light. As this is not so, we judge that the universe is not unending,
though, with all our inventions, we may never be able to probe to the
end of it. We need not, indeed, cry for infinity, for the distances of
the fixed stars from us are so immeasurable that to atoms like ourselves
they may well seem unlimited. Our solar system is set by itself, like a
little island in space, and far, far away on all sides are other great
light-giving suns resembling our own more or less, but dwindled to the
size of tiny stars, by reason of the great void of space lying between
us and them. Our sun is, indeed, just a star, and by no means large
compared with the average of the stars either. But, then, he is our own;
he is comparatively near to us, and so to us he appears magnificent and
unique. Judging from the solar system, we might expect to find that
these other great suns which we call stars have also planets circling
round them, looking to them for light and heat as we do to our sun.
There is no reason to doubt that in some instances the conjecture is
right, and that there may be other suns with attendant planets. It is
however a great mistake to suppose that because our particular family in
the solar system is built on certain lines, all the other families must
be made on the same pattern. Why, even in our own system we can see how
very much the planets differ from each other: there are no two the same
size; some have moons and some have not; Saturn's rings are quite
peculiar to himself, and Uranus and Neptune indulge in strange vagaries.
So why should we expect other systems to be less varied?

As science has advanced, the idea that these faraway suns must have
planetary attendants as our sun has been discarded. The more we know the
more is disclosed to us the infinite variety of the universe. For
instance, so much accustomed are we to a yellow sun that we never think
of the possibility of there being one of another colour. What would you
say then to a ruby sun, or a blue one; or to two suns of different
colours, perhaps red and green, circling round each other; or to two
such suns each going round a dark companion? For there are dark bodies
as well as shining bodies in the sky. These are some of the marvels of
the starry sky, marvels quite as absorbing as anything we have found in
the solar system.

It requires great care and patience and infinite labour before the very
delicate observations which alone can reveal to us anyth