276 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. FT. in. 



astronomical catalogues of past centuries that the stars do 

 not stand in exactly the same places with regard to us as 

 they did in ages gone by, and that, therefore, either we or 

 they must be moving through space. Now, when everything 

 around you appears to be moving backwards, it is most 

 likely, to say the least, that it is you who are moving forwards, 

 and not that all other things are in motion ; therefore Her- 

 schel concluded that the reason of the apparent change in 

 the place of the stars was the real movement of our sun and 

 its planets among them. 



But, if such were the case, then there ought to be 

 one point straight in front of our path which would not 

 appear to move ; for if you walk into a forest you will 

 observe that the trees on either side appear to spread farther 

 and farther apart as you approach, but that those exactly in 

 front of you will not seem to change their places. Now 

 Sir W. Herschel found one point in the sky, in the con- 

 stellation Hercules, where the greater number of the stars 

 do not appear to move, while those to the right and the 

 left seem to be gliding off each in their own direction. He 

 therefore concluded that our sun is carrying the earth and 

 the other planets straight towards this point in the con- 

 stellation Hercules. The rate at which this movement 

 goes on is not accurately known, but it must be very 

 great, probably at least as much as 150,000,000 miles every 

 year. 



And here we must leave the discoveries of this great 

 astronomer, although we have only glanced at them very 

 superficially. The immense strides in astronomy made by 

 Laplace, Lagrange, and Herschel cannot be understood in a 

 moment ; and I wish you always to remember that you can 

 only gather crumbs of knowledge from this book, which 



