picking up pebbles on the margin of the ocean, is usually taken as merely illustrative of the modesty of genius; but, at the same time, no one can occupy a more enviable position than that, which gives him an unobstructed view of the great ocean of the unknown. Few get down to its brink at all: the many are satisfied with the little they can understand, and rather shrink from what reveals their ignorance or conceit.
In most other sciences, the mind is frequently so lost in details, that it is difficult to find a standpoint, where you may gaze freely out upon the unknown. In astronomy, however, you are brought, almost at once, to stand face to face with the Infinite. No doubt, you come at last to the unfathomable, when dealing with the molecular forces of matter—and the mind can be as much lost in atoms, as in suns and systems; still, the popular intellect can, more readily, deal with the infinitely great than the infinitely little; and the foot stands more firmly on systems of worlds than groups of molecules. The fact that the material universe presents no boundary-wall to limit inquiry, so far from being a ground for turning from astronomical inquiry, accounts for the charm which has ever surrounded this study.
The moon is, by far, our nearest neighbour. While Neptune is a mile distant, the moon is, on the same scale, only about six inches. And man, even when he could form no idea of the real distance, ever looked to the moon with a familiarity, which he could feel
