416 3Ir. David Gill on An Astronomer's Work. [May 29, 



Certainly, in the first place, we should have a huge whirlpool or 

 cyclone of cosmic gaseous stuff, the formation of rings, and the con- 

 densation of these rings into gaseous globes. 



Remembering this, look now on tliis v;onclerful photograph of 

 the nebula in Andromeda, made by Mr. Roberts. In the largest 

 telescopes this nebula appears simply as an oval patch of nearly 

 uniform light, with a few dark canals through it, but no idea of its 

 true form can be obtained, no trace can be found of the significant 

 story which this photograph tells. It is a picture that no human eye 

 unaided by photography has ever seen. It is a true picture drawn 

 without the intervention of the hand of fallible man, and uninfluenced 

 by his bias or imagination. Have we not here, so at least it seems 

 to me, a picture of a very early stage in the evolution of a star 

 cluster or sun-system — a phase in the history of another star-system 

 similar to that which once occurred in our own — millions and 

 millions of years ago — when our earth, nay, even our sun itself, " was 

 without form and void," and " darkness was on the face of the deep." 



During this lecture I have been able to trace but very imperfectly 

 the bare outlines of an astronomer's work in a modern observatory, 

 and to give you a very few of its latest results — results which do not 

 come by chance, but by hard labour, and to men who have patience 

 to face dull daily routine for the love of science — to men who realise 

 the imperfections of their methods and are constantly on the alert to 

 improve them. 



The mills of the astronomer grind slowly, and he must be infinitely 

 careful and watchful if he w^ould have them like the mills of God, to 

 grind exceeding small. 



I think he may well take for his motto these beautiful lines : — 



" Like the star 

 Which shines afar, 

 "Without haste, 

 "Without rest, 

 Let each man wheel 

 With steady sway, 

 Eonnd the task 

 Wliich rules the day, 

 And do his best." 



[D. G.] 



