110 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE
tionhadindeedbeenreached. Thattheirdistancewas
enormous, wasmade evident from the factthatthe
parallaxhadremainedinsensible,evenunderthemost
carefulanddelicateinstrumentaltests. Anyabsolute
solutionbeganalmosttobedespairedof, whenhope
wasagainrevivedbythemagnificentrefractingtele-
scopes,forwhichtheworldwasindebtedtotheskill
andgenius ofthecelebratedFraunhofer,ofMunich.
This great artist, aided by the profound science of
Bessel, contrivedandexecuted an instrument ofex-
traordinarypower, and especially adaptedtothe re-
searchfortheparallaxofthefixedstars.
"Armed withmicrometrical apparatus of wonder-
ful precision, andcapable of executing measuresof
greatas well as minute distances, thetelescopewas
soarrangedastobecarriedforwardbydelicatema-
chinery,witha velocityexactlyequal tothe diurnal
motion of the object under examination. To give
someideaofthedelicacyofthecontrivancewithwhich
thesetelescopeshavebeenprovided,itisnecessaryonly
tostatethatthemicrometerofthegreatrefractoryof
theCincinnatiObservatoryis capableof dividingan
inchinto 80,000 equalparts! When mechanical in-
genuityfailedtoconstructlinesofmathematical mi-
nuteness,thespiderlenthisaid,anditiswithfibers
of his delicateweb thatthese measures are accom-
pUshed. Two parallelthreads ofa spider's webare
adjustedinthefocusoftheeyepieceofthemicrome-
ter,andwhenthelightofasmalllampisthrownupon
them,theeye,onlookingthroughthetelescope,sees
twominutegoldenwires,straightandbeautiful,drawn