to the 2300th order. We can only say with Horace Walpole on looking at these figures, One's imagination cracks! But definite distances had not been determined then, and are not determined yet.
Whether these be the dreams of an enthusiastic romancer, or the sober facts of science, there can be no doubt that the observations on which they rest are a delightful mixture of poetry and scientific truth. Thickly strewn over the pages of a scientific memoir are such entries as these: "The stars are so exceedingly close and small that they cannot be counted"; "a beautiful cluster of stars"; "stars are so small that I can but just perceive some and suspect others"; "light without stars"; "a brilliant cluster"; "a coarse cluster of large stars of different sizes"; "a rich cluster of very compressed stars." The wealth of the heavens passes both the language and the comprehension of man. Star-dust, sparkling with more than diamond lustre on the dark background of the heavens, has become a common figure of speech. Jewels of silver, jewels of gold, rubies, diamonds, and sapphires are seen in admirably distinct disorder in the great mirror of the telescope. The prose of the heavens surpasses the brightest poetry of earth.[1]
Whether William Herschel was justified in holding to the theory of an ocean of ether with thousands of dimly seen Milky Ways floating about in it, or whether he modified his view into a belief that the starry worlds, seen from our earth, are parts of a connected whole, is of little consequence in these days. Perhaps he was himself in doubt which view to take. But he was nearer to realising infinitude of space and eternity
- ↑ Phil. Trans., 1818, pp. 437-50.
