nt; this again by a
third, after the lapse of another hour; this again by a fourth after
lapse of another hour--and so on, until the scenery of the whole Earth
were exhausted; and were we to be engaged in examining these various
panoramas for twelve hours of every day; we should nevertheless, be 9
years and 48 days in completing the general survey.

But if the mere surface of the Earth eludes the grasp of the
imagination, what are we to think of its cubical contents? It embraces a
mass of matter equal in weight to at least 2 sextillions, 200
quintillions of tons. Let us suppose it in a state of quiescence; and
now let us endeavor to conceive a mechanical force sufficient to set it
in motion! Not the strength of all the myriads of beings whom we may
conclude to inhabit the planetary worlds of our system--not the combined
physical strength of _all_ these beings--even admitting all to be more
powerful than man--would avail to stir the ponderous mass _a single inch_
from its position.

What are we to understand, then, of the force, which under similar
circumstances, would be required to move the _largest_ of our planets,
Jupiter? This is 86,000 miles in diameter, and would include within its
periphery more than a thousand orbs of the magnitude of our own. Yet
this stupendous body is actually flying around the Sun at the rate of
29,000 miles an hour--that is to say, with a velocity 40 times greater
than that of a cannon-ball! The thought of such a phaenomenon cannot well
be said to _startle_ the mind:--it palsies and appals it. Not
unfrequently we task our imagination in picturing the capacities of an
angel. Let us fancy such a being at a distance of some hundred miles
from Jupiter--a close eye-witness of this planet as it speeds on its
annual revolution. Now _can_ we, I demand, fashion for ourselves any
conception so distinct of this ideal being's spiritual exaltation, as
_that_ involved in the supposition that, even by this immeasurable mass
of matter, whirled immediately before his eyes, with a velocity so
unutterable, he--an angel--angelic though he be--is not at once struck into
nothingness and overwhelmed?

At this point, however, it seems proper to suggest that, in fact, we
have been speaking of comparative trifles. Our Sun, the central and
controlling orb of the system to which Jupiter belongs, is not only
greater than Jupiter, but greater by far than all the planets of the
system taken together. This fact is an e