the Creation, and should have no exact notion of the immense reality.

To-day, thanks to the intellectual labor of so many centuries, thanks
also to the immortal genius of the men of science who have devoted their
lives to searching after Truth--men such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler,
Newton--the veil of ignorance has been rent, and glimpses of the marvels
of creation are perceptible in their splendid truth to the dazzled eye
of the thinker.

The study of Astronomy is not, as many suppose, the sacrifice of oneself
in a cerebral torture that obliterates all the beauty, the fascination,
and the grandeur of the pageant of Nature. Figures, and naught but
figures, would not be entertaining, even to those most desirous of
instruction. Let the reader take courage! We do not propose that he
shall decipher the hieroglyphics of algebra and geometry. Perish the
thought! For the rest, figures are but the scaffolding, the method, and
do not exist in Nature.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--The great Book of the Heavens is open to all
eyes.]

We simply beg of you to open your eyes, to see where you are, so that
you may not stray from the path of truth, which is also the path of
happiness. Once you have entered upon it, no persuasion will be needed
to make you persevere. And you will have the profound satisfaction of
knowing that you are thinking correctly, and that it is infinitely
better to be educated than to be ignorant. The reality is far beyond all
dreams, beyond the most fantastic imagination. The most fairy-like
transformations of our theaters, the most resplendent pageants of our
military reviews, the most sumptuous marvels on which the human race can
pride itself--all that we admire, all that we envy on the Earth--is as
nothing compared with the unheard-of wonders scattered through
Infinitude. There are so many that one does not know how to see them.
The fascinated eye would fain grasp all at once.

If you will yield yourselves to the pleasure of gazing upon the
sparkling fires of Space, you will never regret the moments passed all
too rapidly in the contemplation of the Heavens.

Diamonds, turquoises, rubies, emeralds, all the precious stones with
which women love to deck themselves, are to be found in greater
perfection, more beautiful, and more splendid, set in the immensity of
Heaven! In the telescopic field, we may watch the progress of armies of
majestic and powerful suns, from whose attacks there is naught to fear.
An