the Milky Way, which at one time were conjectured to be
due to a dark body intervening between us and the starry background.
This idea is now quite discarded; whatever may cause them, it is not
that. One of the most startling of these rifts is that called the
Coal-Sack, in the Southern Hemisphere, and it occurs in a part of the
sky otherwise so bright that it is the more noticeable. No possible
explanation has yet been suggested to account for it.

Thus it may be seen that, though much has been discovered, much remains
to be discovered. By the patient work of generations of astronomers we
have gained a clear idea of our own position in the universe. Here are
we on a small globe, swinging round a far mightier and a self-luminous
globe, in company with seven other planets, many of which, including
ourselves, are attended by satellites or moons. Between the orbits of
these planets is a ring or zone of tiny bodies, also going round the
sun. Into this system flash every now and then strange luminous
bodies--some coming but once, never to return; others returning again
and again.

Far out in space lies this island of a system, and beyond the gulfs of
space are other suns, with other systems: some may be akin to ours and
some quite different. Strewn about at infinite distances are star
clusters, nebulae, and other mysterious objects.

The whole implies design, creation, and the working of a mighty
intelligence; and yet there are small, weak creatures here on this
little globe who refuse to believe in a God, or who, while acknowledging
Him, would believe themselves to know better than He.

THE END

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD

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