazing suns are still around you, each separated from the other by such a distance that in this journey of a century you have only left half a score behind you.

Would you gather some idea of the eternity past of God's existence go to the astronomer, and bid him lead you with him in one of his walks through space; and as he sweeps onward from object to object, from universe to universe, remember that the light from those filmy stains on the deep pure blue of heaven, now falling on your eye, has been traversing space for a million of years. Would you gather some knowledge of the omnipotence of God weigh the earth on which we dwell, then count the millions of its inhabitants that have come and gone for the last six thousand years. Unite their strength into one arm, and test its power in an effort to move this earth. It could not stir it a single foot in a thousand years; and yet under the omnipotent hand of God, not a minute passes that it does not fly for more than a thousand miles. But this is a mere atom; the most insignificant point among his innumerable worlds. At his bidding, every planet, and satellite, and comet, and the sun him self, fly onward in their appointed courses. His single arm guides the millions of sweeping suns, and around his throne circles the great constellation of unnumbered universes.

Would you comprehend the idea of the omniscience of God? remember that the highest pinnacle of knowledge reached by the hole human race, by the combined efforts of its brightest intel

has enabled the astronomer to compute approximately the

perturbations of the planetary worlds. He has predicted roughly the return of half a score of comets. But God has computed the mutual perturbations of millions of suns, and planets, and comets, and worlds, without number, through the ages hat are passed, and throughout the ages which are yet to come, not approxi mately, but with perfect and absolute precision. The universe is in motion, system rising above system, cluster above cluster, nebula above nebula, all majestically sweeping around under the providence of God, who alone knows the end from the beginning, and before whose glory and power all intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth, should bow with humility and awe.

Would you gain some idea of the wisdom of God? look to the admirable adjustments of the magnificent retinue of planets and satellites which sweep around the sun. Every globe has been weighed and poised, every orbit has been measured and bent to its beautiful form. All is changing, but the laws fixed by the wisdom of God, though they permit the rocking to and fro of the system, never introduce disorder, or lead to destruction. All is perfect and harmonious, and the music of the spheres that burn and roll around our sun, is echoed by that of ten millions of moving worlds, that sing and shine around the bright suns that reign above.

If overwhelmed with the grandeur and majesty of the universe of God, we are led to exclaim with the Hebrew poet king, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?" If fearful that the eye of God may overlook us in the immensity of his kingdom, we have only to call to mind that other passage, "Yet thou hast made him but a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over all the works of thy hand; thou hast put all things under his feet." Such are the teachings of the word, and such are the lessons of the works of God.

APPENDIX.

FROM THE "MECHANISM OF THE HEAVENS,

BY DENISON OLMSTED, LL.D., PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY AND ASTRONOMY AT YALE COLLEGE.

THE TELESCOPE.

HE Telescope, as its name implies, is an instrument employed for viewing distant objects.* It aids the eye in two ways; first, by enlarging the visual angle under which objects are seen, and, secondly, by collecting and conveying to the eye a much larger amount of the light that emanates from the object, than would enter the naked pupil. A complete knowledge of the telescope cannot be acquired without an acquaintance with the science of optics; but one unacquainted with that science may obtain some idea of the leading principles of this noble instrument. Its main principle is as follows: By means of the telescope, we first form an image of a distant object, as the moon for example, and then magnify that image by a microscope.

The invention of this noble instrument is generally ascribed to the great philosopher of Florence, Galileo. He had heard that a spectacle-maker of Holland had accidentally hit upon a dis

• From two Greek words, ras, (tele,) far, and exoria (skopeo,) to see

covery, by which distant objects might be brought apparently nearer; and, without further information, he pursued the inquiry in order to ascertain what forms and combinations of glasses would produce such a result. By a very philosophical process of reasoning, he was led to the discovery of that peculiar form of the telescope which bears his name.

Although the telescopes made by Galileo were no larger than a common glass of the kind row used on board of ships, yet. as they gave new views of the heavenly bodies, revealing the mountains and valleys of the moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and multitudes of stars which are invisible to the naked eye, the discovery was regarded with infinite delight and astonishment.

Reflecting telescopes were first constructed by Sir Isaac Newton, although the use of a concave reflector, instead of an object-glass, to form the image, had been previously suggested by Gregory, an eminent Scottish astronomer, whose name is still employed to designate the Gregorian telescope. The first telescope made by Newton was only six inches long, and its reflector was little more than an inch in diameter. Notwithstanding its small dimensions, it performed so well, as to encourage further efforts; and this illustrious philosopher afterwards constructed much larger instruments, one of which, made with his own hands, was presented to the Royal Society of London, and is now carefully preserved in the library of the Society.

Newton was induced to undertake the construction of reflecting telescopes, from the belief that refracting telescopes were necessarily limited to a very small size, with only moderate illuminating powers; whereas the dimensions and powers of the former admitted of being indefinitely increased. Considerable magnifying powers might, indeed, be obtained from refractors, by making them very long; but the brightness with which telescopic objects are seen, depends greatly on the dimensions of the beam of light which is collected by the object-glass, or by the mirror, and conveyed to the eye; and therefore small objectglasses cannot have a very high illuminating power. The experiments of Newton on colours led him to believe, that it would be impossible to employ large lenses in the construction of telescopes, since such glasses would give to the images they formed the colours of the rainbow. But later opticians have found means of correcting these imperfections, so that we are now able to use object-glasses a foot or more in diameter, which give very