with flocks?" Is the moon inhabited? There seems to be no water, little if any air, and probably no soil or vegetation, or any suitable conditions for the sustenance of either fish, or bird, or beast. Some philosophers have even leaped to the conclusion, that it is a volcanic chaos-a mere mineral world in an embryo stage of existence. Yet how beautiful does it look through a telescope, and how immensely more beautiful must it look to interior inspection! It hangs in the heavens, not at all "like a cinder," as some of the philosophers have rashly said, but rather like a lustrous. crystal, or like an elaborately graven piece of art. It exhibits not the slightest sure evidence of even the smallest volcanic action, but seems to the full as stable, and also to the full as magnificent, as our regions of the Alps and the Himmalayas; and it may, with all safety, be assumed to possess races of inhabitants, and all requisite means of maintaining them, widely different, indeed, from those of the earth, but quite as glorious.

The very peculiarities of the moon, or of any other world, may, for ought we know, be indicative only of the high character or extraordinary diversity of its living wonders. The whole analogy of things on carth suggests the probability, we might almost say the certainty, that varieties and contrasts of constitution, in different worlds, are attended by corresponding varieties and contrasts in the forms of animated being. The viscera of our quadrupeds are totally unfit to be inhabited by any creatures which move in the open air, and yet are the proper home of intestinal worms. The waters of our lakes and seas are totally unfit to be inhabited by beasts or birds, and yet are the suit

able abode of all fishes, of countless kinds of softbodied animals, and even of some species of mammals. The cloudy regions of our atmosphere are totally unsuited for the ordinary uses of any wingless creatures, and yet are precisely adapted for the ordinary uses of birds. Even some conditions of things in our world, as in the case of many species of insects, are totally unfit to be inhabited by creatures in one stage of their organisation, and yet are precisely fit to be inhabited by them in another stage. And on the same principle, or on some similar one, the surface of the moon, while totally unfit to be inhabited by any such intelligent beings as men, may, nevertheless, be an eminently fit habitation for some other order of intelligent beings, with, perhaps, powers as great and frames as wonderful. The moon, and all other worlds, as well as the earth, are, doubtless, "full of God's glory."

The sun looks to be little different in size from the moon, yet is really sixty-three millions of times bulkier; and it owes its comparatively small appearance only to its enormous distance. Figures and comparisons can convey no notion of its magnitude; and the most vigorous fancy fails to imagine its sublimity. Yet it probably is all an inhabited and most beautiful world. Numerous dark spots which form upon its disc, and undergo continual change, have given astronomers some idea of its nature. It turns on its axis in a period corresponding to upwards of twenty-five of our days. A luminous atmosphere of great depth seems to form its outer envelope, and probably contains all the apparatus of light and heat. Another atmosphere of denser material seems to extend below, and probably lets only a very small proportion of the

light and heat pass through The surface of the solid globe itself, therefore, may be neither brighter nor hotter than that of our own world.

The spots on the sun are believed to be breaks in the luminous atmosphere, disclosing the solid surface below. Some of them are amazingly large; and the smallest which can be distinctly seen have a breadth of nearly a thousand miles. An opposite kind of phenomena are enormous protuberances from the edge of the disc. Three of these were observed for the first time during the total eclipse of 1842, and were computed to be six times bulkier than our world. Both they and the spots are probably occasioned by tumbling commotion in the luminous atmosphere. But how any such commotion is maintained, or how the atmosphere is constituted, or how the continual evolution of light and heat is carried on, or how the sun altogether combines the character of a stupendous world of itself with the character of a life-centre to many other worlds, are wonders which no man can explain.

Eclipses are phenomena which always interest the curious, and generally astonish or terrify the ignorant, and sometimes attract the earnest attention of the most scientific; but they are easily understood. An eclipse of the sun is caused by the body of the moon passing direct between the earth and the sun; and an eclipse of the moon is caused by the shadow of the earth falling direct upon the moon, and they owe their varieties of form and duration to the relative places and distances of the earth and the moon in their respective paths. The minute accuracy with which astronomers predict them, is an incidental evidence of the infinitely nice adjustment, and infinitely regular

movements, of "the mechanism of the heavens." Any total eclipse of the sun can occur over only a very limited portion of the earth; and the effect of one is always striking. An observer, speaking of that which happened in 1842 over southern France and northern Italy, says "Yet a moment, and on a sudden an effect took place unexpected and sublime. The whole aspect of heaven and earth underwent a change with regard to light, shade, colouring, and everything; and the instant that preceded the total eclipse resembled in nothing, and gave no idea of, that which followed it." Many stars became visible; horses in the field were terror-struck; herds of oxen formed into circles, head to head, as if to repel an enemy; flocks of sheep lay down as if for the night; and bats and owls came forth from their retreats.

The

All the known planets which revolve round the sun, are illuminated by his rays, and otherwise powerfully affected by his influence. The nearest to him is Mercury-a small, rapid-going orb, so bathed in his effulgence, as to be very rarely discernible by either eye or telescope. The next is Venus, nearly as large as our world, and the brightest star in our sky-alternately the "morning star" and the "evening star." The third is the Earth, with its attendant moon. fourth is Mars—a fiery-looking orb, about one-half the size of the earth, and supposed to be very similar to it in constitution. Beyond this, is a remarkable group of very small worlds, at least fifty-five in number, all revolving in one another's close vicinity, and some of them crossing one another's paths. The next planet is the superb and magnificent Jupiter, upwards of twelve thousand times larger than the earth, and attended by

four beautiful moons. It is situated fully four times farther from us than we are from the sun, yet it shines almost as lustrously in our sky as the planet Venus; and, when looked at through a good telescope, it appears a surpassingly glorious object, the most picturesque in our heavens. Next to it, and not very much smaller, is Saturn. This is exceedingly dimmer to us, in consequence of its far greater distance, but, in itself, is exceedingly more wonderful. It has eight moons, and two vast flat concentric rings; and, to eyes like ours, if any such eyes be upon it, it must be hung all round by most gorgeous minglings and masses of glory. Next is Uranus, about eighty times the size of the earth, and attended by several moons, probably by six. And last is Neptune, discovered in 1846 in a manner most curious, and supposed to have at least one moon, a self-luminous atmosphere, and a ring of similar character to the rings of Saturn. Comets also move round the sun, but are exceedingly numerous and various; and most of them, on the one hand, go very near the sun, and on the other, pass far beyond Neptune into the depths of space. The relative paths of the planets, and the paths of two famous comets, are shown in the accompanying diagram.

The sun and all the planets turn on their axes from west to east. All the planets and most of the moons move along their paths also from west to east. All the planets and all the moons, in different degrees, but most of them in not much different degree, have a course rather elliptical than circular. All the planets, except the group of very small ones, and all the moons, except those of Uranus, move on nearly one plane. And most of the planets, as well as the sun and the