Proctor's Astronomical Lectures. 



seven stars of the Groat Bear. Five of these stars are 

 traveling In a common direction aud apparently at a 

 coinuiou rate. Now these stars are notable also in 

 -avingthe same kind of a spectrum, that leading order 

 to which Sirius belongs. It has the strongly marked 

 lii.es of hydrogen. Tuoy must bo really much further 

 a Ta.y ihau these otuer stars, those in /^ the 

 u;>i>'ir 1uc jsu-o, aud they are really fur- 

 ther > nay. WUar, I thought, when I uotetl that 

 CrlfMnt, vv-.o 'hat they belonged to a drifting family, 

 id. i>roi 'jei.jd Chat when Dr. Uuggina should apply 

 nie-.as pf dctciin. ling the recession or approach of a 

 eii--, tn's would be found to bo the fact. The expert- 

 IIIHUD Tas made audmy piedictiouvoriflod. Our kuowl- 

 t- dgo of thi:, laet is based on a very simple principle. 

 Lvht cornea to us by a series of waves. If we are ap- 

 pro, ^hiug the source of these waves, they seein to come 

 quicker; if we are receding from it. they appear slower. 

 1 ( > on are swiaiiuiug in the water aud meet the waves, 

 they seem to have narrower crests. It Is the s:irae 

 with sound. If you are on a railroad train when another 

 tra'n is approaching upon which the bell is soundiusr, 

 vheu that train passes you will notice a sudden change 

 iu tho sound from acute to grave. So it is with light. 

 li wo are approaching a star with rapidity, the waves 

 will be shortened; otherwise they will be lengthened. 

 The hues in the spectrum will be displaced, and we shall 

 kuow whether the star is approaching or receding. Dr. 

 Huggins found that these stars were receding at the 

 rate of 17 miles in every second of time. 



There is another sign of change in the stars ; a gather- 

 ing in a certain region. There is, in point of fact, a vast 

 variety wl'ere everything seems so regular. Look at the 

 milky -way in a dark and clear niarht. curdled 

 in one p.rt. branchintr in another, and how the 

 branches sep.irato, gathering in nodules of light- 

 ness and then fading, ana theu believe ttiat the 

 star systems are so regular as you suppose! It is 

 infinitely more full of variety and vitality than you 

 have si>pp^_-d. Now wo will have a picture, which I 

 h\ve drawn very roughly, to 'show tho variety existing 

 in the star system. We e there streams aud nodules 

 and branches of brightness, and it seems to me that 

 when the astronomer has penetrated into the recesses 

 of the Milky Way, that he has no more reached the 

 bounds of the uuiverse than at the beginning 

 of hia research. He has only examined more 

 and more minutely a particular corner 

 of the star system. Tt really extends ou every side, 

 around and around that system, aud we have no reason 

 to believe that we can reach the bounds of the star sys- 

 tem. The telescope nriuKS into view, beside the larger 

 stars, minute starry flakes; and if the telescope could be 

 made stronger, it would bring into view more and more, 

 and we should find that the extent was really illimita- 

 ble. 



We find a group of guns of which our Bun Is a single 

 member. Then again we pass to systems brought into 

 view by the telescope, and find that the star system to 

 which our sun belongs is only a part of that one an 

 atom in space. The astronomer can give the figures, 



but ho can no more express thrlr significance to hlmsell 

 than ho can unfold their limitless meauiug to others. 



RICIITEK'8 DREAM. 



I do not know that I cau coucluue my lecture better 

 than by quoting Eichter's dream, in which he shows the 

 feebleness of man's imagination in the presence of the 

 infinite wonders of the universe, aa translated by our 

 own prose poet, De Qniucey : 



God called up from dreams a man into the vestihula 

 of Heaven, saying, " Come thou hither and see tho 

 glories ot My Kinsrdom." and to the angels that stood 

 around His throne He said : " Take him ! Strip from him 

 his robes of flVsh, cleanse his vision, and put a new 

 breath into his nostrils; only touch not with any 

 change his human heart, tho heart that weeps 

 and trembles." It was done, aud with a migtity 

 angel for hia guide the man stood ready for hia 

 infinite voyage; and from the terraces of Heaven, 

 without sound or farewell, on a sudile.n they swept into 

 infinite space. Sometimes, with the solemn flight of 

 angel wings, they passed through Z iharas of dark- 

 ness, through wildernesses of death tnat divided tlio 

 worlds of life ; sometimes they passed over thresholds 

 that were quickening under prophetic motions from 

 God; then, from beyond distances that are counted only 

 in Heaven, light dawned as through a shapeless film ; by 

 unutterable pace they passed to the light, the light by 

 unutterable puce passed them. In a moment, tlie Ijlaza 

 of suns was npou them, in a moment the rush of plan- 

 ets was around them. 



Then came eternities of twilight that revealed, buC 

 were not revealed ; on the right hand and on the left 

 towered gigantic constellations that by self-repetitions 

 and answers from afar, that by counter-posiWuus, built 

 up triumphal gateways whose archways, whose archi- 

 traves, horizontal, upright, rested, rose, at altitude of 

 spans that seemed ghostly from infinitude; without; 

 measure were the architraves, past number the arch- 

 ways, beyond memory the srates. Within were stairs that 

 scaled the eternities around; above was below and below 

 was above, to man stripped of gravitating body. Depth 

 was swallowed up in night insurmountable; high t was 

 swallowed up in depth unfathomable. On a sudden, <ts 

 thus they rode from infinite to iufiuito, on a sudden, aa 

 thus they tilted over abysmal worlds, a mighty cry arose 

 that systems more mysterious, that worlds more bil- 

 lowy, other lights, other depths, were coming, were near- 

 ing, were at hand. 



Then tho man sicrhed and stopped, shuddered and 

 wept. His overladen heart uttered itself in tears, and 

 hbsaid: " Angel, I will go no farther, for the spirit of 

 man acheth with this infinity. Insufferable ia the glory 

 of God. Let me lie down, and hide me in the grave 

 from the persecution of tho tufiaibe, for end I see there 

 is none." And from all the listening stars that shone 

 around there issued a choral voice: "The man 

 speaks truly. End is there none that ever yet we 

 heard of." "End is there nonel" the uiigel solemnly de- 

 manded ; " Is there indeed no end, and is this the sor- 

 row that kills you?" But no voice answered, that ho 

 micht answer himself. Then the angel threw up his 

 glorious hands to tho heaven of heaveno, eaying, "End 



