Part 4 (1/2)
”Having glanced at the distances and magnitudes of some of the stars, or suns, let us pause for a moment to consider their number, and the vast s.p.a.ce they must necessarily occupy in the domain of Creation. By the most moderate estimate the number of stars that can be counted in the firmament by telescopic aid, does not fall short of _one hundred millions_. There is no doubt that most of those stars are _Suns_, dispensing light and heat to earths and planets like our own; and, indeed, no bodies s.h.i.+ning by reflected light would be visible at such enormous distances.
”From the superior magnitude of those that have been measured--as compared to our Sun--it may be a.s.sumed that the average diameter of their solar systems must exceed our own; but taking them as nearly equal, it would give a breadth of at least _six thousand millions of miles_ as the field of s.p.a.ce occupied by each, while every star, or sun-system, is probably begirt with a gulf or void like that encircling our own, in which the antagonistic forces of attraction are lost, so as not to disturb each other. Hence, the distance from each of those suns to its nearest neighbor is probably not less than that which intervenes between our Sun and the nearest star, which cannot be less than about _twenty_ billions of miles. How inconceivably vast, therefore, must be the s.p.a.ce required to give room for so many and such stupendous solar systems. The mind absolutely reels under the load of conceptions so mighty. _Yet Infinity still lies beyond_.”
”For what purpose,” says Sir John Herschel, ”are we to suppose such magnificent bodies scattered through the abyss of s.p.a.ce? Surely not to illume our nights, which an additional moon of the thousandth part of the size of our own would do much better; not to sparkle as a pageant, void of meaning and reality, and to bewilder us among vain conjectures. He must have studied astronomy to little purpose, who can suppose man to be the only object of his Creator's care, or who does not see, in the vast and wonderful apparatus around us, provisions for other races of animated beings.”
The Psalmist says:
”Whoso is wise will ponder these things, and they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.”
Let us here suggest the reasonable hypothesis, that those distant suns, standing far out in the sidereal regions of illimitable s.p.a.ce--created, and placed there by the ”Word” of the Almighty architect--may have been s.h.i.+ning thus for untold billions of years; and so, also, the sun which s.h.i.+nes upon and lights up and warms this earth, and the other planets within its domain; and will thus remain forever, as G.o.d's own lamps of eternal light, to all created intelligences.
Hear the Psalmist break forth again,
”Thy testimonies are wonderful. Who alone doeth great wonders.
The heavens declare the glory of G.o.d, and the firmament sheweth His handy works.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.”
Job tells us,
”He alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea, and doeth wonders without number.”
_Fixed stars_--held by astronomers to be suns--are known from the planetary stars by their perpetual ”twinkling,” and by their being, apparently, always in the same position relative to each other. Now, while the number of stars to be seen in the heavens by the naked eye on a clear night does not exceed about 3,000 in each,--the northern and southern hemispheres,--yet Herschel, Olmsted, and other examiners tell us that by the aid of the telescope, many millions stand out in brilliant array--so vast their number that they cannot be correctly computed, but are supposed to be at least _one hundred millions_.
Prof. Olmsted declares it fully demonstrated that ”_the fixed stars are suns_,” and, with other astronomers, argues the fair probability of many of them being of far greater magnitude than our own sun. Dr.
Wollaston, a distinguished English philosopher, attempted to estimate the magnitude of certain of the fixed stars from the light which they afforded. ”By means of an accurate _photometer_ (an instrument for measuring the relative intensities of light), he compares the light of Sirius with that of the sun. He next computed how far the sun must be removed from us in order to appear no brighter than Sirius. He found it would require to be _one hundred and forty-one thousand times_ its present distance, and even at that great distance Sirius must give out twice as much light as the sun, or that, in point of splendor, Sirius must be at least equal to two suns.” ”But,” adds Prof. Olmsted, ”as _Sirius_ is more than _two hundred thousand times_ as far off as the sun, he has rendered it probable that its light is equal to that of _fourteen suns_.” (We wish you to bear these facts in mind, they will serve you when we come to speak of the magnitude of our own sun.)
But let us follow Prof. Olmsted a little farther. He says, ”We have already seen that they are large bodies; that they are immensely farther off than the farthest planet; that they s.h.i.+ne by their own light; in short, that their appearance is, in all respects, the same as the Sun would exhibit if removed to the region of the stars. Hence, we infer that they are bodies of the same kind with the Sun.
”We are justified, therefore, by a sound a.n.a.logy, in concluding that the stars referred to were made for the same end as the Sun; namely, as the centres of attraction to other planetary worlds, to which they severally dispense light and heat. Although the starry heavens present, in a clear night, a spectacle of unrivalled grandeur and beauty, yet it must be admitted that the chief purpose of the stars could not have been to adorn the night, since by far the greater part of them are ever invisible to the naked eye, nor as landmarks to the navigator, for only a small proportion of them are adapted to this purpose, nor, finally, to influence this Earth by their attraction, since their distance renders such an effect entirely insensible.”
Therefore, arriving at the only rational conclusion _that they are Suns_, many of them suns of vast magnitude; s.h.i.+ning with splendor and brilliancy equal to, or surpa.s.sing that of our own Sun; each giving out light and heat to their attendant planets and revolving worlds within their own domain, or sphere,--”may we not ask, for what purpose are these gifts dispensed to those surrounding worlds, if not for the use of percipient beings?
”We are therefore led to the inevitable idea of a plurality of worlds; and that they are inhabited by some order of intelligences, and the conclusion is forced upon our minds that the spot which the Creator has a.s.signed to us is but a humble province in his boundless empire.”
None, however, can form a correct estimate, or comparison, between this, our diminutive Earth, and those vast orbs--suns--fixed so remote from us in the sidereal regions, nor of the numbers, until in some measure they have familiarized their minds with, and understand, to some extent, the science of astronomy, and then survey the vast field through a suitable telescope. ”Even the first view through it, pointed heavenward, will astonish and fill the mind with awe and wonder; and as each new-grasping power is given to the instrument; new fields of those regions are joined on to those already explored, and every new stratum of s.p.a.ce thus added is found to be studded with stars in ever increasing ratio; until myriads have come forth from the dark depths of the firmament, and they have a grand panoramic view of a Universe of Worlds peopling the realms of boundless s.p.a.ce.” Then, in wonder and amazement, they will more fully realize and comprehend the Omnipotent power of G.o.d in the manifestations of His creative word. Then, in comparison, each realizing his own diminutiveness: that he is even less than an unperceived infinitesimal atom floating along in the gentle breeze, he will be led to exclaim with the Psalmist:
”How wonderful are thy works, O Lord of hosts!
What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou takest knowledge of him?”
Dismissing, for the present, the further contemplation of those far-off millions of stars, or suns, and their multiplied millions of attendant planets and worlds, we come back to the contemplation of our own Sun, and its attendant planets, things with which we are more familiar, and which are--seemingly--more tangible.
As we have before remarked, the Sun governs and controls our Earth, and the other planets and worlds within its domain. Some of these worlds are not greatly dissimilar to this in which we live; some are smaller, while others are vastly larger--some computed to be even a thousand times larger than this Earth, and, as we believe, all are peopled with some high order of intelligence.
Having gathered the foregoing facts from the most undoubted authorities--astronomers, whose mathematical and philosophical calculations have for their base the immutable laws established by creative wisdom, as now revealed in Nature, we shall still rely--more or less--upon them for statistical facts and data, in further expositions from which to make deductions and draw our conclusions.