[From _The Astronomy of the Bible_ (New York, 1863)]
If we extend our researches beyond the limits of the solar system, and,
passing across the mighty gulf which separates us from the starry
heavens, inspect minutely the organizations which are there displayed,
we find the dominion of these same laws extending to these remote
regions, and holding an imperious sway over revolving suns. Thus we
perceive, that in one most important particular, the objects which
compose the mighty universe are obviously alike, and seem to have sprung
from a common origin. We are, moreover, compelled to admit a sun in
every visible star; and if a sun, then attendant planets; and if
revolving planets, then, likewise, some scheme of sentient existence,
possibly remotely analogous to that which is displayed with such
wonderful minuteness in our globe. Thus if the being of a God can be
argued from the admirable adaptations which surround man in this nether
world, every star that glitters in the vast concave of heaven
proclaims, with equal power, this mighty truth. If we rise still higher,
and from the contemplation of individual stars, examine their
distribution, their clusterings, their aggregations into immense
systems, the fact of their mutual influences, their restless and eternal
activity, their amazing periods of revolution, their countless millions,
and their ever-during organizations, the mind, whelmed with the display
of grandeur, exclaims involuntarily, "This is the empire of a God!"
And now, how is the knowledge of this vast surrounding universe revealed
to the mind of man? Here is, perhaps, the crowning wonder. Through the
agency of light, a subtle, intangible, imponderable something,
originating, apparently, in the stars and suns, darting with incredible
velocity from one quarter of the universe to the other, whether in
absolute particles of matter shot off from luminous bodies, or by traces
of an ethereal fluid, who shall tell? This incomprehensible fluid falls
upon an instrument of most insignificant dimensions, yet of most
wonderful construction, the human eye, and, lo! to the mind what wonders
start into being. Pictures of the most extravagant beauty cover the
earth; clouds dipped in the hues of heaven fill the atmosphere; the sun,
the moon, the planets, come up from out of the depths of space, and far
more amazing still, the distant orbs of heaven, in their relative
magnitudes, distances and motions, are revealed to the bewildered mind.
We have only to proceed one step further, and bringing to the aid of the
human eye, the auxiliary power of the optic glass, the mind is brought
into physical association with objects which inhabit the confines of
penetrable space. We take cognizance of objects so remote, that even the
flashing element of light itself, by which they are revealed, flies on
its errand ten times ten thousand years to accomplish its stupendous
journey.
Strike the human eye from existence, and at a single blow, the sun is
blotted out, the planets fade, the heavens are covered with the
blackness of darkness, the vast universe shrinks to a narrow compass
bounded by the sense of touch alone.
Such, then, is the organization of the universe, and such the means by
which we are permitted to take cognizance of its existence and
phenomena. If the feeble mind of man has achieved victories in the
natural world--if his puny structures, which have survived the
attacks of a few thousand years, proclaim the superiority of the
intelligence of his mind to insensate matter--if the contemplation of
the works of art and the triumphs of human genius, swells us into
admiration at the power of this invisible spirit that dwells in mortal
form,--what shall be the emotions excited, the ideas inspired, by the
contemplation of the boundless universe of God?