An introduction to astronomy: designed as a text-book for the use of students in college. By Denison Olmsted ...

NATU10',' OF T11PI-.. StA. 305
more tlan 200,000 times as far off as the sun (Art. 4t34).
iHence Ie inferred that, upon the lowest computation, Sirills
must actually give out twice as much light as the suit; or
that, in point of splendor, Sirius must be at least equal to two
suns. IIndecd, hle has rendered it probable that tlle light of
Sirius is equal to fourteen suns.
437. 7wfitaxed star.s are suns. We have already seen that
they are large bodies; that tlhey are ilmmenlsely filrtler off
than tlhe flrtllest planet; that they shile by their own light,
as is evidtent by the nature of the light as tested by polarization;
in short, that their appearance is, in all respects, te samle as the
sun would cXllibit if removed to the region of the stars. Ilenco
we infer that they are bodies of the samne kind with t he sun.
438. We are justified therefore by a sound analogy, in concluding tlhat the stars wcere made for the same tend as the sun,
namely, aslthe centers of attraction to otllher lanetary worlds,
to whlich they severally dispense lighit and }heat. Although
tlhe starry heavens present, in a clear night, a spectacle of ineffable gir-andeur and betauty, yet it must b)e admitted that the
chief purpose of the stars could not have been to adorn the
night, since by far tflhe greater part of thlem are wholly invisible to the naked eye; nor as landmarks to thc. navigator, for
only a rve1ry small prolortion of themll are adapted'or thlis )urpose; nor, finally, to inlfluence the earth by their attractions,
since tlleir distance renders such an effect entirely, insensible.
If tlhey are sunls, and if they exert no important agencies upon
our world, but are bodies evidently adapted to the same putrpose as our sun, then it is as rational to suppose that tthey w\ere
tmado to give light and leat, as that the eye Y was made for seeing and the car for Ihearing. It is obvious to inquire next, to
what they dispelse these gifts, if not to planetary worlds; and
why to planetary worlds, if not for tim use of plcrcipiclnt
beingits? -We are tlhus lcd, almost inevitably, to the idea of a.J'luraiity of lVorlds; and the conclusion is forced upon uis,
that the spot which tihe Creator has assigned to us is but an
humble province of his boundless ctpire.'
* See this argument, in its fall extent, in D.iick's 6stial Sealery.
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