We are not as large as a horse or an
elephant. Are we, therefore, inferior? We are inhabiting bodies which
thrive but a few years, on a planet remarkable for its smallness. But we
stretch our knowledge over mighty distances; we construct triangles
which have for one side the whole sweep of the earth, over 180 millions
of miles; we measure the distance of other worlds by this side of a
triangle, and the nearest star is thus found to be 103,000 of our
measures away from us--103,000 times 180,000,000 miles! Young has well
said that
THE UNDEVOUT ASTRONOMER IS MAD.
So did Napoleon die. Was he not the mightiest man of his time? Did not
the whole world sigh with relief when the final end came? Yet he was on
a tiny rock in the great ocean? On a map of the world that rock has no
title even to a dot. Yet it would be foolish to say he belonged simply
to that rock. No. He had come from other human worlds. He was as broad
as the earth. We, too, have come from other worlds. We are as broad as
the universe. Even our minds, clad in clay, betray the high character of
our souls.
DOES THE BEAST PEER INTO THE STARS?
Do the birds that pass so easily into the air go on voyages of discovery
past Sirius? And yet the air refuses to bear us, and wafts them gently
on its lightest zephyrs! We have sublime faculties--the fit companions
of a soul.
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