James had a long talk with the captain one day about the telescope, and got a capital lesson about the magnifying power being according to the character and size of the glasses used. The sailors called the instrument the “Bring ’em near;” and it does make distant objects look as if near. It was explained to the boy that the stars were of different[Pg 36] magnitudes or sizes, first, second, third, &c., according to their relative distances. The following conversation followed between the father and son:—

“Now, my boy, I must try and give you some idea of the penetrating power of light, that you may get an idea of the enormous distances of the stars. You are aware that the more distant they are the less their light. A star of the first or nearest magnitude will have one hundred times the light of one of the sixth magnitude. A telescope, therefore, gathering one hundred times the ordinary light, will make the sixth look as near as the first.

And will it be one hundred times further off?

No; light increases or diminishes according to the square of the distance.

I know. If the light be one hundred times less, the star will be ten times further off, for the square of ten is one hundred. I can understand now that a thing is only seen by the help of light. I do not see many stars, because their light is too little for my eyes to take in. The telescope has bigger eyes to take in the light of the distant stars and nebul?.

The pupil of the eye is but one-eighth of an inch in diameter. An object glass of twelve inches diameter is, therefore, ninety-six, or say one-hundred times as long. As the light seen is according to the square of the diameter, the telescope of twelve inches will receive one[Pg 37] hundred times one hundred, or ten thousand times more light.

But is there a way of measuring the quantity of light?

There is. We find that the sun has twenty-two thousand millions of times more light than the nearest of the fixed stars.

Then, the square root of this ought to tell how much further off it is. Let me see. It will be about 150,000.

Yes. If the sun were put back 150,000 times further than it is, it ought to look as brightly as that star. If it does not, it is because it is really smaller than the star.

What! 150,000 times 95 millions!

But that is nothing; for it is only to the first rank. What of the twentieth magnitude?

Yes. But you say the nebul? are further off than that.

I may tell you that if the sun moved three times as fast as the world does, in its six hundred millions of miles a year, it would take two hundred and fifty millions of years to get to as far as Lord Rosse’s telescope could see.

That takes my breath away.

Hear a little more. Light comes from the sun to us in eight minutes. It will take sixty thousand years to come from one of those stars Lord de Rosse saw. In fact his telescope has enlarged our universe one hundred and twenty-five million times.

Then I think religious people ought to thank astronomers for showing them more of the greatness of God. Those who only thought[Pg 38] of him as the Creator of the three thousand stars, to be seen by the naked eye, could not have such a notion of his vast power as those who know of millions upon millions of suns.”

After this, James was left to digest such wonderful lessons. When his first astonishment had passed away, his curiosity was excited to know more about the distances of the stars, so that he might form a simpler idea of the thing. He took, therefore, another occasion of bringing up the subject in these words:—

“Father, do you really ............