302

THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

watched during the long lapse of six thousand years? To trace the efforts of the human mind through the long and ardent struggle to solve these mighty problems; to reveal the weary years of patient watching; the struggles to overcome insurmountable obstacles; to develop the means by which the rock-built pyramid of science is slowly rearing its stately form from age to age, until its vertex pierces the very heavens— these are tasks of no ordinary difficulty. Music is here, but it is the deep and solemn harmony of the spheres. Poetry is here, but traced in letters of light on the sable gar­ments of night; architecture is here, but it is the colossal structure of sun and system, of cluster and universe. Eloquence is here, but “ there is neither speech nor language —its voice is not heard.” Yet its resistless power sweeps over us as we ponder on the mighty periods of revolving worlds, the wonders of the infinity of space and the hidden mysteries of the vast expanse of heaven. Let us pause and listen to the deep and solemn music of the spheres, as heard by the first watchers of the sky; let us read the poetry written in the stars; let us contemplate the architecture of the celestial vault, though “ its architraves, its archways, seem ghostly from infinitude.” Let us listen to the surging eloquence of these glorious suns, now swiftly rushing through infinite space:

How distant some of these nocturnal suns!

So distant, says the sage, ’twere not absurd ,

To doubt, if beams set out at nature’s birth Are yet arrived at this, so foreign, world,

Though nothing half so rapid as their flight!

Let us gaze in awe and wonder !

Who can satiate sight

In such a scene—in such an ocean wide

Of deep astonishment? Where depth, height, breadth,

Are lost in their extremes; and where to count The thick-sown glories in this field of fire,

Perhaps a seraph’s computation fails.

With resistless energy the tide of time has flowed on, breaking in noiseless waves on the far-distant shores of eternity. Science has partially lifted the dark veil which has enshrouded in mystery the celestial scenes which greeted the vision of genera­tions during the past thousand years, and erected temples devoted to the study of the heavens. Look over their magnificent machinery; examine the far-reaching eye of the telescope as it reveals the hidden mysteries of space, and then go backward in imagination to the plains of Shinar and stand beside the shepherd astronomer as he vainly attempts to grasp the mysteries of the structure of the heavens. The sentinel upon the watch-tower is relieved from duty; but another takes his place and the vigil is unbroken. He commences his investigations on the hilltops of Eden; he studies the stars through the long centuries of antediluvian life. The Deluge sweeps from the earth its inhabitants, their cities and their monuments; but when the storm is hushed and the heavens shine forth in beauty from the summit of Mount Ararat the astronomer resumes his endless vigils. In Babylon he keeps his watch, and among the Egyptian priests he inspires a thirst for the sacred mysteries of the stars. The plains of Shinar, the temples of India, the pyramids of Egypt are equally his watch­ing places. When science fled to Greece, his home was in the school of the philoso­phers, and when darkness covered the earth for a thousand years, he pursued his never-ending tasks amid the burning deserts of Arabia. When science dawned on Europe the astronomer was there toiling with Copernicus, watching with Tycho, suf­fering with Galileo, triumphing with Kepler.

Six thousand years have rolled away since the grand investigation commenced. We stand at the termination of the vast period, and looking back through the long vista of departed years, mark with honest pride the successive triumphs of our race.