No part of the universe affords such exalted ideas of the structure and magnificence of the heavens, as the considerations of the number, magnitude, nature, and distance, of the fixed stars. We admire indeed, with propriety, the vast bulk of our own globe; but when we consider how much it is surpassed by most of the heavenly bodies, what a point it degenerates into, and how little more, even the vast orbit in which it revolves, would appear, when seen from some of the fixed stars, we begin to conceive more just ideas of the extent of the universe, and the boundless infinity of creation.

" How many bright

And splendid lamps, shine in heaven's temple high,

Day hath his golden sun, her moon the night,

Her fix'd and wandering stars, the azure sky".

Fairfax.

The fixed stars comprehend all the celestial objects, except-ing the sun, the moon, the planets, and those comets, that occasionally appear. The stars, on account of their apparently various magnitudes, have been distributed into several classes or orders. Those which appear largest are called stars, of the first magnitude; the next to them in lustre, stars of the second magnitude, and so on to the sixth, which are the smallest that are visible to the naked aye. This distribution having been made long before the invention of telescopes, the stars which cannot be seen without the assistance of those instruments, are distinguished by the name of telescopic stars.

Astronomers have supposed "the innumerable multitude of fixed stars to be so many suns, each of which is attended by a certain number of planets or habitable worlds like our own, as well as visited by comets. The strongest argument for this hypothesis is, that the stars cannot be magnified by a telescope, on account of their immense distance; whence it is concluded, that they shine by their own light, and are therefore so many suns; each of which we may suppose to be equal, if not superior, in lustre and magnitude to our own. They are not supposed to be at equal distances from us, but to be more remote, in proportion to their apparent smallness. This supposition is necessary to prevent any interference of their planets, and thus there may be as great a distance between a star of the first magnitude, and one of the second, apparently close to it, as be-tween.the earth and the fixed stars.

Others object, that the disappearance of some of the fixed stars is a demonstration that they cannot be suns, as it would be in the highest degree absurd, to. think that God would create a sun, which might disappear of a sudden, and leave its planets and their inhabitants in endless night. But this argument will have no weight with those who believe in the doctrines of Re-velation; which assures us, that our world will come to an end, and that our sun will be deprived of his light, and, conse-quently, that all the planets which circulate around him, will be involved in darkness. In short, there is nothing inconsistent with either scripture, or reason, in supposing, that while infinite space is universally filled with illuminating suns and circulating planets, each world, or rather each solar system of worlds, has its own periods of creation, duration, and final consummation; as we are assured ours has bad, and will have. And the discoveries of Astronomers respecting old stars disappearing, and new stars being observed, are perfectly consistent with the doctrines of creation and dissolution; which all Chris-tians profess to. believe, with regard to our own solar system, and the globe we inhabit.