HISDEFINITEFOREKNOWLEDGE^211turus, whosevelocityis somewherearoundtwo hun-
dredmilesasecond.
Yet thedistancesthatsurroundthese starsare so
great that their enormousvelocities seem veryslow
indeed. Inathousandyears, ifonecouldwatchthe
heavenssolong,weshouldfindnoappreciablechange
inthepositionsofthestars. Theywouldseemtobe
exactlyinthesameplaces attheend ofthetime as
theyoccupiedatthefirst. Inordertoseeanychange
at all, we should have to take the swiftly moving
Arcturus,andobserveitfourthousandyeats. Atthe
endofthattime,itwouldseemtohave movedonly
about onehalfofthedistanceshownbetween i and
2 inthediagramonpage150.
Lettheheavensbe studiedonthefirstnightafter
amanisborn,and againonthefirstnightafterhe
hasdied, andno changeinthe relativepositionsof
thestars canbe discerned. Yetthroughoutthislife-
timeofman,everyoneofthose seeminglysteadfast
orbsismovingsoswiftlythatincomparison,thespeed
ofanexpresstrain, theflightofa bird, orthe rush
ofarifleball,is asabsoluterest. Fromagetoage,
theyspeed their waythrough the abysswecall the
skies;yetanoldman, lookingatoneof them, sees
itjustashesawitwhenhewasalittleboy.
Letusgetthemarvelousvision of arestlessuni-
verse. Stars unnumbered, millions uponmillions of
shining suns, attended by planets too dark intheir
reflectedlight to be seen by means of telescope or
revealedby camera. Thoughtheir numbers rise in
thescaleofimmensitywewouldfaincallinfinite,yet