high elevation when passing the meridian, and may be seen throughout the whole winter and spring months. Castor is the more elevated of the two.

Fig. 22 represents Rigel, a splendid star in the left foot of Orion. The small star is a mere point, and very difficult to be distinguished, and is three or four diameters of the large star from it. The large star is white, the small one of a reddish hue.

Fig. 23 shows the double star Castor, with a magnifying power of 300. It likewise shows the angular position of the small star at the present time in respect to Pollux (fig. 24), by which it appears that it is nearly at a right angle to a line joining Castor and Pollux, whereas in the time of Dr. Bradley it was parallel with a line joining these two stars.

Fig. 25, 26, 27, and 28, exhibit views of the double star Epsilon Bootis, with four magnifying powers. Fig. 25 is its appearance with a power of 227; fig. 26, with a power of 460; fig. 27, with a power of 900; and fig. 28,with a power of 1100.

Fig. 29, 30, and 31 represent telescopic views of the triple star in the left fore foot of the constellation Monoceros, or the Unicorn, which forms a very beautiful object in this class of stars. This star appears at first double, but with some attention one of the two is discovered to be also double; the first of them is the largest. The colour of all these stars is white. With a small power they appear as in fig. 29; with a power of 220, as in fig. 30; and with a power of 450, as in fig. 31. There is a beautiful object of this description, but somewhat different in the configuration of the three stars of which it is composed, to be seen in the tail of the Great Bear; it is the star Zeta Ursæ, called also Mizar, and is the middle star in the tail.

Such are a few specimens of the telescopic appearances of this class of celestial objects. Some of these objects, in order to be distinctly seen, require telescopes of considerable magnifying power. All the objects, however, referred to above may be seen with a good three feet and a half achromatic telescope, whose object glass is two inches and three quarters aperture. The double star Castor may be seen with powers of 80, 140, and 180. I have frequently distinguished the separation of the two stars with a terrestrial power of only 45; but the higher powers, of course, are much preferable.

In order to perceive the very small star or point of light adjacent to the Pole-star, a power of 140 at least is requisite with such a telescope; but it is more distinctly seen with a power of 190 or 200. It is considered as a fair test of the goodness of a telescope of this description when this minute object is perceptible with such powers. The small star connected with Epsilon Bootis is likewise an object which requires a considerable degree of magnifying power and distinctness to perceive the separation of the two stars; and it is more difficult to perceive the small star adjacent to Rigel than any of these objects.

In the phenomena I have now described, we have a new and interesting scene presented before us, which leads the mind into a train of thought very different from what could have been conceived by astronomers of a former age. Το some minds, not accustomed to deep reflection, it may appear a very trivial fact to behold a small and scarcely distinguishable point of light immediately adjacent to a larger star, and to be informed that this lucid point revolves around its larger attendant; but this phenomenon, minute and trivial as it may at first sight appear, proclaims the astonishing fact, that SUNS REVOLVE AROUND SUNS, AND SYSTEMS AROUND SYSTEMS. This is a comparatively new idea, derived from our late sidereal investigations, and forms one of the most sublime conceptions which the modern discoveries of astronomy have imparted. It undoubtedly convevs a very sublime idea to contemplate such a globe as the planet Jupiter-a body thirteen hundred times larger than the earth-revolving around the sun, at the rate of twenty-nine thousand miles every hour; and the planet Saturn, with its rings and moons, revolving in a similar manner round this central orb in an orbit five thousand six hundred and ninety millions of miles in circumference. But how much more august and overpowering the conception of a sun revolving around another sun, of a sun encircled with a retinue of huge planetary bodies, all in rapid motion, revolving round a distant sun, over a circumference a hundred times larger than what has been now stated, and with a velocity perhaps a hundred times greater than that of either Jupiter or Saturn, and carrying all its planets, satellites,

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comets, or other globes along with it in its swift career! Such a sun, too, may as far exceed these planets in size as our sun transcends in magnitude either this earth or the planet Venus, the bulk of any one of which scarcely amounts to the thirteen hundred thousandth part of the solar orb which enlightens our day. The farther we advance in our explorations of the distant regions of space, and the more minute and specific our investigations are, the more august and astonishing are the scenes which open to our view, and the more elevated do our conceptions become of the grandeur of that Almighty Being who "marshalled all the starry hosts,” and of the multiplicity and variety of arrangements he has introduced into his vast creation. And this consideration ought to serve as an argument to every rational being, both in a scientific and a religious point of view, to stimulate him to the study of the operations of the Most High, who is "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working," and whose works in every part of his dominions adumbrate the glory of his perfections, and proclaim the depths of his wisdom and the greatness of his power.

In order to form a comprehensive conception and a proper estimate of such binary systems, we have to consider, in the first place, the distances of the stars or suns from each other. These distances, in the mean time, cannot be accurately ascertained till something more definite be determined respecting the parallaxes of these bodies. Some have supposed that the distance between some of these binary stars may be as great as the distance between the earth and any of these stars. But such a supposition is highly improbable if we admit, what is now completely ascertained, that these bodies are intimately connected by the law of gravitation. Their distance, however, must be very great, notwithstanding their apparent nearness to each other, as a few seconds of interval, at the distance of the nearest star, must comprise an immense space. I shall suppose this distance in the case of some of these bodies to be only the one hundredth part of what is reckoned the distance (namely, twenty billions) of the nearest star. On this supposition, the distance of the revolving star from its primary would be 200,000,000,000, or two hundred thousand millions of miles. The circumference of its orbit would therefore be 1,256,640,000,000 of miles. The small star of § Ursæ completes its revolution in fifty-eight years, and, conse

quently, if at the distance now supposed from its primary, must move at the rate of two millions four hundred and seventyone thousand miles every hour, which is eighty-five times the velocity of the planet Jupiter, and more than twenty-three times the velocity of Mercury in its orbit, which is the swiftest moving planet in our system. This motion would be still more swift in the case of some of the other stars to which we have alluded. The small star of 6 Eridani, as determined by Mr. Dunlop, revolves around the larger at the rate of somewhat more than ten 'and a half degrees per annum, and consequently accomplishes a revolution in little more than thirty years. Its motion, then, at the distance supposed, would be equal to four millions seven hundred thousand miles an hour, which is 162 times the velocity of Jupiter, and about 44 times that of Mercury. Even the small star of y Leonis, which takes 1200 years to accomplish its revolution, would, on the same supposition, move at the rate of 119,000 miles an hour, which is a greater velocity than that of the swiftest planets of our system. These are immense velocities, especially when we consider the enormous size of the bodies thus impelled; for the least of these suns may be considered as ten millions of times larger than the planet Mercury, yet moving with a velocity so much superior.

What, then, would be the velocities of such bodies, were we to suppose them as far distant from each other as we are from the nearest star! In the case of Xi Urse, the velocity would be two hundred and forty-seven millions, one hundred and sixty thousand miles every hour, and four millions, one hundred and fifty thousand every minute; and in the case of 6 Eridani, the velocity would be 477,800,000 miles an hour, and 132,735 in a second, which is more than sixteen thousand times the velocity of Jupiter. That bodies may move with such velocities is perhaps not impossible, but it is highly improbable that such rapid motions actually exist among bodies of such astonishing magnitudes; and therefore we must suppose that the binary stars are within a moderate distance of each other. Still that distance must be very considerable, and, it is not unlikely, may be as great as I have supposed; and, if so, it presents to our view motions more rapid and sublime than any which are known to exist within the limits of our planetary system.

In the next place, we must consider the system of planets

connected with the binary stars. These stars are evidently suns or self-luminous bodies, otherwise their light would never reach our distant sphere. But we can never admit that suns were created merely to diffuse a useless splendour over the waste spaces of infinity, where there are no sentient beings with visual organs to be cheered with their radiance. In this case they might be said to be created in vain. Hence we must necessarily conclude that these suns are attended with a retinue of planetary bodies, which revolve around them as the centres of light and attractive influence, and we can scarcely conceive a more sublime and astonishing object than that of magnificent suns revolving around still more magnificent and luminous centres, and conveying along with them in their swift career a numerous train of mighty worlds, all in regular and rapid motion, around their respective orbs. In such sublime sidereal arrangements we behold a combination of motions and effects of gravitation which are not to be traced throughout any part of the system to which we belong. For while the planets which perform their revolutions around the revolving sun are affected by the power of attraction from that body, with which they are more immediately connected, they must likewise be attracted by the larger central sun, and their motions sometimes retarded, sometimes accelerated, and variously modified, by its powerful influence, which combined influences must produce a diversity of phenomena and effects unknown in the system of our sun. For the sake of some readers, not accustomed to such views and contemplations, I have given a rude sketch of a binary system in fig. 32, in which the central circles represent the larger sun with its attendant planets, and the other circles the revolving sun and its planets, in four different positions.

Again, in contemplating these binary systems, we perceive a great diversity in the periods of their revolutions. The period of revolution of the small star of e Bootes is calculated to be not less than 1600 years. An inhabitant of that system would be considered by us an old residenter were he to survive the period of a year, or a single revolution. But in such systems it is not likely that the lapse of duration is marked by so short periods as in our own sublunary abode, nor is it probable that disease and death cut short the existence of its inhabitants, as in the world in which we dwell. Another of these suns takes 1200 years to complete a revolution; an