Astronomy and the Bible;

CELESTIALMAGNITUDES 113

preciablechangeremained,itcouldonlybeattributed
toparallax.
"Aftera most carefuland elaborate investigation,
avariationcommencedtoshow itself,increasingpre-
cisely asparallactic variationought toincrease, and
diminishingas itoughtto diminish. Theperiod of
thesechangeswaspreciselyayear,andinallparticu-
larstherewasanexactcorrespondenceinkind with
thechangeswhichoughttobeproducedbyparallax.
ButsuchwastheirminutecharacterthatBesselhesi-
tated.
'^During another year, the observations were re-
peated. Thesameresultscameoutandtheprevious
valueswere confirmed. A thirdyear's observations,
yieldingpreciselythesamevalues,removedalldoubt,
and thegreat Konigsberg philosopherannounced to
theworldthathehadpassedtheimpassablegulfof
space, and had measured the distance to the fixed
stars! ButhowshallI conveyanyadequateidea of
this stupendous distance? Millions and millions of
milesserveonlytoconfoundthemind. Letusemploy
adifferentkindofunit.
"Light, as wehave seen, travels ata velocity of
11,160,000 miles every minute of time. Hence to
reachusfromthemostremoteofalltheplanets,Nep-
tune,whosedistancefromthesunisabout2,791,600,-
000 miles,willrequireajourneyofslightlyoverfour
hours;buttowingitsflightacrosstheintervalwhich
separatesoursunfrom 61 Cyg^i,willrequireaperiod
nottobereckonedbyhours,norbydays,normonths.
Nearly ten yearsof time must roll awaybefore its