probably one of those which depart furthest from it, and descend furthest into the empty space within the ring.”* According to this view, a time may come when we shall he much more in the thick of the stars of our astral system than we are now, and have of course much more brilliant nocturnal skies; but it may be countless ages before the eyes which are to see this added re splendence shall exist. The evidence of the existence of other astral systems besides our own is much more decided than might be expected, when we consider that the nearest of them must needs be placed at a mighty interval beyond our own. The elder Herschel, directing his wonderful tube towards the sides of our system, where stars are planted most rarely, and raising the powers of the instrument to the required pitch, was enabled with awe-struck mind to see suspended in the vast empyrean astral systems, or, as he called them, firmaments, resembling our the telescope, they resolved themselves, under a greater power, into stars, though these generally * Professor Mossotti, on the Constitution of the Sidereal Sys tem, of which the Sun forms a part.—London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, February, 1843.
