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Article THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEAVENS. Page 1 of 4 →
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The Architecture Of The Heavens.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEAVENS .
( SECOA'O PAPER . )
BY nnOTHER E . I ! . 1 H 01 UN , J . w ., CONCORD LODGE , No . 49 . WE paused in our former paper , in a spirit of admiration , at the permission granted us to catch a glimpse of the magnificence of the "Architecture of the Heavens . " It may he useful here , to prevent turning back to that paper , to state in a few words , what it described as unfolded bthe of the great Herschelian telescopeviz—that
y power , . our whole solar system is but as a single grain beneath the feet of one who could walk with our feelings over a mighty belt of sand , fringing the sea-coast , and that around and beyond all we have ever observed are existing myriads of similar systems with central bodies of light like our sun , attended by planets like our own , glorious and inconceivable , and ad no doubt—for what has HE made in vain ?—filled with animation and grateful being ; linked in infinite and imperceptible gradations to another
one ; while the Central Intelligence , from which all have sprang , we and they in common , has bound the whole together by the pervading principle of being His creatures . We proceed in the path of inquiry indicated b y Professor Nichol . — Are the stars which compose the clusters now discovered , like our sun each too surrounded by planetary systems , subservient to their central power ? Several stars—for instance , Algor , the second star in the Lyre , and a star in the Swan are known to have periodical increase and diminution of lustre , and their periods have been calculated with
accurate precision . I his phenomenon can be accounted for only in one of two ways—either attendant planets in their progress round these bodies , by interposition between them and our earth , intercept their li ght ; or these orbs themselves , revolving on their own axis , at times turn their disks to us , darkened by spots , such as are seen on the surface of our own sun . In either case , that ( to us ) great orb is proved to be but a type of infinite form , and these myriad clusters which have been called star dust
, are each suns , with all that goes to make up what is habitually called our universe . _ " No wonder that our small world—a mere nook in space—an infinitesimal item of that mi ghty whole—should be incomplete and fragmentary ; silent concerning the interior of many phenomena which are developed in it , and containing few illustrations of much which we desire to know in regard of the fundamental conditions of BeingThe t
. grea Book of the universe—that which explains the labyrinth and leaves no enigma , deduces its easy expositions from the premise of the perfect universe : the few stray leaves of this book which have reached terrestrial shores , must seem sibylline , often incoherent—speaking of laws which enter among visible arrangements onl y by their lateral actions , and whose roots are down , far from present sight , deep in the bosom of that all-encompassing wisdom which comprehends the tire system
en of things . "—( p . 70 . ) The next link in . our chain of knowledge verified by Herschel , relates to the double stars . That system of relationship , or to speak familiarly , running in couples of these central cubs , which hud been long re
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Architecture Of The Heavens.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEAVENS .
( SECOA'O PAPER . )
BY nnOTHER E . I ! . 1 H 01 UN , J . w ., CONCORD LODGE , No . 49 . WE paused in our former paper , in a spirit of admiration , at the permission granted us to catch a glimpse of the magnificence of the "Architecture of the Heavens . " It may he useful here , to prevent turning back to that paper , to state in a few words , what it described as unfolded bthe of the great Herschelian telescopeviz—that
y power , . our whole solar system is but as a single grain beneath the feet of one who could walk with our feelings over a mighty belt of sand , fringing the sea-coast , and that around and beyond all we have ever observed are existing myriads of similar systems with central bodies of light like our sun , attended by planets like our own , glorious and inconceivable , and ad no doubt—for what has HE made in vain ?—filled with animation and grateful being ; linked in infinite and imperceptible gradations to another
one ; while the Central Intelligence , from which all have sprang , we and they in common , has bound the whole together by the pervading principle of being His creatures . We proceed in the path of inquiry indicated b y Professor Nichol . — Are the stars which compose the clusters now discovered , like our sun each too surrounded by planetary systems , subservient to their central power ? Several stars—for instance , Algor , the second star in the Lyre , and a star in the Swan are known to have periodical increase and diminution of lustre , and their periods have been calculated with
accurate precision . I his phenomenon can be accounted for only in one of two ways—either attendant planets in their progress round these bodies , by interposition between them and our earth , intercept their li ght ; or these orbs themselves , revolving on their own axis , at times turn their disks to us , darkened by spots , such as are seen on the surface of our own sun . In either case , that ( to us ) great orb is proved to be but a type of infinite form , and these myriad clusters which have been called star dust
, are each suns , with all that goes to make up what is habitually called our universe . _ " No wonder that our small world—a mere nook in space—an infinitesimal item of that mi ghty whole—should be incomplete and fragmentary ; silent concerning the interior of many phenomena which are developed in it , and containing few illustrations of much which we desire to know in regard of the fundamental conditions of BeingThe t
. grea Book of the universe—that which explains the labyrinth and leaves no enigma , deduces its easy expositions from the premise of the perfect universe : the few stray leaves of this book which have reached terrestrial shores , must seem sibylline , often incoherent—speaking of laws which enter among visible arrangements onl y by their lateral actions , and whose roots are down , far from present sight , deep in the bosom of that all-encompassing wisdom which comprehends the tire system
en of things . "—( p . 70 . ) The next link in . our chain of knowledge verified by Herschel , relates to the double stars . That system of relationship , or to speak familiarly , running in couples of these central cubs , which hud been long re