The number of telescopic stars in the Milky Way uninterrupted by
any nebulæ is estimated at 18,000,000. To compare this number with
something analogous, Humboldt calls attention to the fact, that there
are not in the whole heavens more than about 8000 stars, between
the first and the sixth magnitudes, visible to the naked eye. The
barren astonishment excited by numbers and dimensions in space when
not considered with reference to applications engaging the mental
and perceptive powers of man, is awakened in both extremes of the
universe--in the celestial bodies as in the minutest animalcules. A
cubic inch of the polishing slate of Bilin contains, according to
Ehrenberg, 40,000 millions of the siliceous shells of Galionellæ.