THE GREAT STAR MAP 445 



the Sahara, they might fairly be considered to show strong 

 evidence of convergence: the distribution of the 'drift II.' 

 -directions is quite analogous." 



We may note yet one more point in this very interesting 

 paper. Eddington found that there was a whole class of 

 stars which it was better for him to exclude. They seem to 

 have a common motion of their own, like that of the Taurus 

 cluster. Moreover, their spectra are all alike (of the Orion 

 type), which is further evidence of relationship ; and finally 

 they present two indications of great distance — first that their 

 apparent movements are very small, and next that the stars 

 themselves cluster towards the Milky Way. (We have seen 

 that the stars presumably near to us have large proper motions 

 and are distributed indifferently.) The inference that the distant 

 stars forming the Milky Way do not share in Kapteyn's two 

 drifts seems to be plain. Recurring to Hinks's idea of star 

 clouds, it seems probable that these "Orion" stars belong to 

 a distant cloud, distinct from the two which have met and 

 mingled in our neighbourhood. But before we can accept these 

 rough suggestions as facts we must do much more work in the 

 examination of stellar movements, such as it is the object of the 

 promoters of the Great Star Map to initiate. 



One feature of such work on the stars which impresses itself 

 deeply on the consciousness of those who undertake it is worthy 

 of more than passing notice, though it may not be easy to 

 communicate the impression to others. In dealing with the 

 comparison of the places of thousands of stars at two different 

 epochs, a feeling of awe is evoked on finding so few cases of 

 change. As one turns over page after page of records and sees 

 at a glance that the differences are too small to be significant, 

 the first feeling of mere satisfaction at the accuracy of the 

 measurement gradually yields to this growing sense of the pro- 

 fundity of the depths of space which makes this awful stillness. 

 It might not be suspected that pages of figures could serve to 

 develop so sentimental an impression : the layman would be 

 prepared to learn that the observer of distant stars in a huge 

 telescope might feel emotion, but figures, especially in a cataract 

 of thousands, seem far too prosaic. Nevertheless the interpreta- 

 tion of the figures becomes with practice a very rapid mental 

 process, so that one sees behind them the realities they indicate. 



A long piece of work of this kind is indeed effective in 



