[INTRODUCTION.]
The object of this work is to bring before the reader a simple and intelligible description of the whole Creation, without attempting to enter into minute particulars on any of the subjects more than is sufficient to present them in a form clear enough to be both comprehended, and recollected; thus aiming at the production of a taste for such knowledge, and a desire to enter more minutely into any or all of the subjects this work embraces, which desire can easily be gratified by a study of some of the many excellent works devoted exclusively to the individual parts, which in this work are treated of collectively. The want of a general knowledge of those works of the Great Creator which are constantly spread out before us, in these days of easy acquirement, amounts almost to a sin, for it is by the study of Nature in all her varied forms and associations, that we learn to "look from Nature up to Nature's God;" for who can look upon the works of God without a feeling of awe and admiration? who can look upwards at "the spacious firmament on high," without a sense of his own insignificance? who can gaze around upon the beauty and variety the earth displays, without a strong desire to know more of such a Great Creator's works?—and he who knows the most, be sure it is he who will worship Him with the truest and most heartfelt gratitude and admiration. The works of God (next to the Divine revelation of His will) are the highest studies to which Man can apply his intellect; it has required the greatest study of the greatest minds to find out and record but a few facts to add to the general store, and surely no one should consider his time misspent who can read over such records, and trace their truth by comparison with Nature, the more especially as it is by these means a love of inquiry is engendered, and that ultimately he may be enabled by diligent perusal of the great Book of Nature, to add his quota to the store of knowledge already formed and recorded.
It is true that infidels have often brought forward some branch of Science in confutation of Scripture, but it is also a fact that in nearly every such case, the very arguments that have been used by these men, have at last become the strongest arguments on the other side. Geology was at first adduced as a proof that the world had existed from all eternity, instead of having been created by an Omnipotent God, and the question had often been asked, "Can you produce one proof of the creation of anything?" Now this was a difficult question to answer, until Geology made manifest the fact that Man was created, by producing a clear and unimpeachable proof that up to a certain time, he did not exist on the earth, and that at a period of time, a little later, he did exist; the space between these epochs is not known, but it has nothing to do with the argument, for within that period (whatever it may have been) Man was created, and created as perfect in his physical organisation as he is at present—no long series of developments from the higher animals by fortuitous circumstances, as some pretend—no gradual addition of parts to suit the physical changes of the earth's surface. There is undoubted proof from the oldest records, in the form of Sculptures, that Man's appearance has always been the same, and the records of the Bible (the antiquity of which, at all events, cannot be disputed) show that the constitution of his mind was at that time just as it is now—every passion, every desire the same—the only advance he has made, is in the knowledge of God's works; the application of that knowledge to his own benefit, and the glorification of his Maker.
THE SKY.
FIG. 11. TELESCOPIC APPEARANCE OF THE MOON.
The Sky is the familiar name used to express that wonderful and vast expanse of space which extends on all sides far beyond our knowledge or conception, and in which the earth and millions of other orbs move round suns as their centres. Countless millions of these suns exist at immense distances apart and of the most prodigious magnitudes (many thousand times larger than this earth), these are the stars which on clear nights we see twinkling so brightly in the sky; our sun is one of them, but being very much nearer to us than the others it appears proportionately larger and brighter, and is our centre of attraction and circulation. There is but little doubt that every star has its circulating worlds or "planets," but these are too small to be seen even with the best telescopes; this may be understood when it is considered that the stars themselves, by the most powerful aids, appear but as bright points or specks, and they are thousands of times larger than the worlds which would circulate round them. But though their planets cannot be perceived by the naked eye, yet analogy teaches us that they in all probability exist, for very many of the heavenly bodies have satellites revolving round them, of such are our moon and the moons of Jupiter, and in this sense the planets themselves may be considered as the satellites of the sun, and as the sun has its satellites revolving round it, it is fair to conclude that it is not the only one of all the stars which has. All these thousands of suns and planets, millions of miles apart, and occupying space, the extent of which we have no terms to express, form but one system of stars out of many, for by comparison with infinite space they occupy but a point, telescopes of the greatest power having revealed that beyond all these stars, there is an immense space in which are seen other systems of stars, as great and numerous as our own, to which the name "Nebulæ" has been given. The mind fails to reach to such magnitude, and it is certain that the study of these great things, brings us to regard size and space (like time) as nothing; for it appears that God has expanded or contracted His works at will to suit His plan of creation without regard to limit; whether we look at the most minute shell or the greatest orb, still His marks of design are equally evident. If we consider it wonderful that God should take up hundreds of millions of miles for one system, and that He should scatter through space millions of such systems, then let us lay aside the telescope and, after an exclamation of adoration, take up the microscope, by which we shall learn that God has also placed millions of systems equally wonderful within the compass of an inch! We shall at once acknowledge that he is "Lord of all," and that size, space, quantity, and time, are mere fictions of our own imperfect minds, and that to an Infinite God there is no difficulty from such sources.