Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation | Page 2

in breadth in a
single hour. It was first surmised by the ancient philosopher,
Democritus, that the faintly white zone which spans the sky under the
name of the Milky Way, might be only a dense collection of stars too
remote to be distinguished. This conjecture has been verified by the
instruments of modern astronomers, and some speculations of a most
remarkable kind have been formed in connexion with it. By the joint
labours of the two Herschels, the sky has been "gauged" in all
directions by the telescope, so as to ascertain the conditions of different
parts with respect to the frequency of the stars. The result has been a
conviction that, as the planets are parts of solar systems, so are solar
systems parts of what may be called astral systems--that is, systems
composed of a multitude of stars, bearing a certain relation to each
other. The astral system to which we belong, is conceived to be of an
oblong, flattish form, with a space wholly or comparatively vacant in
the centre, while the extremity in one direction parts into two. The stars
are most thickly sown in the outer parts of this vast ring, and these
constitute the Milky Way. Our sun is believed to be placed in the
southern portion of the ring, near its inner edge, so that we are
presented with many more stars, and see the Milky 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, detected a motion in our solar system with
respect to the stars, and announced that it was tending towards the
star ?, in the constellation Hercules. This has been generally verified by
recent and more exact 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 sun is proceeding. It is, therefore,
receding from the inner edge of the ring. Motions of this kind, through
such vast regions of space, must be long in producing any change
sensible to the inhabitants of our planet, and it is not easy to grasp their
general character; but grounds have nevertheless been found for
supposing that not only our sun, but the other suns of the system pursue
a wavy course round the ring FROM WEST TO EAST, crossing and
recrossing the middle of the annular circle. "Some stars will depart
more, others less, from either side of the circumference of equilibrium,
according to the places in which they are situated, and according to the

direction and the velocity with which they are put in motion. Our sun is
probably one of those which depart furthest from it, and descend
furthest into the empty space within the ring." {6} According to this
view, a time may come when we shall be much more in the thick of the
stars of our astral system than we are now, and have of course much
more brilliant nocturnal skies; but it may be countless ages before the
eyes which are to see this added resplendence shall exist.
The evidence of the existence of other astral systems besides our own is
much more decided than might be expected, when we consider that the
nearest of them must needs be placed at a mighty interval beyond our
own. The elder Herschel, directing his wonderful tube towards the
SIDES of our system, where stars are planted most rarely, and raising
the powers of the instrument to the required pitch, was enabled with
awe-struck mind to see suspended in the vast empyrean astral systems,
or, as he called them, firmaments, resembling our own. Like light
cloudlets to a certain power of the telescope, they resolved themselves,
under a greater power, into stars, though these generally seemed no
larger than the finest particles of diamond dust. The general forms of
these systems are various; but one at least has been detected as bearing
a striking resemblance to the supposed form of our own. The distances
are also various, as proved by the different degrees of telescopic power
necessary to bring them into view. The farthest observed by the
astronomer were estimated by him as thirty-five thousand times more
remote than Sirius, supposing its distance to be about twenty thousand
millions of miles. It would thus appear, that not only does gravitation
keep our earth in its place in the solar system, and the solar system in
its place in our astral system, but it also may be presumed to have the
mightier duty of preserving a local arrangement between that astral
system and an immensity of others, through which the imagination is
left to wander on and on