as though
any thing of that kind could come up to the dread impression of that one
Saxon word--_forever_, or the solemn grandeur of the Latin _secula
seculorum_, or to the effect produced by any of those simple
reduplications through which language has ever sought to set forth the
immeasurable conception, by making its immeasurability the very essence of
the thought, and of the term by which it is denoted.

Such contrivances as we have mentioned only weary instead of aiding the
conceptive faculty. If any such help is required for the mind, one of the
shortest formulas of arithmetic or algebra, we contend, would be the most
effective. The more we can express by the highest symbol, the less is the
true grandeur of the thought impaired by any of that imitating and
ever-foiled effort of the imagination which attends those longer methods
that are addressed solely to it. Let us attempt such a formula by taking
at once, for our unit of division, the most minute space ever brought into
visibility by the highest power of the microscope. Let our dividend on the
other hand, be the utmost distance within which the telescope has ever
detected the existence of a material entity. Denote the quotient by the
letter _x_, and let _r_ stand for the radius of the earth's orbit. Then
_rx__x_ is the formula sought; and if any one think for a moment on the
immense magnitude of the latter part of the expression (_x__x_), and at
what a rate the involution expands itself even when _x_ represents a
moderate number,(10) he may judge how immeasurably it leaves behind it all
other computations. The whole of the universe made visible by Lord Rosse's
telescope actually shrinks to the dimensions of an animalcule in the
comparison. And yet, even at that distance, so utterly surpassing all
conceivability, we may suppose the existence of worlds still embraced
within the dominions of God, and still, in the same ratio, remote from the
frontiers of his immeasurable empire.

But let us return from so fruitless an inquiry. There is another idea
suggested by the contemplation of the heavens of no less interest,
although presenting a very different, if not an opposite aspect. It is the
comparative NOTHINGNESS of the tangible material universe, as contrasted
with the space, or spaces, occupied even within its visible boundaries.
The distance of our sun from the nearest fixed star (conjectured by
astronomers to be the star 61 Cygni) is estimated at being at least