The spots on the sun, and those on the surfaces of several planets, have been many years observed without our approaching any nearer towards discovering their nature and cause. Dr. Wilson of Glasgow, has lately succeeded in advancing one step at least, with respect to those of the sun. He has proved from observation that those spots are vast cavities, whose bottoms lie far below the general surface of the sun, and whose sloping sides form the border which we generally see surrounding them. If I should venture to add one conjecture of my own, to those of this ingenious gentleman, I would suppose that those prodigious cavities in the surface of the sun, some of them capable of containing half our earth, are not repeatedly formed by unaccountable explosions of a semifluid substance, but permanent and solid, like the cavities within the moon. And that it is the dark matter sometimes lodging in them, that distinguishes them, and is only accidental.
The diurnal rotations of Saturn and Mercury are yet unknown; but when further improvements shall be made in the art of using telescopes, this circumstance will hardly escape the vigilance of astronomers.
These are a few of the many things that are still left to the industry of the ingenious in this science.
But if all higher and more sublime discoveries are not reserved for us in a future and more perfect state; if Astronomy shall again break those limits that now seem to confine it, and expatiate freely in the superior celestial fields; what amazing discoveries may yet be made amongst the fixed stars! That grand phænomenon the Milky-Way seems to be the clue that will one day guide us. Millions of small stars compose it, and many more bright ones lie in and near it, than in other parts of heaven. Is not this a strong indication that this astonishing system of worlds beyond worlds innumerable, is not alike extended every way, but confined between two parallel planes, of immeasureable, though not infinite extent? Or rather, is not the Milky-Way a vein of a closer texture, running through this part of the material creation? Great things are sometimes best explained by small and small by great. Material substances, such as we daily handle, have been thought composed of impenetrable particles in actual contact: then again it has seemed necessary to suppose them at a distance from[from] each other, and kept in their relative situations by attraction and repulsion. Many appearances require that those distances should be very great in proportion to the size of the particles. Hence some, with no small reason, have concluded that matter consists of indivisible points endued with certain powers. Let us compare these smaller portions of it with that great aggregate of matter which is the object of Astronomy; Light will then appear to have as free passage through a piece of glass, as the comets have in the planetary regions; and several other new considerations will arise.
If instead of descending we ascend the scale. If we consider that infinite variety which obtains in those parts of nature with which we are most intimate: how one order of most curiously organized bodies, infinitely diversified in other respects, all agree in being fixed to the earth, and receiving nourishment from thence: how another order have spontaneous motion, and seek their food on different parts of the earth, whilst by gravity they are confined to its surface, but in other respects diversified like the former. How a third float in, and below the surface of, a dense fluid, of equal weight with their bodies, which would soon prove fatal to both the others: And a fourth consisting of a vast variety too, have this property in common, that by a peculiar mechanism of their bodies, they can soar to great heights above the earth, and quickly transport themselves to distant regions in a fluid so rare as to be scarcely sensible to us. But not to pursue this boundless subject any further, I say, when we consider this great variety so obvious on our globe, and ever connected by some degree of uniformity, we shall find sufficient reason to conclude, that the visible creation, consisting of revolving worlds and central suns, even including all those that are beyond the reach of human eye and telescope, is but an inconsiderable part of the whole. Many other and very various orders of things unknown to, and inconceivable by us, may, and probably do exist, in the unlimited regions of space. And all yonder stars innumerable, with their dependencies, may perhaps compose but the leaf of a flower in the Creator’s garden, or a single pillar in the immense building of the Divine Architect.
Here is ample provision made for the all-grasping mind of man!
If it shall please that Almighty Power who hath placed us in a world, wherein we are only permitted “to look about us and to die;” should it please him to indulge us with existence throughout that half of eternity which still remains unspent; and to conduct us through the several stages of his works; here is ample provision made for employing every faculty of the human mind, even allowing its powers to be constantly enlarged through an endless repetition of ages. Let us not complain of the vanity of this world, that there is nothing in it capable of satisfying us: happy in those wants, happy in those restless desires, forever in succession to be gratified; happy in a continual approach to the Deity.
I must confess that I am not one of those sanguine spirits who seem to think, that when the withered hand of death hath drawn up the curtain of eternity, almost all distance between the creature and creator, between finite and infinite, will be annihilated. Every enlargement of our faculties, every new happiness conferred upon us, every step we advance towards the perfection of the divinity, will very probably render us more and more sensible of his inexhaustible stores of communicable bliss, and of his inaccessible perfections.
Were we even assured that we shall perish like the flowers of the garden, how careful would a wise man be to preserve a good conscience, during the short period of his existence; because by his very constitution, which he cannot alter, this is his pride and glory, and absolutely necessary to his present happiness; because this would insure to him at the approach of death, the soothing reflection, that he was going to restore, pure and uncorrupted, that drop of divinity within him, to the original ocean from whence it was separated. How much more anxiously careful ought we to be, if we believe, as powerful arguments compel us to believe, that a conduct in this life depending on our own choice, will stamp our characters for ages yet to come. Who can endure the thought of darkening his faculties by an unworthy application of them here on earth, and degrading himself to some inferior rank of being, wherein he may find both his power and inclination to obtain wisdom and exercise virtue, exceedingly diminished? On the other hand, if that humble admiration and gratitude, which sometimes rises in our minds when we contemplate the power, wisdom and goodness of the Deity, constitutes by far the most sublimely happy moments of our lives, and probably will forever continue to do so, there cannot be a stronger incitement to the exercise of virtue and a rational employment of those talents we are entrusted with, than to consider that by these means we shall in a few years be promoted to a more exalted rank amongst the creatures of God, have our understandings greatly enlarged, be enabled to follow truth in all her labyrinths with a higher relish and more facility, and thus lay the foundation of an eternal improvement in knowledge and happiness.
