y," employed before. It is evident, in fact,
that the equability of distribution will diminish in the ratio of the
agglomerative processes--that is to say, as the things distributed
diminish in number. Thus the increase of _in_-equability--an increase
which must continue until, sooner or later, an epoch will arrive at
which the largest agglomeration will absorb all the others--should be
viewed as, simply, a corroborative indication of the _tendency to One_.

And here, at length, it seems proper to inquire whether the ascertained
_facts_ of Astronomy confirm the general arrangement which I have thus,
deductively, assigned to the Heavens. Thoroughly, they _do_. Telescopic
observation, guided by the laws of perspective, enables us to understand
that the perceptible Universe exists as _a cluster of clusters,
irregularly disposed_.

The "clusters" of which this Universal "_cluster of clusters_" consists,
are merely what we have been in the practice of designating
"nebulae"--and, of these "nebulae," _one_ is of paramount interest to
mankind. I allude to the Galaxy, or Milky Way. This interests us, first
and most obviously, on account of its great superiority in apparent
size, not only to any one other cluster in the firmament, but to all the
other clusters taken together. The largest of these latter occupies a
mere point, comparatively, and is distinctly seen only with the aid of a
telescope. The Galaxy sweeps throughout the Heaven and is brilliantly
visible to the naked eye. But it interests man chiefly, although less
immediately, on account of its being his home; the home of the Earth on
which he exists; the home of the Sun about which this Earth revolves;
the home of that "system" of orbs of which the Sun is the centre and
primary--the Earth one of sixteen secondaries, or planets--the Moon one of
seventeen tertiaries, or satellites. The Galaxy, let me repeat, is but
one of the _clusters_ which I have been describing--but one of the
mis-called "nebulae" revealed to us--by the telescope alone, sometimes--as
faint hazy spots in various quarters of the sky. We have no reason to
suppose the Milky Way _really_ more extensive than the least of these
"nebulae." Its vast superiority in size is but an apparent superiority
arising from our position in regard to it--that is to say, from our
position in its midst. However strange the assertion may at first appear
to those unversed in Astronomy, still the astronomer himself has no
hesi