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VESTIGES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION

THE BODIES OF SPACE, THEIR ARRANGEMENTS AND FORMATION.

It is familiar knowledge that the earth which we inhabit is a globeof somewhat less than 8000 miles in diameter, being one of a seriesof eleven which revolve at different distances around the sun, and someof which have satellites in like manner revolving around them. The sun, planets, and satellites, with the less intelligible orbs termedcomets, are comprehensively called the solar system, and if we takeas the uttermost bounds of this system the orbit of Uranus (though thecomets actually have a wider range), we shall find that it occupiesa portion of space not less than three thousand six hundred millionsof miles in extent.  The mind fails to form an exact notion ofa portion of space so immense; but some faint idea of it may be obtainedfrom the fact, that, if the swiftest race-horse ever known had begunto traverse it, at full speed, at the time of the birth of Moses, hewould only as yet have accomplished half his journey.

It has long been concluded amongst astronomers, that the stars, thoughthey only appear to our eyes as brilliant points, are all to be consideredas suns, representing so many solar systems, each bearing a generalresemblance to our own.  The stars have a brilliancy and apparentmagnitude which we may safely presume to be in proportion to their actualsize and the distance at which they are placed from us.  Attemptshave been made to ascertain the distance of some of the stars by calculationsfounded on parallax, it being previously understood that, if a parallaxof so much as one second, or the 3600th of a degree, could be ascertainedin any one instance, the distance might be assumed in that instanceas not less than 19,200 millions of miles!  In the case of themost brilliant star, Sirius, even this minute parallax could not befound; from which of course it was to be inferred that the distanceof that star is something beyond the vast distance which has been stated. In some others, on which the experiment has been tried, no sensibleparallax could be detected; from which the same inference was to bemade in their case.  But a sensible parallax of about one secondhas been ascertained in the case of the double star, α α, of the constellation of the Centaur, {3}and one of the third of that amount for the double star, 61 Cygni; whichgave reason to presume that the distance of the former might be abouttwenty thousand millions of miles, and the latter of much greater amount. If we suppose that similar intervals exist between all the stars, weshall readily see that the space occupied by even the comparativelysmall number visible to the naked eye, must be vast beyond all powersof conception.

The number visible to the eye is about three thousand; but when atelescope of small power is directed to the heavens, a great numbermore come into view, and the number is ever increased in proportionto the increased power of the instrument.  In one place, wherethey are more thickly sown than elsewhere, Sir William Herschel reckonedthat fifty thousand passed over a field of view two degrees in breadthin a single hour.  It was first surmised by the ancient philosopher,Democritus, that the faintly white zone which spans the sky under thename of the Milky Way, might be only a dense collection of stars tooremote to be distinguished.  This conjecture has been verifiedby the instruments of modern astronomers, and some speculations of amost remarkable kind have been formed in connexion with it.  Bythe joint labours of the two Herschels, the sky has been “gauged”in all directions by the telescope, so as to ascertain the conditionsof different parts with respect to the frequency of the stars. The result has been a conviction that, as the planets are parts of solarsystems, so are solar systems parts of what may be called astral systems- that is, systems composed of a multitude of stars, bearing a certainrelation to each other.  The astral system to which we belong,is conceived to be of an oblong, flattish form, with a space whollyor comparatively vacant in the centre, while the extremity in one directionparts into two.  The stars are most thickly sown in the outer partsof this vast ring, and these constitute the Milky Way.  Our sunis believed to be placed in the southern portion of the ring, near itsinner edge, so that we are presented with many more stars, and see theMilky Way much more clearly, in that direction, than towards the north,in which line our eye has to traverse the vacant central space. Nor is this all.  Sir William Herschel, so early as 1783, detecteda motion in our solar system with respect to the stars, and announcedthat it was tending towards the star λ, in the constellationHercules.  This has been generally verified by recent and moreexact calculations, {5}which fix on a point in Hercules, near the star 143 of the 17th hour,according to Piozzi’s catalogue, as that towards which our sunis proceeding.  It is, therefore, receding from the inner edgeof the ring.  Motions of this kind, through such vast regions ofspace, must be long in producing any change sensible to the inhabitantsof our planet, and it is not easy to grasp their general character;but grounds have nevertheless been found for supposing that not onlyour sun, but the other suns of the system pursue a wavy course roundthe ring from west to east, crossing and recrossing the middleof the annular circle.  “Some stars will depart more, othersless, from either side of the circumference of equilibrium, accordingto the places in which they are situated, and according to the directionand the velocity with which they are put in motion.  Our sun isprobably one of those which depart furthest from it, and descend furthestinto the empty space within the ring.” {6} According to this view, a time may come when we shall be much more inthe thick of the stars of our astral system than we are now, and haveof course much more brilliant nocturnal skies; but it may be countlessages before the eyes which are to see this added resplendence shallexist.

The evidence of the existence of other astral systems besides ourown is much more decided than might be expected, when we consider thatthe nearest of them must needs be placed at a mighty interval beyondour own.  The elder Herschel, directing his wonderful tube towards