hours.

* * * * *

Our celestial journey carried us far indeed from our own Solar System.
Guided by the penetrating eye of the telescope, we reached such distant
creations that we lost sight of our cherished luminary.

But we remember that he burns yonder, in the midst of the pale cosmic
cloud we term the Milky Way. Let us approach him, now that we have
visited the Isles of Light in the Celestial Ocean; let us traverse the
vast plains strewn with the burning gold of the Suns of the Infinite.

We embark upon a ray of light, and glide rapidly to the portals of our
Universe. Soon we perceive a tiny speck, scintillating feebly in the
depths of Space, and recognize it as our own celestial quarters. This
little star shines like the head of a gold pin, and increases in size as
we advance toward it. We traverse a few more trillion miles in our rapid
course, and it shines out like a fine star of the first magnitude. It
grows larger and larger. Soon we divine that it is our humble Earth that
is shining before us, and gladly alight upon her. In future we shall not
quit our own province of the Celestial Kingdom, but will enter into
relations with this solar family, which interests us the more in that it
affects us so closely.

[Illustration: FIG. 28.--Comparative sizes of the Sun and Earth.]

The Sun, which is manifested to us as a fine white disk at noon, while
it is fiery red in the evening, at its setting, is an immense globe,
whose colossal dimensions surpass those of our terrestrial atom beyond
all conceivable proportion.

In diameter, it is, in effect, 108-1/2 times as large as the Earth; that
is to say, if our planet be represented by a globe 1 meter in diameter,
the Sun would figure as a sphere 108-1/2 meters across. This is shown on
the accompanying figure (Fig. 28), which is in exact proportion.

If our world were set down upon the Sun, with all its magnificence, all
its wealth, its mountains, its seas, its monuments, and its inhabitants,
it would only be an imperceptible speck. It would occupy less space in
the central orb than one grain in a grenade. If the Earth were placed in
the center of the Sun, with the Moon still revolving round it at her
proper distance of 384,000 kilometers (238,500 miles), only half the
solar surface would be covered.

In volume the Sun is 1,280,000 times vaster than our abode, and 324,000
times heavier in mass. That the giant only appears to us as a sm