artificial eye which man has furnished for his use, possesses a glance so piercing, that no distance can hide an object from his searching vision.

Should Sirius, to escape this fiery glance, dart away from its sphere, and wing its flight at a velocity of twelve millions of miles in every minute, for a thousand years; nay, should it sweep onward at the same speed for ten thousand years, this stupendous distance cannot bury it from the persecuting gaze of man. But if distance is to form no barrier, no terminus to these investigations, surely there is one element which no human ingenuity can overcome. The complex movements of the planetary orbs have been revealed, because they have been repeated a thousand times under the eye of man, and from a comparison of many revolutions, the truth has been evolved. But tens of thousands of years must roll away before the most swiftly moving of all the fixed stars shall complete even a small fragment of its mighty orbit. With motions thus shrouded, these would seem to be in entire security from the inquisitive research of a being whose whole sweep of existence is but a moment, when compared with these vast periods. But let us not judge too hastily. The same piercing vision that follows the retreating star to depths of space almost infinite, is armed with a power so great, that if this same star should commence to revolve around some grand centre, and move so slowly that five millions of years must roll away before it can complete one circuit, not even a single year shall pass before its motion shall be detected; in ten years its velocity shall be revealed; and in the lifetime of a single observer its mighty period shall become known.

If human genius is not to be baffled either by distance or time, numbers shall overwhelm it, and the stars shall find their safety in their innumerable millions. This retreat may even fail. The watch-towers of science now cover the whole earth, and the sentinels never sleep. No star, or cluster, or constellation can ever set. It escapes the scrutinising gaze of one astronomer to meet the equally piercing glance of another. East and west, and north and south, from the watch-towers of the four quarters of the globe, peals the solemn mandate, Onward!

Here we pause. We have closed the enunciation of the great problem whose discussion and solution lie before us, a problem whose solution has been in progress six thousand years; one

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which has furnished to man the opportunities of his loftiest triumphs, one which has taxed in every age the most vigorous

efforts of human genius; a problem
whose successive developments have
demonstrated the immortality of mind,
and whose sublime results have vin-
dicated the wisdom and have declared
the glory of God. You have listened
to the enunciation, we now invite you

to follow us in the demonstration. And may that Almighty

power, which built the heavens, give to me wisdom to reveal, and to you power to grasp, the truths and doctrines wrested by mind from nature in its long struggle of sixty centuries of toil!

LECTURE II.

THE DISCOVERIES OF THE PRIMITIVE AGES.

O those who have given but little attention to the science of astronomy, its truths, its predictions, its revelations, are astonishing; and but for their rigorous verification would be absolutely incredible. When we look out upon the multitude of stars which adorn the nocturnal heavens, scattered in bright profusion in all directions, apparently without law, and regardless of order; when, with telescopic aid, thousands are increased to millions, and suns, and systems, and universes rise in sublime perspective, as the visual ray sweeps outward to distances which defy the powers of arithmetic to express; how utterly futile does it seem for the mind to dare to pierce and penetrate, to number, weigh, measure, and circumscribe these innumerable millions! It is only when we remember, that from the very cradle of our race, strong and powerful minds have, in rapid and continuous succession, bent their energies upon the solution of this grand problem, that we can comprehend how it is that light now breaks in upon us from the very confines of the universe, dimly revealing the mysterious forms which lie yet half concealed in the unfathomable gulphs of space. When I reflect on the recent triumphs of human genius; when I stand on the shore of

that mighty stream of discovery, which has grown broader and deeper as successive centuries have rolled away, gathering in strength and intensity, until it has embraced the whole universe of God; I am carried backward through thousands of years, following this stream, as it contracts towards its source, till finally its silver thread is lost in the clouds and mists of antiquity. I would fain stand at the very source of discovery, and commune with that unknown god-like mind which first conceived the grand thought, that even these mysterious stars might be read, and that the bright page which was nightly unfolded to the vision of man needed no interpreter of its solemn beauties but human genius. There is, to my mind, no finer specimen of moral grandeur than that presented by him who first resolved to read and comprehend the heavens. On some lofty peak he stood, in the stillness of the midnight hour, with the listening stars as witnesses of his vows, and there, conscious of his high destiny, and of that of his race, resolved to commence the work of ages. "Here," he exclaimed, "is my watch-tower, and yonder bright orbs are henceforth my solitary companions. Night after night, year after year, will I watch and wait, ponder and reflect, until some ray shall pierce the deep gloom which now wraps the world."

Thus resolved the unknown founder of the science of the stars. His name and his country are lost for ever. What matters this, since his works, his discoveries, have endured for thousands of years, and will endure as long as the moon shall continue to fill her silver horn and the planets to roll and shine?

Go with me, then, in imagination, and let us stand beside this primitive observer, at the close of his career of nearly a thousand years, (for we must pass beyond the epoch of the deluge, and seek our first discoveries among those sages whom, for their virtues, God permitted to count their age, not by years, but by centuries,) and here we shall learn the order in which the secrets of the starry world slowly yielded themselves to long and persevering scrutiny. And now let me unfold, in plain and simple language, the train of thought, of reasoning, and research, which marked this primitive era of astronomical science. It is true that history yields no light, and tradition even fails; but such is the beautiful order in the golden chain of discovery, that the bright links which are known, reveal with certainty those which are buried in the voiceless past. If, then, it were possible to read the records of the founder of astronomy, graven on some