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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.

We have now reached the boundaries of ten millions of stars. Look to the right, there is no limit; look to the left, there is no end. Above, below, sun rises upon sun, system upon system, in endless and immeasurable perspective. There is a new uni­verse as magnificent and glorious as our own, a new milky way across whose vast diam­eter light takes a thousand years in crossing. Floating on the surface of this deep ocean, in this far distant region, the telescope has detected a large number of mys­terious looking objects, resembling the faintest clouds of light.

So distant are these objects that their light is hundreds of thousands of years in reaching us; so extensive are they that the entire field of view of the telescope is filled by them many times. Sirius, the brightest and probably the largest of all the fixed stars, with a diameter of more than a million of miles, and a distance of only a single unit, compared with the tens of thousands which divide us from some of the nebulae; yet this vast globe, at this comparatively short distance, is merely a point of light in the field of view of the telescope. What, then, must be the dimensions of these objects, which at so vast a distance fill the entire field of view even when many times repeated. We find ourselves lost in the contemplation of these multiplied infinities amid which our little lives are cast. In the presence of these sublime mys­teries-the senses and imagination are alike enthralled, and the wild dream of the Ger­man poet becomes an inspired reality.

God called up from dreams a man into the vestibule of Heaven, saying: “ Come thou hither; see the glory of my house.” And to the servants who stood around His throne, He said: “Take him and undress from him his robes of flesh, cleanse his vision, put a new breath into his nostrils, but touch not with any change his human heart that weeps and trembles.” This was done, and, with a mighty servant for his guide, the man stood ready for his infinite voyage, and from the terraces of Heaven, without sound or farewell, at once they winged their flight into endless space. Sometimes with the solemn flight of angel wing they fled through reaches of darkness, through wilder­nesses of death that divided the worlds of life. Sometimes they swept over frontiers that were quickening under the prophetic motions of God. Then from a distance that is counted only in Heaven, light dawned for a time through a sleepy film. By unut­terable pace the light swept to them, they by unutterable pace to the light. In a moment the blazing of suns was around them, in a moment the rushing of planets was upon them.

Then came eternities of twilight that revealed, yet were not revealed. On the right hand and on the left towered mighty constellations, that by self-repetitions and answ r ers from afar, that by counter-positions, built up triumphal gates whose archi­traves and archways, horizontal, upright, rested, rose at altitudes by spans, that seemed ghostly from infinitude. Without measure were the architraves, past number the arch­ways, beyond memory the gates. Within were stairs which scaled the eternities below. Below was above, above was below, to men stripped of gravitating body. Depth was swallowed up in height insurmountable; height was swallowed up in depth unfath­omable; and suddenly, as thus they journeyed from infinite to infinite, a mighty cry arose that worlds more billowy, systems more mysterious, other heights and other depths were coming, were nearing, were at hand.

Then the man sighed and stopped, shuddered and wept; his overburdened heart uttered itself in tears, and he said:

“ Angel, I will go no farther, for the spirit of man acheth with this infinity. Insuf­ferable is the glory of God. Let me lie down and hide myself in the grave from the persecution of the infinite, for end I see there is none.”

Then from all the listening stars that shone around issued a choral voice, saying: “The man speaks truly. End is there none that ever yet we heard of.”

“ End is there none?” the angel solemnly demanded. “ Is there, indeed, no end, and is this the sorrow that kills you?”

But there was no answer, that he might answer himself. Then the angel threw up his glorious hands to the heaven of heavens, saying:

“ End is there none to the universe of God; lo! also, there is no beginning.”