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manded for his client, the Poet Archias, the citizenship of Rome, not because it was his legally, but because he had done that for which the republic owed him everlasting gratitude. "He has given you," said he, "those intellectual gifts which nourish youth, delight age, adorn fortune, and soften adversity;" and to do this is the office of the teacher. Let him who is worthy in that calling be honored by the praises of the good and the gratitude of the republic

CHAPTER VII.

THE UTILITY OF ASTRONOMY.

IN the fourth day of the creation God made the stars; he set them in the firmament of heaven, so that from every part of the material universe light fell upon the earth. He made them shine forever, that while this globe continues to circle on its axis, each falling ray should be a recording hand to write upon its circumference the passage of time to eternity! There was then no human voice to praise the mighty work; but there was music in the skies; the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy!*

*The passage from which this idea was taken is from the 4th to the 7th verses inclusive of the 38th chapter of Job. The whole of it is this: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Man was yet in the silent dust: God breathed upon it, and man became a living soul. He was made erect, with his countenance upturned to heaven, that while he walked upon the earth he might behold those glorious messengers of the Creator rolling their chariots of light through the skies from morn till night, from night till morn, immutable in law, unshaken in their courses, undiminished in power. From age to age they have continued to shine; from age to age man has gazed and marvelled at the sight; and yet they beam as brightly upon the last eyes opened upon earth, as upon those which first looked out upon the bloom of creation. Forever fresh, forever shining, forever rolling-eternal power their source, eternal light their element!

On the plains of Chaldea Job saw them, and in midnight meditations marked their wandering constellations careering through the firmament; on Judah's hills David looked up, wondered at the sight,

declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

This passage intimates two things: 1st, That there was no man in being when the foundations of the earth were laid; and, 2d, That the stars were then in being, and another race of beings called the sons of God. The harmony of the stars and their perfect system is the foundation, without doubt, of the metaphorical phrase, "sang together." The intelligent beings then existing also rejoiced in the progress of the work of creation.

struck his harp to notes of praise, and poured them

into the songs of Israel. the Babylonian saw that

By the waters of Euphrates

host of heaven pass before him, and mistaking the creature for the Creator, worshipped it on the false altars of Baal. The Persian, too, transferring the worship from the sun to the fire, bowed down under the open skies to the coals upon the altar, as the life and image of the stars above. The Egyptian marked the seasons by the signs of the zodiac, and recorded them on the ancient monuments of Thebes. The Greek, the Roman, the Hindoo, the Christian, the men of every age and every nation, have gazed upon those wandering fires above, and, gazing, been fixed with astonishment, filled with admiration, and made silent with awe!

When the great light of day sinks beneath the horizon, the portals of heaven open wider to your vision. Ten thousand suns come out from the dark firmament behind each seems but a little light, twinkling for a moment. You watch it, and its light never ceases; it comes, and comes continually; its rays fall, but never stop. You look upon that light as the traveller upon the rocks of Niagara looks upon that world of rolling waters; it flows, and flows, and flows on forever! The light comes, and comes, shining and gliding on, like the spirit of man towards some vast, distant, unknown, untold eternity!

This work of the fourth day of creation is not merely the admiration of prophets and philosophers; but it is one of the most instructive subjects of con

templation, and therefore one of the best topics of a broad and useful education.

ASTRONOMY is derived (as a term) from the two words, aster and nomos, the first signifying a star, and the second a law. Astronomy may therefore be defined, the law of the stars. It comprehends, however, all that relates to the different bodies in the system of the universe, and the material laws by which they are governed and sustained. I shall consider here both the practical use of astronomy, and the effect of its theory, in the improvement of the human mind.

ASTRONOMY DETERMINES TIME.

The first and the greatest use of astronomical observations is declared in the first chapter of Genesis: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.

Imagine, if you can, a world inhabited by finite and mortal beings, without time! Such a world would have been ours, if the rising and the setting of the stars had not cut off from infinite space, and marked on the visible horizon, those small measures which we call time. Space is the measure of time; and the idea of infinite space is the idea of eternity. Space can be made definite only by motion: he who attempts to measure space only by the eye, will mistake a foot for a furlong, and a furlong for a mile.

There is no measure of space but by motion; and there is no record of time but by space. It follows, then, that to give the idea of time at all, there must be bodies moving continually through the vacuity of space. It follows, also, that there must be more than one body so moving; for it is only by the transition of those bodies, passing one another at regular and continuous intervals, that we get by relative motion an accurate idea of time. The revolution of the earth on its axis determines our day; but it is only by the existence of other bodies, which appear to ascend and descend from the horizon, that we have the least idea of such a period of time. So also it is by the relative motion of still other bodies, that we get correct ideas of the year and its seasons. These stars, then, by their relative motions, divide space, and space determines time.

Had there been, then, in the councils of Infinite Wisdom, no other reason for the creation of stars than this, it would have been enough. It is enough, that in the vast vacuity of space there was created a world of innumerable beings, for whose happiness it was necessary to give, by the records of time, the idea of a finite, fleeting, and mortal life! It is in contemplations such as these we can realize the solemn declaration of holy history, that one great use of those glowing orbs was, that they might "be for signs, for seasons, for days, and for years.'

Nor was man dull to perceive or slow to understand these significant records of passing time, as