more particularly directed to sidereal observations; and among those who have laboured with success in this department of astronomical investigation, the late Sir William Herschel stands pre-eminent. Fired with a noble zeal for the improvement of his favourite science, and for the enlargement of his views of the distant regions of creation, he set to work with enthusiastic ardour, and constructed with his own hands telescopes of a size and magnifying power far superior to what had ever before been attempted. Mounted on the top of his forty-feet reflecting telescope, he not only discovered new bodies within the limits of the planetary system, but brought to light innumerable phenomena in regions of the firmament where the eye of man had never before dared to penetrate. He explored the Milky-way throughout all its profundities, and found that whitish zone of the heavens to consist of a multitude of stars "which no man could number," fifty thousand of them having sometimes passed through the field of his telescope in the space of an hour. During the coldness and profound silence of many sleepless nights, he surveyed almost every portion of the celestial concave, and discovered more than two thousand nebula, or starry systems, of various forms and descriptions, along with multitudes of double, triple, and quadruple stars which had formerly been unknown, and ascertained, from the change of their relative positions, some of their real motions and periods of revolution. After more than half a century spent in unwearied observations of the heavens, this illustrious astronomer departed from this earthly scene in 1822, without infirmities and without pain, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, leaving a son to prosecute his labours endued with virtues and talents worthy of his father, and whose observations and researches have already enriched the science of astronomy, and extended our views of the sidereal system.

This department of astronomical science may be considered as still in its infancy. Years, and even centuries, must roll on, and the number of astronomical observers must be increased a hundred fold, before the sidereal investigations now going forward can be nearly completed. A more extensive knowledge of the history of the heavens, of the bodies which lie hidden in the yet unexplored region of space, and of the changes and diversified motions to which they are subject, is doubtless reserved for generations to come; and from the at

tention which has lately been paid to this subject, and the ardour with which it is now prosecuted in different parts of the world, we have reason to expect that new scenes of divine wisdom and omnipotence will be gradually unfolding, and new and interestin gresults deduced from the nocturnal labours of those who have devoted themselves to celestial investigations. To what extent our knowledge of the objects of this science may yet reach, it is impossible for us to anticipate. The objects in the heavens present a scene which is absolutely boundless; which all the generations of men that may arise till the termination of our terrestrial system will never be able fully to explore; a scene which will doubtless engage the study and contemplation of numerous orders of intellectual beings throughout all the revolutions of eternity.

In the following work I propose to give only a very condensed view of the leading objects which have been lately discovered in the sidereal heavens. The facts in relation to this subject will be selected chiefly from the observations of Sir W. Herschel and several other astronomers, and some of them from personal observation. Most of the facts to which I allude were ascertained by Sir W. Herschel by means of telescopes of great size and power, and a considerable number of the double and triple stars, stellar and planetary nebulæ, and other phenomena, cannot be perceived with instruments of an ordinary size. Certain interesting facts, too, particularly with regard to the motions of double stars, have lately been brought to light by the observations of Sir John Herschel, made in the southern hemisphere; but the bodies to which I allude cannot be seen in the northern latitudes in which we reside. A considerable portion, therefore, of our information on this subject must necessarily depend on the observations of the astronomers to whom I allude, and the statements they have published to the world; but these observations have, for the most part, been abundantly verified by other observers.

It shall be our endeavour to state the prominent facts connected with the sidereal heavens in as plain and perspicuous a manner as possible; and while it forms no part of our plan to frame hypotheses, or launch out into theoretical disquisitions, we shall offer those remarks, and freely indulge in those moral reflections, which the contemplation of such august objects are calculated to suggest. The scenes we intend

to exhibit are not only the workmanship of God, but display the glory of his attributes and the magnificence of his empire in a degree, and upon a scale, far surpassing what can be seen in any other department of creation; and therefore, in all our surveys of those grand and multifarious objects, we ought invariably to connect our views and investigations with the supreme agency of Him who brought them into existence, and to cherish those sentiments and emotions which may inspire us with reverence and adoration of that glorious and incomprehensible Being "by whom the worlds were framed," "who created all things, and for whose pleasure they are and were created."

CHAPTER I.

1

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE STARRY HEAVENS, WITH REPRESENTATIONS OF DETACHED PORTIONS OF THE FIRMAMENT.

Ir we could suppose a community of rational beings to have lived for ages in some subterraneous grottoes far beneath the surface of the earth, and never to have visited the exterior portions of our globe, their ideas must have been extremely circumscribed, and their enjoyments extremely imperfect, even although they had been furnished with everything requisite for their animal subsistence. Could we imagine that such beings were all at once transported to the surface of the earth, with what astonishment and wonder would they be seized when they beheld the expansive landscape of the world; the lofty mountains towering to the clouds; the hills crowned with magnificent forests; the plains stretching to the boundaries of the horizon, and adorned with colours of every shade; the expansive lake, like a magnificent mirror, imbosomed among the hills; the rivers rolling their watery treasures towards the ocean; and the sun in the firmament revolving around the circuit of the sky, diffusing his light and heat on every surrounding object! Above all, with what emotions of admiration would they be filled when they beheld the solar globe descending below the western horizon, and soon after

B

the moon displaying her silver crescent in the sky, and the stars, one after another, emerging from the blue ethereal, till the whole celestial concave appeared all over spangled with a thousand shining orbs, emitting their radiance from every part of the cope of heaven, and all moving, with an apparently slow and silent motion, along the spaces of the firmament! Such expansive and novel scenes would undoubtedly overwhelm the faculties of such beings with astonishment, and transport, and wonder inexpressible.

We are placed, perhaps, in a situation nearly similar in regard to the remote regions of the universe, as the beings we have supposed were situated with respect to the ample prospects we enjoy on the surface of our globe. Were such beings, from their subterranean abodes, to look through a narrow funnel which presented them with a feeble glimpse of our upper world and of a portion of the sky, the view thus obtained would somewhat resemble the partial glimpse we have yet acquired of the splendour and sublimities of the distant universe; and were we transported to those far distant scenes, which, appear through our telescopes only like dim specks of light, we should doubtless be as much overpowered with astonishment and wonder at the magnificent scenes which would open to our view, as our supposed subterraneous inhabitants could be at the amplitude and grandeur of our terrestrial abode.

In our present habitation we are confined to a mere point in the infinity of space. Ample as our prospects are, it is not improbable that the views we have already attained bear a less proportion to the whole immensity of creation than the limited range of a microscopic animalcule bears to the wide expanse of the ocean. What is seen by human eyes, even when assisted by the most powerful instruments, may be as nothing when compared to what is unseen, and placed for ever beyond the view of mortals. Since the heavens first began to be contemplated, our views have been carried thousands of times farther into the regions of space than the unassisted eye could enable us to penetrate; and at every stage of improvement in optical instruments our prospects have been still farther extended, new objects and new regions of creation have appeared rising to our view, in boundless perspective, in every direction, without the least indication of a boundary to the operations of Omnipotence; leaving us no

room to doubt that all we have hitherto discovered is but a small and inconsiderable part of the length and breadth, and the height and depth of immensity. We may suppose, without the least degree of improbability or extravagance, that, were the whole of the visible system of creation annihilated, though it would leave a void immeasurable and incomprehensible by mortals, it would appear to the eye of Omniscience only as an inconsiderable blank, scarcely discernible amid the wonders of wisdom and omnipotence with which it is surrounded.

Such views and deductions have been derived from attentive surveys of the STARRY HEAVENS. These heavens present, even to the untutored observer, a sublime and elevating spectacle. He beholds an immense concave hemisphere, surrounding the earth in every region, and resting, as it were, upon the circle of the horizon. Wherever he roams abroad, on the surface of the land or of the ocean, this celestial vault still appears encompassing the world; and after travelling thousands of miles, it seems to make no nearer an approach than when the journey commenced. From every quarter of this mighty arch numerous lights are displayed, moving onward in solemn silence, and calculated to inspire admiration and awe. Even the rudest savages have been struck with admiration at the view of the nocturnal heavens, and have regarded the celestial luminaries either as the residences of their gods or the arbiters of their future destinies.

But to minds enlightened with the discoveries of science and revelation the firmament presents a scene incomparably more magnificent and august. Its concave rises, towards immensity, and stretches, on every hand, to regions immeasurable by any finite intelligence; it opens to the view a glimpse of orbs of inconceivable magnitude and grandeur, and arranged in multitudes which no man can number, which have diffused their radiance on the earth during hundreds of generations; it opens a vista which carries our views into the regions of infinity, and exhibits a sensible display of the immensity of space and of the boundless operations of Omnipotence; it demonstrates the existence of an eternal and incomprehensible Divinity, who presides in all the grandeur of his attributes over an unlimited empire; it overwhelms the contemplative mind with a display of the riches of his wisdom and the glories of his OMNIPOTENCE; it directs our prospects