Which, when the sky is clear, is seen below,
And mortals, by the name of Milky, know;
The groundwork is of stars, through which the road
Lies open to the Thunderer's abode."
There is a luminous zone, varying from four to twenty degrees in width, which passes quite round the heavens, called by the Greeks Galaxy, by the Latins Via Lactea, which, in our tongue, is Milky Way. "Of all the constellations which the heavens exhibit to our view, this fills the mind with the most indescribable grandeur and amazement. When we consider what unnumbered millions of mighty suns compose this cluster, whose distance is so vast that the strongest telescope can hardly separate their mingled twilight into distinct specks, and that the most contiguous of any two of them may be as far asunder as our sun is from them, we fall as far short of adequate language to express our ideas of such immensity as we do of instruments to measure its boundaries."
"Throughout the Galaxy's extended line,
Unnumbered orbs in gay confusion shine;
Where every star that gilds the gloom of night
With the faint tremblings of a distant light,
Perhaps illumes some system of its own