What are those brilliant points - those innumerable stars, which, never dim, shine out unceasingly from the dark profound? Are they sown broadcast - orderless, with no other bond save that which perspective lends to them? Or, if not immovable, as we have so long imagined if not golden nails fixed to a crystal vault, whither are they bound?
The Heavens: An Illustrated Handbook of Popular Astronomy, (2nd edition), The Heavens (p. 1)