242 THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS. 



not of a starry nature ; &quot; and on this conclusion was based 

 his hypothesis of a diffused luminous fluid, which by its 

 eventual aggregation, produced stars. A telescopic pow 

 er much exceeding that used Ly Ilerschel, lias enabled 

 Lord Kossc to resolve some of the nebula) previously un 

 resolved ; and, returning to the conclusion which Ilerschel 

 first formed on similar grounds but afterwards rejected, 

 many astronomers have assumed that, under sufficiently 

 high powers, every nebula would be decomposed into stars 

 that the resolvability is solely a question of distance. Tho 

 hypothesis now commonly entertained is, that all ncbuhu 

 arc galaxies more or less like in nature to that immediately 

 surrounding us ; but that they arc so inconceivably re 

 mote, as to look, through an ordinary telescope, like small 

 faint spots. And not a few have drawn the corollary, that 

 by the discoveries of Lord liosse ihc Nebular Hypothesis 

 has been disproved. 



Now, even supposing that these inferences respecting 

 the distances and natures of the nebulic arc valid, they leave 

 the Nebular Hypothesis substantially as it was. Admit 

 ting that each of those faint spots is a sidereal system, so 

 far removed that its countless stars give less light than 

 one small star of our own sidereal system ; the admission 

 is in no way inconsistent with the belief, that stars and their 

 attendant planets have been formed by the aggregation of 

 nebulous matter. Though, doubtless, if the existence of 

 nebulous matter now in course of concentration be dis 

 proved, one of the evidences of the Nebular Hypothesis is 

 destroyed ; yet the remaining evidences remain just as they 

 were. It is a perfectly tenable position, that though nebu 

 lar condensation is now nowhere to be seen in progross, yet 

 it was once going on universally. And, indeed, it might 

 bo argued that the still-continued existence of diffused 



O 



nebulous matter is scarcely to be expected; seeing that 

 Ihc causes which have resulted in the aggregation of ono 



