systems must exceed our own; but, taking it as equal, it would give a breadth of at least 6000 millions of miles as the field in space occupied by each. Every star or sun-system is, moreover, probably begirt with a gulf or void like that encircling our own, in which the antagonistic or disturbing attractions of surrounding suns waste themselves out and are extinguished; hence, the distance of each star from its nearest neighbour is probably not less than that which intervenes between our sun and the nearest star. Now this distance, as we have seen, cannot be less than 19 billions of miles. How inconceivably vast, therefore, must be the space required to give room for so many and such stupendous solar systems! The mind absolutely reels under the load of conceptions so mighty. Yet Infinity still lies beyond!

Among the great Hosts of heaven where is the home of our Earth and Solar system? A probability lying nearer to certainty than conjecture suggests that our sun, with its planetary system, forms a unit in a cluster of stars, similar to those other clusters which we see gathered together in the far-off regions of the firmament. The space occupied by our cluster may in shape be compared to a mill-stone, of which the Milky Way forms the encompassing outer rim; while nearly in the centre of this gigantic assemblage of stars, and about half way between the two sides of "the millstone," rests our sun and its planets "an atom in the luminous sand" of the firma

ment.

Still, rests is not the word, for there is absolutely nothing on earth or in the firmament which is stationary. That our sun-like all his fellow-stars-is travelling through space with a speed which though not yet determined is certainly immense, is a point on which astronomers are agreed. The most recent calculations assign to it a rate of four miles per second. Whither are

we hurrying, round what are we moving? These are problems of which the solution is left to future observers, yet even now calculations tend to indicate that we are hastening on with rapid strides in the direction of the constellation Hercules. Who has not looked on clear nights at the twinkling Pleiades, and tried, perhaps, to count their sparkles as they glitter like diamonds on a field of black. Their name recalls a heathen fable, but they have an interest far more fascinating if it be true, as astronomers conjecture, that among them is fixed the pivot which is central to the centre, and round which our sun with its system careers in an orbit whose length it is as impossible for us to conceive as the distance of the stars themselves.

If astronomy were altogether silent on the subject, it would still be a hard matter for a reflecting mind to believe that the masses which fill up space, the aggregate size of which dwarfs our earth into less than a microscopic atom, can have been created for no other purpose than to shed a glimmer of star-light on our dark evenings. For what purpose," says Sir John Herschel, "are we to suppose such magnificent bodies scattered through the abyss of space? Surely not to illumine our nights, which an additional moon of the thousandth part of the size of our own would do much better not to sparkle as a pageant void of meaning and reality, and to bewilder us among vain conjectures. Useful, it is true, they are to man, as points of exact and permanent reference; but he must have studied astronomy to little purpose, who can suppose man to be the only object of his Creator's care, or who does not see, in the vast and wonderful apparatus around us, provision for other races of animated beings."

Though placed at such inconceivable distances from our earth, stars are yet near enough to contribute to

the happiness and safety of mankind. During the sun's absence they bestow an illumination which, though feeble, is highly useful. When the moon has forsaken the long polar night, they cast a dim twilight over the snow. In the deserts of the East, stars have served to guide the traveller since those ancient days when astronomy began to be cultivated on the plains of Chaldea. The pilots of antiquity learnt to steer by the stars before the loadstone was discovered; and, in these days of science, sun, moon, and stars may be said to cover the firmament with lamps and sign-posts. Familiarity with the fact has long dulled within us the feeling of surprise, still it is a wonderful thing to think that, in the most lonely spots of the trackless ocean, the position of a ship can be told with accuracy by questioning the aspects of the heavenly bodies. By means of sun, moon, and stars, aided by a chronometer 'keeping Greenwich time, and by the Nautical Almanack, both latitude and longitude may be certainly determined. To these aids every ship that sails upon the wide ocean is daily indebted for safety, nor could anything bring home to us more strikingly how even the most remote works of Our Father are made by his providence to subserve the welfare of His children.

With what just propriety of thought has light been called the "voice" of the stars! Through light alone comes all the knowledge we possess concerning them. Had light been created with less marvellous properties than those it actually possesses, even their existence would have been unknown to us. Can anything be conceived more suggestively true than the expressions with which the Heavens are described by the Psalmist?

There is neither speech nor language, but their voices are heard among them.

Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the earth!

In the "speechless" voice of light stars proclaim to us from the depths of space the existence of innumerable other worlds which, like our own, share the Creator's care. Silently they tell us of distances, magnitudes, and velocities which transcend our power to conceive. With mute argument stars prove to us that, in those far off regions, gravitation—the power that brings the apple to the ground-still reigns supreme, and with winning whispers of probability they persuade us that, like our own bountiful sun, they also bathe attendant worlds in floods of brightest light, deck them in colours of beauty, and shower countless blessings on the life of myriads of beings.

He who by thoughtful contemplation has familiarised his mind with the wonders of the Heavens will feel his whole spirit imbued with the glory of the Great Architect, by whose Almighty Word they were called into existence. To him sun, moon, and stars, silent though they be, will speak a language which he will ever deeply feel even though he may not always comprehend. Nor will they fail, when solemnly invoked in the Service of the Church, to stir up responsive adoration in his heart, for they symbolize to him more than any other visible objects the Wisdom and Power of the Creator,

Whoso is wise will ponder these things, and they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.—Ps. xcvii,

WINTER AND SUMMER.

O ye Winter and Summer, bless ye the Lord: praise Him, and magnify Him for ever.

OD in His wisdom has appointed that the earth, like its fellow planets, should make an annual journey round the sun in a path which is not far from circular. During this time the earth is separated from the central luminary of our system by a mean distance of 92 millions of miles, which has been designedly fixed as securing to it the reception of that exact amount of heat and light which is best suited to the requirements of the beings found upon it. Any other distance than this would, in fact, have been incompatible with the order of life we see established around us. But, besides this arrangement as to distance, there are certain modifications in connection with it which affect most remarkably the local distribution of heat over the globe, giving rise to seasonal variations-Winter and Summer-and to differences of climate. In looking at an astronomical diagram it will be observed that the sun is placed, not in the centre, but in one of the foci of the ellipse which the earth's orbit describes round it; and the result of this necessarily is that the earth is nearer to the sun at one