Now, however, the more distant
objects are in space--I might almost add the more distant events
are in time--the more they excite the attention of the astronomer,
if only he can hope to acquire positive knowledge about them. Not,
however, because he is more interested in things distant than in
things near, but because thus he may more completely embrace in
the scope of his work the beginning and the end, the boundaries of
all things, and thus, indirectly, more fully comprehend all that
they include. From his stand-point,
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is and God the soul."
Others study Nature and her plans as we see them developed on the
surface of this little planet which we inhabit, the astronomer
would fain learn the plan on which the whole universe is
constructed. The magnificent conception of Copernicus is, for him,
only an introduction to the yet more magnificent conception of
infinite space containing a collection of bodies which we call the
visible universe. How far does this universe extend? What are the
distances and arrangements of the stars? Does the universe
constitute a system? If so, can we comprehend the plan on which
this system is formed, of its beginning and of its end? Has it
bounds outside of which nothing exists but the black and starless
depths of infinity itself? Or are the stars we see simply such
members of an infinite collection as happen to be the nearest our
system? A few such questions as these we are perhaps beginning to
answer; but hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions, of years
may elapse without our reaching a complete solution.
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