the texture of a curtain, at practically the same distance from us.

We have measured the distances of but a very few stars; the rest--as
every one of them was for the Hebrew--are at a greater distance than any
effort of ours can reach, be our telescopes ever so great and powerful,
our measuring instruments ever so precise and delicate. For them, as for
us, the heaven of stars is "for height," for a height which is beyond
measure and therefore the only fitting image for the immensity of God.

So Zophar the Naamathite said--

"Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?"

and Eliphaz the Temanite reiterated still more strongly--

"Is not God in the height of heaven?
And behold the height of the stars, how high they are."

God Himself is represented as using the expanse of heaven as a measure
of the greatness of his fidelity and mercy. The prophet Jeremiah
writes--

"Thus saith the Lord; if Heaven above can be measured, and the
foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also
cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,
saith the Lord."

As if he were using the figure of a great cross, whose height was that
of the heavens, whose arms stretched from east to west, David testifies
of the same mercy and forgiveness:--

"For as the heaven is high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath He removed our transgressions from us."

[Illustration: THE GREAT COMET OF 1843.

"Running like a road through the constellations" (_see_ p. 105).]

CHAPTER IX

COMETS

Great comets are almost always unexpected visitors. There is only one
great comet that we know has been seen more than once, and expect with
reasonable certainty to see again. This is Halley's comet, which has
been returning to a near approach to the sun at somewhat irregular
intervals of seventy-five to seventy-eight years during the last
centuries: indeed, it is possible that it was this comet that was
coincident with the invasion of England by William the Conqueror.

There are other small comets that are also regular inhabitants of the
solar system; but, as with Halley's comet, so with these, two
circumstances are to be borne in mind. First, that each successive
revolution round the sun involves an increasing degradation of their
bri