Now let us think of some of the things that this wonderful Star of Day does
for us. In the first place, he is the great source of light and heat, as he
shines, not for us alone, but upon all the other planets--those which are
so near to him as to get more heat than we could bear, and those which are
so far away that it seems to us as if they must be very cold indeed.
But, if we leave these distant worlds and think of our own, how wonderful
it is to know that, as we learnt when speaking of Light itself, not from
the sun alone, but from every star, waves of light and heat, like tiny
messengers from them to us, are always speeding on their noiseless way.
They travel to us through space, or rather through something finer than air
or water, which fills all the room between us and them--for no place in the
universe is really empty.
You may be surprised to hear that these messengers come from the stars by
day as well as by night; but remember that they are _always_ shining in
their places in the sky. We cannot see the starlight waves while the sun's
great light is shining upon us; but you know how beautifully they shine on
clear nights, when there is neither sunlight nor moonlight to quench their
soft beams.
But after all, the stars are so far away that we must think specially of
our own star, the sun, as the source of light and heat; he also makes for
us all form and colour, and gives us the pictures drawn by his light which
we call photographs, and which make us know something of people we have
never seen, and places which we may never visit.
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