e, which doubtless gives light to other objects in its
neighborhood as our sun sheds light upon this earth and the other
planets. In fact, to realize the glories of the heavens you should try
to think that the brilliant points you see are merely the luminous
points of the otherwise invisible universe.

Standing one fine night on the deck of a Cunarder we passed in open
ocean another great Atlantic steamer. The vessel was near enough for
us to see not only the light from the mast-head but also the little
beams from the several cabin ports; and we could see nothing of the
ship herself. Her very existence was only known to us by the twinkle
of these lights. Doubtless her passengers could see, and did see, the
similar lights from our own vessel, and they probably drew the correct
inference that these lights indicated a great ship.

Consider the multiplicity of beings and objects in a ship: the
captain and the crew, the passengers, the cabins, the engines, the
boats, the rigging, and the stores. Think of all the varied interests
there collected and then reflect that out on the ocean, at night, the
sole indication of the existence of this elaborate structure was given
by the few beams of light that happened to radiate from it. Now raise
your eyes to the stars; there are the twinkling lights. We cannot see
what those lights illuminate, we can only conjecture what untold
wealth of non-luminous bodies may also lie in their vicinity; we may,
however, feel certain that just as the few gleaming lights from a ship
are utterly inadequate to give a notion of the nature and the contents
of an Atlantic steamer, so are the twinkling stars utterly inadequate
to give even the faintest conception of the extent and the interest of
the universe. We merely see self-luminous bodies, but of the
multitudes of objects and the elaborate systems of which these bodies
are only the conspicuous points we see nothing and we know very
little. We are, however, entitled to infer from an examination of our
own star--the sun--and of the beautiful system by which it is
surrounded, that these other suns may be also splendidly attended.
This is quite as reasonable a supposition as that a set of lights seen
at night on the Atlantic Ocean indicates the existence of a fine ship.

The Clusters of Stars.

On a clear night you can often see, stretching across the sky, a track
of faint light, which is known to astronomers as the "Milky Way." It
extends below the