its fellows, revolving about a point in the centre of the galaxy.
Let the most vigorous of human imaginations but attempt to take a single
step toward the comprehension of a circuit so unutterable! I would
scarcely be paradoxical to say that a flash of lightning itself,
travelling forever upon the circumference of this inconceivable circle,
would still forever be travelling in a straight line. That the path of
our sun along such a circumference--that the direction of our system in
such an orbit--would, to any human perception, deviate in the slightest
degree from a straight line even in a million of years, is a proposition
not to be entertained; and yet these ancient astronomers were absolutely
cajoled, it appears, into believing that a decisive curvature had become
apparent during the brief period of their astronomical history--during
the mere point--during the utter nothingness of two or three thousand
years! How incomprehensible, that considerations such as this did not
at once indicate to them the true state of affairs--that of the binary
revolution of our sun and Alpha Lyrae around a common centre of gravity!

April 7.--Continued last night our astronomical amusements. Had a fine
view of the five Neptunian asteroids, and watched with much interest the
putting up of a huge impost on a couple of lintels in the new temple
at Daphnis in the moon. It was amusing to think that creatures so
diminutive as the lunarians, and bearing so little resemblance to
humanity, yet evinced a mechanical ingenuity so much superior to our
own. One finds it difficult, too, to conceive the vast masses which
these people handle so easily, to be as light as our own reason tells us
they actually are.

April 8.--Eureka! Pundit is in his glory. A balloon from Kanadaw spoke
us to-day and threw on board several late papers; they contain some
exceedingly curious information relative to Kanawdian or rather Amriccan
antiquities. You know, I presume, that laborers have for some months
been employed in preparing the ground for a new fountain at Paradise,
the Emperor's principal pleasure garden. Paradise, it appears, has been,
literally speaking, an island time out of mind--that is to say, its
northern boundary was always (as far back as any record extends) a
rivulet, or rather a very narrow arm of the sea. This arm was gradually
widened until it attained its present breadth--a mile. The whole length
of the island is nine miles; the breadth varies mat