THE FIXED STARS. 509 



stars does not hold even in the region of space immediately about 

 our solar system. Since the ratio of number is smaller than it should 

 be to correspond to that of light, the density in which the stars are 

 aggregated if the expression be permitted must diminish as the 

 distance increases. Our sun is therefore in a part of space more 

 closely filled than are neighboring parts. This is perhaps the most 

 interesting result to which the study of photometry leads us, because 

 it seems so strange at first sight and even more strange when we 

 remember that the nearest of the other suns is distant from us more 

 than three years' journey of light. Truly, astronomy is without a 

 rival in its special mission, to contradict on every point the evidence 

 of superficial observation. We would most naturally suppose our uni- 

 verse to be as we are told it appeared to a distinguished visitor, when 

 at once 



" The golden sun, in splendor likest heaven, 

 Allured his eye ; . . . 



.... where the great luminary, 

 Aloof the vulgar constellations thick, 

 That from his lordly eye keep distance due, 

 Dispenses light from far." 



But this appearance of standing aloof is wholly misleading, and, more- 

 over, as our sun would rank by no means first among the fixed stars if 

 placed at the distance of the nearest of them, and would sink below 

 the third magnitude if removed as far as Sirius, its real insignificance 

 in the stellar firmament is almost as striking as its supremacy in its 

 own planetary system. The reflection is an interesting one, how 

 lamentably the grandest of poems must have suffered had its author 

 been compelled to regard the true proportions of the sidereal universe; 

 but for the true lover of nature, it may be hoped, the glory of the Al- 

 mighty handiwork will not be lessened through the disappearance from 

 fancy of the universal sovereignty of the sun along the track made for 

 it centuries ago by the vanished delusion that our earth was the un- 

 moved center of all things. 



It is very certain that an equable distribution could not hold 

 throughout all space (for an infinite number of stars impartially scat- 

 tered would, however vast the distances among them, give us a heaven 

 shining like the sun in every part, with heat to correspond) unless, 

 owing to the presence of innumerable dark bodies, or to a discontinuity 

 in the luminiferous ether itself, as some physicists have suggested, 

 light from remote distances is wholly or partly cut off before reaching 

 us. But to this view, though it would agree with all the facts, that of 

 a limitation of our firmament of stars, in extent and number, is gener- 

 ally preferred. That such a limitation exists we have other reasons 

 for believing : prominent among these is the system of distribution 

 which a census of the heavens brings to light. We could not expect 



