r standards of time are taken from the stars; every railway
train runs by their time to avoid collision; by them all factories
start and stop. Indeed, we are ruled by the stars even more than
the old astrologers imagined.

Man's finest mechanism, highest thought, and broadest exercise
of the creative faculty have been inspired by astronomy. No other
instruments approximate in delicacy those which explore the heavens;
no other [Page 58] system of thought can draw such vast and certain
conclusions from its premises. "Too low they build who build beneath
the stars;" we should lay our foundations in the skies, and then
build upward.

We have been placed on the outside of this earth, instead of the
inside, in order that we may look abroad. We are carried about,
through unappreciable distance, at the inconceivable velocity of
one thousand miles a minute, to give us different points of vision.
The earth, on its softly-spinning axle, never jars enough to unnest
a bird or wake a child; hence the foundations of our observatories
are firm, and our measurements exact. Whoever studies astronomy,
under proper guidance and in the right spirit, grows in thought
and feeling, and becomes more appreciative of the Creator.

_Celestial Movements._

Let it not be supposed that a mastery of mathematics and a finished
education are necessary to understand the results of astronomical
research. It took at first the highest power of mind to make the
discoveries that are now laid at the feet of the lowliest. It took
sublime faith, courage, and the results of ages of experience in
navigation, to enable Columbus to discover that path to the New
World which now any little boat can follow. Ages of experience
and genius are stored up in a locomotive, but quite an unlettered
man can drive it. It is the work of genius to render difficult
matters plain, abstruse thoughts clear.

[Illustration: Fig. 19.]

A brief explanation of a few terms will make the principles of
world inspection easily understood. Imagine a perfect circle thirty
feet in diameter--that is, create [Page 59] one (Fig. 19). Draw
through it a diameter horizontally, another perpendicularly. The
angles made by the intersecting lines are each said to be ninety
degrees, marked thus deg.. The arc of a circle included between any two
of the lines is also 90 deg.. Every circle, great or small, is divided
into these 360 deg.. If the sun rose in the east and came to the zenith
at noon, it