ules--thus
constituted; its unnumbered thousands of suns, wheeling round central
worlds, and exhibiting their glories to their inhabitants; "skies
blazing, with grand orbs scattered regularly around, and with a
profusion to which our darker heavens are strangers;" the overhead sky,
seen from the interior regions of the cluster, _must appear gorgeous
beyond description_. In the strictest literality it might be said to the
dwellers in such a cluster, "Thy sun shall no more go down, neither
shall thy moon withdraw herself." The surrounding walls of such a
celestial palace must seem indeed "garnished with all manner of precious
stones." Sapphire, emerald, sardius, chrysolite, and pearl, must seem
but dim mirrors of its glorious refulgence. Under its ever rising suns
the gates need not be shut at all by day, "for there shall be no night
there." That glorious place now exists, though far away.

But the Lord of these hosts has said, "Behold, I come quickly." He will
not tarry. A thousand times faster than the swiftest chariot, our solar
system and the surrounding firmament wing their flight toward that same
glorious cluster in Hercules. As our firmament approaches, under the
guidance of Omnipotent wisdom, it too must fly to meet our sun, with a
velocity increasing with an incalculable ratio. The celestial city will
then be seen to descend from heaven. Once within the sphere of its
attractions, our sun and surrounding planets will feel their power.
Their ancient orbits and accustomed revolutions must give way to the
higher power. Old things must pass away, and all things become new. A
new heaven, no less than a new earth, will form the dwelling of
righteousness.

These are no longer the visions of prophecy merely, but the sober
calculations of mathematical science, based upon a foundation as solid
as the attraction of gravitation, and as wide as the existence of that
ether whose undulations convey the light of the most distant stars; for,
so surely as that attraction is efficient, must all the firmaments of
the heavens be drawn more closely together; and as certainly as they
revolve not in empty space, but in a medium capable of retarding Encke's
comet three days in every revolution, must that retarding medium bring
their revolutions to a close. "And so," said Herschel, casting his eye
fearlessly toward future infinities, "we may be certain that the stars
in the Milky Way will be gradually compressed, through successive stages