Twenty millions of suns. And as for the size of these suns,
Sir Robert Ball says Sirius is ten times as large as our Sun; and
a well-known astronomer, writing in the _English Mechanic_ about a
week ago, remarks that Alpha Orionis (Betelgeuze) has probably 700
times the light of our Sun.

Looking through my telescope, which is only 3-inch aperture, I have
seen star clusters of wonderful beauty in the Pleiades and in Cancer.
There is, in the latter constellation, a dim star which, when viewed
through my glass, becomes a constellation larger, more brilliant,
and more beautiful than Orion or the Great Bear. I have looked at
these jewelled sun-clusters many a time, and wondered over them.
But I have never once thought of believing that they were specially
created to be lesser lights to the Earth.

And now let me quote from that grand book of Richard A. Proctor's,
_The Expanse of Heaven_, a fine passage descriptive of some of the
wonders of the "Milky Way":

There are stars in all orders of brightness, from those which
(seen with the telescope) resemble in lustre the leading glories
of the firmament, down to tiny points of light only caught by
momentary twinklings. Every variety of arrangement is seen.
Here the stars are scattered as over the skies at night; there
they cluster in groups, as though drawn together by some irresistible
power; in one region they seem to form sprays of stars like
diamonds sprinkled over fern leaves; elsewhere they lie in
streams and rows, in coronets and loops and festoons, resembling
the star festoon which, in the constellation Perseus, garlands
the black robe of night. Nor are varieties of colour wanting