this orbit is about 480,000 miles. Now could the sun be brought in
contact with this orbit, and had the latter solidity to mark its
circumference, it would be found that this circumference would include
but a little more than half the surface of one side of the sun, the diameter
of which orb is calculated to be 882,000 miles! The sun is one million
three hundred and eighty-four thousand four hundred and seventy-two
times larger than the earth. Of the substance of the sun it is not so easy
to speak. Still it is thought, though it is not certain, that we occasionally
see the actual surface of this orb, an advantage we do not possess as
respects any other of the heavenly bodies, with the exception of the
moon and Mars. The light and warmth of the sun probably exist in its
atmosphere, and the spots which are so often seen on this bright orb,
are supposed to be glimpses of the solid mass of the sun itself, that are
occasionally obtained through openings in this atmosphere. At all
events, this is the more consistent way of accounting for the appearance
of these spots. You will get a better idea of the magnitude of the
sidereal system, however, by remembering that, in comparison with it,
the distances of our entire solar system are as mere specks. Thus, while
our own change of positions is known to embrace an orbit of about
200,000,000 of miles, it is nevertheless so trifling as to produce no
apparent change of position in thousands of the fixed stars that are
believed to be the suns of other systems. Some conjecture even that all
these suns, with their several systems, our own included, revolve around
a common centre that is invisible to us, but which is the actual throne of
God; the comets that we note and measure being heavenly messengers,
as it might be, constantly passing from one of these families of worlds to
another."

I remember that one of the astronomer's pupils asked certain
explanations here, touching the planets that it was thought, or rather