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Tribune Exlras Lecture and Letter Scries. 



stricken region. The old theory of Sir William Herscbel 

 was that, tin? Milkv Way was ir.-ide up of stars lying in 

 & long train, lining further and farther away. Rcmom- 

 beriug my plan, you -will sen that all I had to <lo was to 

 take these regions where the star- w.-re rich, and, if I 

 found they agreed with these other regions then I 

 should l-e sale to adopt the safe inference as in the case 

 ol the im.iginary traveler, and so should be led to be- 

 lieve that the large and .sin ill stars of the Milky Way 

 ore in the same "region, differing in size, not merely by 

 distance. 



Wo shall have tne central part of a map of 324,000 

 etars. In the center you see two bright stars. These 

 are the guardians of the Pole. You are looking at that 

 part of the heavens as seen vrith a telescope not HV.T 

 two inches In diameter, and yet you will see part ieu- 

 larly at that p.irtof tne heavens, at the Little Bear, that 

 there are cuiintless stars. How much more is shown by 

 large u-iei. -opes in the richest places! It leads us to 

 consider what would bo the result if the power of the 

 eye wore increased gradually to the power of the tele- 

 Bcope, and should, then go on increasing until at last it 

 had the power or oue of Herschel's gauging telescopes, 

 revealing 21.00'J.OOO stars, and then still more increased 

 to the powi-r of the Rosso telescope. Imagine the 

 power of the eye increasing to the power of a telescope 

 20 or more inches in aperture, and think of the heaven's 

 glory wiih this myriad of suns! To the Almighty these 

 wonders exist, and it is only the feebleness of our 

 flenses, it is only the small opening of the eye, which 

 renders us blind to these wonders existing around us. 



A SURVEY OF THE HEAVENS. 



Now a picture will be shown in which you will see in- 

 dicated the result of this investigation. You will see 

 that in the upper part the stars are thicker than in the 

 lower. The upper part is where the Milky Way crosses 

 f,i-s:opea'3 chair. All that light between that and An- 

 dromeda is produced by the multitude of stars which 

 ore visible through a telescops of 2J inches in diameter. 

 We cannot fail to see that the same mode of reasoning 

 Is applicable here, and the result is that the Milky Way 

 Is a stream of largo and small stars mixed together. 



Here you have a still more peculiar arrangement of 

 the stars. Here you see the head of the Bull in the di- 

 rection toward the constellation Orion, and between the 

 Pleiades and the head of the Hull you see a curious dark 

 opening. Wo notice regions in various parts of the 

 lieavens where very few stars are seen. Iflnrt that that 

 opening is continued by a more powerful telescope, and 

 eull there is the same poverty of stars. I am going to 

 try with Lord Lindsay's telescope, when I reach En- 

 gland, to seo if it still continues. Another picture will 

 Bhow that we aro gradually returning to the same rich 

 region. 



Then it is that we reach the Milky Way. The three 

 brighter stars of the Little Dog may ba recognize, i 

 which lie in the border of the Milky Way. Herschel's 

 theory wa-i that the.se clouds of light were produced by 

 the stars brought into view by the largo telescopes, but 

 here wo see that these represent the end of tlie Milky 

 Way. In this next mapjyou may recognize stars familiar 

 to us. You rnav POO these stars of the Wagon, or as you 

 call it, tlir Dipper. 



Now tlii.i m.ip will pass on and another will apprar 

 when! we an- tending toward the Milky Way on the left. 

 That will pass on and the last of the.se separate pictures 

 will bo shown, and that will show how the cloud of light 

 Is there brought into view by tin-so greatest of 

 our stura. Thut Is precisely the part of the heav- 



ens in the Swan that appenrs librs a elonl 

 on a dark night. T.io oil theory of the 

 stars must be abandoned, for not indicating tho much 

 greater variety of that cluster. AnotVr picture will 

 be oast on the screen illustrating the star dl-.triiiution. 

 It shows tho multitudinous stirs winch aro iii'-l:i led 

 with the Stars of Argonauta. We wi'l piss from this 

 map to another showing the star cloudlets. You s ^o tho 

 ennuiis manner in .vhich they are fitted into the Milky- 

 Way. Here we have some of tho vory reasons forth it 

 kind of arrangement of whicli I was sp3akinsr when 

 I referred to clumps of trees. Wo recoguizj a certain 

 delimte urrangcm --nt throughout tho whole, an:i sea that 

 they form a part of one system. We find a real connec- 

 tion between tho star cloudlets and tne st:irs. V?<>, aro 

 shown thatall thosu cloudlets are part and parcel of 0119 

 system. 



THE EXTREME VARIETY OF STELLAR SYSTEMS. 

 Now we shall have that picture whiou is intended to 



indicate another astronomer's theory. 1 call your at- 

 tention to it, because I want to show that there is no 

 evidence in its favor. Ttio center of the stcll ir svst -m. 

 if it has a center, will bo in tho plane of the Milky Way. 

 He extended the argument in this way: As you go 

 nearer and nearer toward a central sun you will flnd tno 

 stars travel more and more slowly. Nowthitis not 

 true. The nearer you come to a irreat cluster of stars 

 the slower they move. They have a drift in one direction, 

 and the stars which lioover tho central sun would seem 

 to lag behind, so he reasoned that as wo approach tho 

 sun, we shall flnd the stars drifting in another direction. 

 Another map will now ba brought on tho screen, and 

 there you will see how I jotted down all the stars of the 

 northern heavens, and how I jotted down ly them littlo 

 arrows that indicate the direction in whicli each is 

 traveling. You will see that the arrows are of different 

 lengths; each one indicates by its length tho distance 

 the star with which it is connected will travel 

 in 36,000 years. Here are tlio stars of the 

 southern heavens, with ttioir little arrows 

 attached to them. I conceive that no such regular ar- 

 rangement, after what is shown in this n.-w map, can 

 be believed in. There you hava tho theory of Sir 

 William Herschel; but I repeat I conceive that no such 

 regularity of arrangement can bo believed in for a mo- 

 ment. The next picture, which will now b.- broughl on, 

 shows what I tuko to ho the variety of constitution in 

 tho stellar stream. With all those there are varie- 

 ties of star cloudlets and varieties of arrange- 

 ment which we can never reduce to 

 uniformity. We. ought no longer to adopt those uniform 

 rules, but be ready to admit those views which seem 

 most varied rather than those which appear most uni- 

 form. We see in tho star depths the mo-st wonderful ex- 

 liiiiition of vitality a vitality so great that no imagina- 

 tion can form any conception of it. Wo find, In tho 

 words of the psalmist : " Whan I consider Thy heavens, 

 the work of Thy fingers, tho moon and tho stars, which 

 Thou hast ordained ; what is man, that Thou art mindful 

 of him, and tUo sou of man. that Thou visitest hlui 1" 



