The most fairy-like transformations of our theaters, the most resplendent pageants of our military reviews, the most sumptuous marvels on which the human race can pride itself - all that we admire, all that we envy on the Earth - is as nothing compared with the unheard-of wonders scattered through Infinitude.

Translated by Frances Alice Welby, Astronomy for Amateurs, Introduction (p. 16), D. Appleton & Co. 1915