The question as attacked by modern astronomy is this: we see
scattered through space in every direction many millions of stars
of various orders of brightness and at distances so great as to
defy exact measurement, except in the case of a few of the
nearest. Has this collection of stars any well-defined boundary,
or is what we see merely that part of an infinite mass which
chances to lie within the range of our telescopes? If we were
transported to the most distant star of which we have knowledge,
should we there find ourselves still surrounded by stars on all
sides, or would the space beyond be void? Granting that, in any or
every direction, there is a limit to the universe, and that the
space beyond is therefore void, what is the form of the whole
system and the distance of its boundaries? Preliminary in some
sort to these questions are the more approachable ones: Of what
sort of matter is the universe formed? and into what sort of
bodies is this matter collected?
To the ancients the celestial sphere was a reality, instead of a
mere effect of perspective, as we regard it. The stars were set on
its surface, or at least at no great distance within its
crystalline mass. Outside of it imagination placed the empyrean.
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