And how vast may that structure be—how far is it from wall to wall?
That, as yet, we can only guess. But the stars whose distances we can measure, the stars whose drifting we can watch, almost infinitely distant as they are, carry us but a small part of the way. Still, from little hints gathered here and there, we are able to guess that, though the nearest star to us is nearly 300,000 times as far as the Sun, yet we must overpass the distance of that star 1000 times before we shall have reached the further confines of the Galaxy. Nor is the end in sight even there.
This is, in briefest outline, the Story of Astronomy. It has led us from a time when men were acquainted with only a few square miles of the Earth, and knew nothing of its size and shape, or of its relation to the moving lights which shone down from above, on to our present conception of our place in a universe of suns of which the vastness, glory, and complexity surpass our utmost powers of expression. The science began in the desire to use Sun, Moon, and stars as timekeepers, but as the exercise of ordered sight and ordered thought brought knowledge, knowledge began to be desired, not for any advantage it might bring, but for its own sake. And the pursuit itself has brought its own reward in that it has increased men's powers, and made them keener in observation, clearer in reasoning, surer in inference. The pursuit indeed knows no ending; the questions to be answered that lie before us are now more numerous than ever they have been, and the call of the heavens grows more insistent:
"LIFT UP YOUR EYES ON HIGH."
BOOKS TO READ
POPULAR GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS:—
Sir R. S. Ball.—Star-Land. (Cassell.)
Agnes Giberne.—-Sun, Moon and Stars. (Seeley.)
W. T. Lynn.—Celestial Motions. (Stanford.)
A. & W. Maunder.—-The Heavens and their Story. (Culley.)
Simon Newcomb.—Astronomy for Everybody. (Isbister.)
FOR BEGINNERS IN OBSERVATION:—