It is hoped that the object of this writing is accomplished—­to widen our view of the great principle of continuity in the universe.  It is not sought to dwarf the earth, but to fit it rightly into its place as a part of a great whole.  It is better for a state to be a part of a glorious union than to be independent; better for a man to belong to the entirety of creation than to be Robinson Crusoe on his island.  We belong to more than this earth.  It is not of the greatest importance whether we lose it or it lose itself.  We look for a “new heavens and a new earth.”  We are, or should be, used to their forces, and at home among their personalities.  This universe is a unity.  It is not made up of separate, catastrophic movements, but it all flows on like the sweetly blended notes of a psalm.  “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;” though the heavens be “rolled together as a scroll,” the stars fall, “even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs,” when it is shaken with the wind, and though our bodies are whelmed in the removal of things that can be shaken.  For even then we may find the calm force that shakes the earth is the force that is from everlasting to everlasting; may find that it is personal and loving.  It says, “Lo, it is I; be not afraid.”

Whatever comes, whether one sail the spaces in the great ship we call the world, or fall overboard into Mississippis and Amazons of power in which worlds are mere drifting islands, he will be at peace and at home anywhere.  He will ever say: 

  “The winds that o’er my ocean run
  Blow from all worlds, beyond the sun;
  Through life, through death, through faith, through time,
  Great breaths of God, they sweep sublime,
  Eternal trades that cannot veer,
  And blowing, teach us how to steer;
  And well for him whose joy, whose care,
  Is but to keep before them fair.

  “O thou, God’s mariner, heart of mine,
  Spread canvas to these airs divine. 
  Spread sail and let thy past life be
  Forgotten in thy destiny.”

[1]The action that drives off the material of a comet’s tail proves that other forces besides gravitation are operative in the interplanetary space.—­The Sun, C. A. Young, p. 156.

[2]See Recreations in Astronomy, p. 357.