PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 789 



photographs show it to be composed of a series of imperfectly 

 separated spirals surrounding a vast central condensation. This 

 peculiarity of the Andromeda nebula, which is invisible with tele- 

 scopes although conspicuous in the photographs, has, since its 

 discovery a few years ago, given a great impetus to speculation 

 concerning the transformation of nebulae into stars and star 

 clusters. No one can look at a good photograph of this wonder- 

 ful phenomenon without noticing its resemblance to the ideal 

 state of things which, according to the nebular hypothesis, must 

 once have existed in the solar system. It is to be remembered, 

 however, that there is probably sufficient material in the Androm- 

 eda nebula to make a system many times, perhaps hundreds or 



The Chief Stars in the Pleiades. 



thousands of times, as extensive as that of which our sun is the 

 center. If one contemplates this nebula only long enough to get 

 a clear perception of the fact that creation was not ended when, 

 according to the Mosaic history, God, having in seven days fin- 

 ished " the heavens and the earth and all the host of them," rested 

 from all his work, a good blow will have been dealt for the cause 

 of truth. Systems far vaster than ours are now in the bud, and 

 long before they have bloomed, ambitious man, who once dreamed 

 that all these things were created to serve him, will probably 

 have vanished with the extinguishment of the little star whose ra- 

 diant energy made his life and his achievements briefly possible. 

 In August, 1885, a new star of magnitude six and a half made 

 its appearance suddenly near the center of the Andromeda neb- 

 ula. Within one year it had disappeared, having gradually 

 dwindled until the great Washington telescope, then the largest 

 in use, no longer showed it. That this was a phenomenon con- 



