Part 23

About forty of these strange glimmerings of future universes yet to be revealed were seen by Sir John.

Well, dear father, you can’t go further than that. If it take 60,000 years for some of the stars to send us their light, just to say ‘How do you do?’ how long would it take for these faint, modest blushes of the distant sky?

How great, then, is God, my son, and how grateful should we be for His notice! Let us so please Him here, that after death our souls may fly to that heaven of joy He has prepared, wherever in the vast universes of His it may be.”

THE SUN AND PLANETS.

The planet Venus had been shining brilliantly evening after evening. “Why, father,” said the boy, “does Venus shift her place so rapidly among the stars?

Because she has to travel round the sun, as the world and other planets do.

And is the world really a planet, looking like a star to the people of Venus?

Yes; and not visible at all to those of the distant planets, which are all so much nearer to us than the nearest of the fixed stars. Some of the planets you could not see without the telescope, and you see none of the asteroids.

What are they?

Little planets, over eighty in number, perhaps the shattered parts of an exploded planet, travelling along the old road, and keeping a circle between Mars and Jupiter.

Then they are not like the comets, which run everywhere, getting in everybody’s way?

You are slandering the comets. These shadowy bodies, with tails of light, travel in longer ovals or ellipses than the planets. We see them when they turn round the sun, which is near one end of their orbit, but they disappear afterwards in the great distance of their curve.

Well, I can see some use in the sun to us, but very little in the planets and other stars, and none in the comets.

You must not selfishly judge of the good of things by the use you can make of them. The extensive granite ranges were not made merely for man’s building materials, nor the stars for a gaze through a telescope. As the world existed many millions of years without man, so have the stars. In another world we may know more of the why and because of God’s creation.

May not the planets and other stars be inhabited by folks like ourselves?

Not quite, my son, replied Mr. Marple, though God can make intelligent beings to praise Him, who would be adapted to any atmosphere or condition of the stars.”

In the evening the captain lent James a book, from which he copied the following table of the Eight Planets--their distance from the sun, their times of revolution round the sun, and their size:--

Distance. Time. Diameter. Miles. Miles.

Mercury 37,000,000 2 months 3100 Venus 69,000,000 7-1/2 ” 7900 Earth 93,000,000 1 year 7920 Mars 146,000,000 2 years 4000 Jupiter 494,000,000 12 ” 92,000 Saturn 906,000,000 30 ” 75,000 Herschel 1820,000,000 80 ” 36,000 Neptune 2850,000,000 164 ” 33,600

REVIEWS OF MR. BONWICK’S COLONIAL WORKS.

ROBERTSON, PUBLISHER.

Geography of Australia and New Zealand. 3rd Edition.

“Mr. Bonwick is entitled to great credit for this attempt to create an Australian school literature, and as his book is used by the educational boards of Melbourne, a better testimonial to its value is afforded than any general expression of approbation by the press could yield.”--Sydney Morning Herald.

“Mr. Bonwick has been for many years resident in these colonies; he has access to the best sources of information; he has been indefatigable in his efforts to produce a book which might be a standard one on the subject he treats; and he has succeeded.”--Melbourne Argus.

“It is the work of a man thoroughly familiar with his subject, a colonist of fourteen years’ standing, a traveller, and a practical teacher. The book does not contain a superfluous word; it is what a book for schools should be,--compact and simple.”--London Athenæum, October, 1856.

“From what we know of Mr. Bonwick’s antecedents, he is the person best adapted to prepare such a work. A man of education, liberal and enlightened views, a resident of many years’ standing in these southern lands, and a person possessed of much experience in tuition, must have been well adapted for the task he has executed.”--Sydney Freeman’s Journal.

Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip.

“Future historians will turn to it as a repertory of valuable facts, lucidly, systematically, and chronologically stated; for the most part well authenticated, and all of them of the deepest interest, because bearing upon the infancy and rapidly maturing youth of a country whose splendid destinies have yet to be revealed, and whose future greatness may transcend both our hopes and our belief.”--Melbourne Argus, 1856.