The Sublime and the Order of the Heavens

Measurements and the distribution of accumulated ponderable matter matter that has weight and can be measured and its gravitational forces form the foundation. The impression of the sublime, when it arises from the immeasurable and the physically great, passes—almost unconsciously to ourselves—into another, higher sphere of ideas through the mysterious bond that links the supersensual with the sensual. There dwells within the image of the immeasurable, the boundless, and the infinite a power that stimulates a serious, solemn mood and, as with the impression of all that is intellectually great and morally sublime, is not without a sense of deep emotion.

The effect that the sight of extraordinary celestial phenomena exerts so universally and simultaneously upon entire masses of people testifies to the influence of such an association of feelings. What the mere sight of the starry canopy of heaven can produce in excitable minds is increased by deeper knowledge and by the use of instruments that man has invented to enlarge his visual power and, with it, the horizon of his observation. In this process, the uranological pertaining to the study of the heavens or astronomy impression of the incomprehensible in the universe is joined by the impression of peacefulness, through the mental connection with lawfulness and regulated order. This removes from the unfathomable depths of space and time that quality of dread which is attributed to them by an over-excited imagination. In all regions of the earth, man, in the simple natural receptivity of his mind, praises "the silent stillness of a starlit summer night."

Now, if magnitude of space and mass belong preferentially to the sidereal relating to the stars and constellations part of the description of the world, and the eye is the sole organ of world-contemplation within it—