thousand globes as large as the earth. We are justly amazed at the stupendous magnitude of the sun, which is a thousand times the size of Jupiter, and which illuminates with its splendour a sphere of more than five thousand millions of miles in circumference. But what are all such distances and dimensions, vast and amazing as they are, compared with the astonishing grandeur of the scene before us? They sink into comparative insignificance, and are almost lost sight of amid the myriads of splendid suns which occupy the profundities of the Milky Way. What is one sun and one planetary system in the presence of ten millions of suns, perhaps far more resplendent, and of a hundred times this number of spacious worlds, which doubtless revolve around them? Yet this scene, stupendous as it is, is not the universe. It is, perhaps, as we shall see, only a comparatively small corner of creation, which beings at an immensely greater distance will behold as an obscure and scarcely discernible speck on the outskirts of their firmament; so that, amid this vast assemblage of material existence, we may say, in the language of the inspired prophet when speaking of the Almighty, that even here is but "the hiding of his power." What, then, must the whole of creation be? and what must be the ineffable splendour and majesty of Him who laid the plan of the mighty fabric, whose breath kindled so many millions of suns, whose hands set in motion so many myriads of rolling worlds, who supports them in their ample and diversified courses, and whose moral government extends over all? And what is man, and the globe on which he dwells, amid this scene of immensity and magnificence? an atom in the infinity of space; a particle of vapour compared to the ocean; a being who, in respect to the magnificence of creation and the grandeur of his Creator, is "as nothing, and is counted to him as less than nothing and vanity."

Yet, amid all the magnificence of this vast system of universal nature, man is not forgotten by his Maker; his hand supports him, his wisdom guides him, and his overflowing goodness provides, in a thousand different modes, for his happiness and enjoyment. He shares of the Divine beneficence and care in common with all the bright intelligences that people the amplitudes of creation, and is as amply provided for as if the Almighty had no other world under his superintendence. Within the moral government of the Creator of the universe he may rest secure and confident that he is not over

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looked amid the immensity of being, for his presence pervades the infinity of space, and his knowledge extends to the minutest movements of all his creatures. Under his paternal care, not only man, but the crawling worm, the fluttering insect, the little ant, and even the microscopic animalculum, find a home and provisions, as well as the highest order of his creatures; for "he openeth his hand and supplieth the wants of every living being."

Notwithstanding the size of the Milky Way, and the immense number of stars of which it is composed, it is now considered as nothing more than one of the nebula, or starry systems, which appear to be dispersed throughout the universe. It is supposed, and with some reason, that it is the nebula, or assemblage of stars, in which our sun is placed. Its situation in this nebula is reckoned to be, not in the centre of its thickness, but rather towards one of its sides, near the point where it diverges into two branches. According to this hypothesis, the Milky Way is to be considered as the projection of the nebula upon the concave surface of the sky, as seen from a point within it. "We gather this," says Sir W. Herschel, "from the appearance of the galaxy, which seems to encompass the whole heavens, as it certainly must do if the sun is within the same; for suppose a number of stars arranged between two parallel planes indefinitely extended every way, but at a given considerable distance from one another, and calling this a sidereal stratum, an eye placed somewhere within it will see all the stars in the direction of the planes of the stratum projected into a great circle, which will appear lucid on account of the accumulation of the stars, while the rest of the heavens at the sides will only seem to be scattered over with constellations, more or less crowded, according to the distance of the planes or number of stars contained in the thickness or sides of the stratum."

Thus, if the solar system be supposed at S, in the middle of the nebula a b c def, with two branches, a c, b c (fig. 38), the nebula will be projected into a circle A B C D, the arches A B C, A E C, being the projection of the branches a c, bc, while the stars near the sides of the stratum will be seen scattered over the remaining part of the heavens among the spaces F, I, H, K, G. If the eye were placed somewhere without the stratum, at no very great distance, the appearance of the stars within it would assume the form of one of