but it is really less than no time because we shall get there before to-day; we shall see things happening not to-day, but many years ago; just as when abroad you get a newspaper not of to-day, but of yesterday or perhaps a week before; and thus you learn what your friends were doing yesterday or a week before. Now, although light travels very quickly, it takes time to travel; and the light that comes to us from the distant stars tells us what happened years ago, perhaps thousands of years ago; and this gives one a very curious feeling when we reflect upon it. When we were little babies and went out for our first walk, and saw the sky for the first time, some of the light which fell upon us went back towards the sky and part of it enabled our nurse to see us. Unless the light did come back from the baby in that way, the nurse would not see it. But she did not use up all the light from the baby; another part of it went on past the nurse, perhaps into the telescope of an angel (if angels have telescopes), and then the angel saw the baby; but not till some time after the nurse had seen it, because the light would take time to get from nurse to angel. And another part of the light which missed the nurse and missed the angel would perhaps go on to a star; but it would only get there after some years. Now if you could be put in one of those stars immediately, and if you had a powerful enough telescope, you might be able to see yourself as a baby going out for the first time; because the light would not have got there immediately, but would have taken all the years you have been alive to get there. If you went on to more distant stars you might (if you had a strong enough
