LESSON CII. /02

NUMBER AND MAGNITUDE OF THE STARS.

DICK.

1. If we extend our views from the solar system to the starry heavens, we have to penetrate, in our imagination, a space which the swiftest ball that was ever projected, though in perpetual motion, would not traverse in ten hundred thousand years. In those trackless regions of immensity, we behold an assemblage of resplendent globes, similar to the sun in size and in glory, and, doubtless, accompanied with a retinue of worlds, revolving, like our own, around their attractive influence. The immense distance at which the nearest stars are known to be placed, proves that they are bodies of a prodigious size, not inferior to our own sun, and that they shine, not by reflected rays, but by their own native light.

2. But bodies encircled with such refulgent splendor would be of little use in the economy of Jehovah's empire, unless surrounding worlds were cheered by their benign influence, and enlightened by their beams. Every star is, therefore, with good reason, concluded to be a sun, no less spacious than ours, surrounded by a host of planetary globes which revolve around it as a center, and derive from it light, and heat, and comfort.

3. Nearly a thousand of these luminaries may be seen in a clear winter night, by the naked eye; so that a mass of matter equal to a thousand solar systems, or to thirteen hundred and twenty millions of globes of the size of the earth, may be perceived by every common observer, in the canopy of heavBut all the celestial orbs which are perceived by the unassisted sight, do not form the eighty thousandth part of those which may be descried by the help of optical instru

en.

ments.

4. The telescope has enabled us to descry, in certain spaces of the heavens, thousands of stars, where the naked eye could scarcely discern twenty. The late celebrated astronomer, Dr. Herschel, has informed us, that, in the most crowded parts of

the Milky-way, when exploring that region with his best glasses, he has had fields of view which contained no less than 588 stars, and these were continued for many minutes; so that "in one quarter of an hour's time there passed no less than one hundred and sixteen thousand stars through the field of view of his telescope."

5. It has been computed that nearly one hundred millions of stars might be perceived by the most perfect instruments, were all the regions of the sky thoroughly explored. And yet all this vast assemblage of suns and worlds, when compared with what lies beyond the utmost boundaries of human vision, in the immeasurable spaces of creation, may be no more than the smallest particle of vapor to the immense ocean. Immeasurable regions of space lie beyond the utmost limits of mortal view, into which even imagination itself can scarcely penetrate, and which are, doubtless, replenished with the operations of Divine wisdom and omnipotence.

6. For it cannot be supposed that a being so diminutive as man, whose stature scarcely exceeds six feet; who vanishes from the sight at the distance of a league; whose whole habitation is invisible from the nearest star; whose powers of vision are so imperfect, and whose mental faculties are so limited; it cannot be supposed that man, who "dwells in tabernacles of clay, who is crushed before the moth," and chained down, by the force of gravitation, to the surface of a small planet, should be able to descry the utmost boundaries of the empire of Him who fills immensity, and dwells in "light unapproachable."

7. That portion of his dominions, however, which lies within the range of our view, presents such a scene of magnificence and grandeur, as must fill the mind of every reflecting person with astonishment and reverence, and constrain him to exclaim, "Great is our Lord, and of great power; his understanding is infinite." "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!"

1. Ay! there ye shine, and there have shone
In one eternal hour of prime;
Each rolling, burningly, alone,

Through boundless space and countless time!
Ay! there ye shine! the golden dews
That pave the realms by seraphs trod;
There, through yon echoing vault diffuse
The song of choral worlds to God.

2. Ye visible spirits! bright as erst,

Young Eden's birth-night saw ye shine
On all her flowers and fountains first,
Yet sparkling from the hand divine.
Yes! bright as when ye smiled to catch
The music of a sphere so fair,
Ye hold your high immortal watch,
And gird your God's pavilion there!

3. Gold frets to dust, yet there ye are ; Time rots the diamond; there ye

In primal light, as if each star

Enshrined an everlasting soul!

roll

And do they not? Since yon bright throngs
One all-enlightened Spirit own,
Praised there by pure sidereal tongues,
Eternal, glorious, blest, and lone.

4. Could man but see what ye have seen, Unfold a while the shrouded past,

From all that is, to what has been,

The glance how rich, the range how vast.

The birth of time; the rise, the fall

Of empires; myriads, ages flown;

Thrones, cities, tongues, arts, worships, all
The things whose echoes are not gone!

5. And there ye shine, as if to mock
The children of an earthly sire;

The storm, the bolt, the earthquake's shock,
The red volcano's cataract fire;

Drought, famine, plague, and blood, and flame,
All nature's ills, and life's worst woes,
Are fought to you; ye smile the same,
And scorn alike their dawn and close.

6. Ay! there ye roll, emblems sublime

Of Him whose spirit o'er us moves,
Beyond the clouds of grief and crime
Still shining on the world he loves.
Nor is one scene to mortals given

That more divides the soul and sod,
Than yon proud heraldry, of heaven,
Yon burning blazonry of God!

LESSON CIV./4

A SUMMER SHOWER.

NORTON.

1. THE rain is o'er, how dense and bright
Yon pearly clouds reposing lie!
Cloud above cloud, a glorious sight,
Contrasting with the dark blue sky!

2. In grateful silence earth receives

The general blessing; fresh and fair
Each flower expands its shining leaves,
As glad the common joy to share.

3. The softened sunbeams pour around
A fairy light, uncertain, pale;

The wind blows cool; the scented ground
Is breathing odors on the gale.

4. Mid yon rich cloud's voluptuous pile,
Methinks some spirit of the air
Might rest to gaze below a while,

Then turn and bathe and revel there.

5. The sun breaks forth, from off the scene
Its floating veil of mist is flung; .
And all the wilderness of green

With trembling drops of light is hung.

6. Hear the rich music of that voice

Which sounds from all below, above;
She calls her children to rejoice,

And round them throws her arms of love.

LESSON CV./05

CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE YOUNG.

HAWES.

1. READING is a most interesting and pleasant method of occupying your leisure hours. I am aware that men of business have usually little time to devote to the improvement of their minds. Their active occupations must necessarily engross their chief attention. And yet in the business of life there are many unoccupied hours, fragments of time, which, if carefully gathered up and duly improved, would afford opportunity for reading a great many useful volumes, and of acquiring much useful knowledge.

2. If there are any persons so deeply engaged in business, they can find no time to read, I would say to them, take time. It is not meet that you should spend the whole of your life as a mere beast of burden, providing only for the body, while you leave the mind, the immortal mind, to famish and starve.

3. The truth is, all men have, or may have, time enough to