ssential condition, indeed, of
the stability of the system itself. The diameter of Jupiter has been
mentioned:--it is 86,000 miles:--that of the Sun is 882,000 miles. An
inhabitant of the latter, travelling 90 miles a day, would be more than
80 years in going round a great circle of its circumference. It occupies
a cubical space of 681 quadrillions, 472 trillions of miles. The Moon,
as has been stated, revolves about the Earth at a distance of 237,000
miles--in an orbit, consequently, of nearly a million and a half. Now,
were the Sun placed upon the Earth, centre over centre, the body of the
former would extend, in every direction, not only to the line of the
Moon's orbit, but beyond it, a distance of 200,000 miles.

And here, once again, let me suggest that, in fact, we have _still_ been
speaking of comparative trifles. The distance of the planet Neptune from
the Sun has been stated:--it is 28 hundred millions of miles; the
circumference of its orbit, therefore, is about 17 billions. Let this be
borne in mind while we glance at some one of the brightest stars.
Between this and the star of _our_ system, (the Sun,) there is a gulf of
space, to convey any idea of which we should need the tongue of an
archangel. From _our_ system, then, and from _our_ Sun, or star, the
star at which we suppose ourselves glancing is a thing altogether
apart:--still, for the moment, let us imagine it placed upon our Sun,
centre over centre, as we just now imagined this Sun itself placed upon
the Earth. Let us now conceive the particular star we have in mind,
extending, in every direction, beyond the orbit of Mercury--of Venus--of
the Earth:--still _on_, beyond the orbit of Mars--of Jupiter--of
Uranus--until, finally, we fancy it filling the circle--17 _billions of
miles in circumference_--which is described by the revolution of
Leverrier's planet. When we have conceived all this, we shall have
entertained no extravagant conception. There is the very best reason for
believing that many of the stars are even far larger than the one we
have imagined. I mean to say that we have the very best _empirical_
basis for such belief:--and, in looking back at the original, atomic
arrangements for _diversity_, which have been assumed as a part of the
Divine plan in the constitution of the Universe, we shall be enabled
easily to understand, and to credit, the existence of even far vaster
disproportions in stellar size than any to which I have hitherto
allu