544 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



five stars are found to be all receding from the earth at the rate of ahout 

 30 miles per second. 



This result at once illustrates the interesting nature of Dr. Huggins's 

 discoveries, and affords promise of future relevations even more inter- 

 esting. The theories hitherto accepted respecting the constitution of 

 the stellar universe have been tried against the views recently pro- 

 pounded, with a result decidedly in favor of the latter. We may feel 

 assured that the matter will not rest here. A simple and decisive piece 

 of evidence, such as that we have described, will invite many to ex- 

 amine afresh the theories respecting the stellar heavens which have 

 so long been received unquestioningly. The theory of star-drift is as- 

 sociated with others equally novel, and which admit equally well of 

 being put to test. We venture to predict that, before many years have 

 passed, there will be recognized in the star-depths a variety of consti- 

 tution and a complexity of arrangement startlingly contrasted with the 

 general uniformity of structure recognized in the teachings at present 

 accepted. Spectator. 



THE UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OF THE BPwALN. 



Br WM. B. CAEPENTEE, M. D., LL. D., F. E. S. 



MANY of you, I doubt not, will remember that I had the pleasure 

 of addressing you in this hall some months ago, with reference 

 to researches which I had a share in carrying on into the Depths of 

 the Ocean, when I endeavored to give you some insight into the con- 

 ditions of the sea-bottom as regards temperature, pressure, animal life, 

 and the deposits now in process of formation upon it. 



Now, I am going this evening to carry you into quite a different 

 field of inquiry an inquiry which I venture to think I have had some 

 share in myself promoting, into what goes on in the Depths of our 

 own Minds. And I think I shall be able to show you that some prac- 

 tical results of great value in our own mental culture, as training and 

 as discipline, may be deduced from this inquiry. I shall begin with 

 an anecdote that was related to me after a lecture which I gave upon 

 this subject about five years ago, at the Royal Institution, in London. 

 As I was coming out from the lecture-room, a gentleman stopped me 

 and said, " A circumstance occurred recently in the north of England, 

 which I think will interest you, from its affording an exact illustration 

 of the doctrine which you have been setting forth to-night." The illus- 

 tration was so apposite, and leads us so directly into the very heart of 

 the inquiry, that I shall make it, as it were, the text for the commence- 

 ment of this evening's lecture. The manager of a bank in a certain 



1 A lecture, delivered in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester. 



