Satan searched long and ardently through the darkness for this splendid ball of light. Finally he found it, hanging on its golden chain from Heaven, and, descending within by the radiant stairway of the angels, passed the stars and the planets in their sliding spheres of impalpable crystal, and discovered the earth, radiant in the brightness of the sun! Of the further adventures of Satan we need not speak, but the handling of the whole subject is masterly and brought to Milton undying fame.
The idea of the crystalline spheres first came to Eudoxus in the 4th century B. C. from watching the movements of the planets among the stars. He imagined that there must be nine of these hollow, transparent globes enclosed one within the other and surrounding the quiescent body of the earth; first, the "primum mobile," which carried around all the inner spheres and communicated to them a universal motion, next a sphere for all the stars, then one for the sun, one for the moon, and one for each of the five planets then known. These spheres were conceived to be of the finest crystal, for past the wandering stars or planets, the light came penetrating from that distant sphere studded with stars.
The daily movements of these stars were watched as they were carried along on their spheres, and it was seen that they moved in law and order. Noting that the planets seemed to be placed at intervals corresponding to the scale in music and being at the same time greatly impressed with the discovery that music was based on mathematics, he beautifully combined these discoveries and arrived at the entrancing conclusion that so great and orderly a movement of so many crystal spheres must give forth strains which united in a wonderful harmony of incredible volume and sweetness. The picture is enchanting—a beautiful world set in the midst of whirling, star-gemmed, crystalline globes, which by their motion, create a melody so divine that it may only be heard by the gods!
With the advent of modern science, our thoughts now wing their way through unobstructed star spaces of once crystalline spheres, to the great space beyond, and find in the void of what the ancients termed "chaos," not one "sun-illuminated" universe but millions of them, some so distant that they appear no more than a filmy mist on a petal or a ghost of a fairy cloud!
To the true lover of the stars, one universe or a million makes not a whit of difference. The silent song of the heavens is as sweet today, its mystery as alluring, its delights more marvelous, than in the days of yore when planets rolled out heavenly notes and stars shone through the seven spheres of pure, translucent crystal.
CHAPTER X
ALONG THE MILKY WAY
THE MILKY WAY
ONE of the loveliest, and most amazing, phenomena of the heavens is the Milky Way. In olden times, imagination ran riot as to just what this luminous band of light could be. It was almost as great a mystery as the tides, which were called the "grave of curiosity."
Fully equal to solving the problem to their own satisfaction, even as they did the motion of the stars, the ancient people considered that here, perhaps, was a crack or seam where the two halves of heaven were imperfectly joined thus giving to earth a glimpse of the glory beyond the darkness.
"Whether the skies grown old here shrink their frame,
And through the chinks admit an upper Flame,
Or whether here the heaven's two Halves are joyn'd,
But oddly clos'd, still leave a Seam behind."