THE GREAT NEBULA IN ORION. 85 



There sinks the nebulous star we call the Sun, 

 If that hypothesis of theirs be sound. 



And in the teaching of comely Psyche : 



This world was once a fluid haze of light, 

 Till toward the centre set the starry tides, 

 And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast 

 The, planets. 



Few theories have met with a stranger fate. Received 

 respectfully at first on the authority of the great astro 

 nomer who propounded it then in the zenith of his 

 fame the theory gradually found a place in nearly all 

 astronomical works. But, in the words of a distinguished 

 living astronomer, The bold hypothesis did not receive 

 that confirmation from the labours of subsequent in 

 quirers which is so remarkable in the case of many of 

 Herschel s other speculations. It came to pass at length 

 that the theory was looked upon by nearly all English 

 astronomers as wholly untenable. In Grermany it was 

 never abandoned, however, and a great modern discovery 

 has suddenly brought it into general favour, and has in 

 this, as in so many other instances, vindicated Herschel s 

 claim to be looked upon as the most clear-sighted, as 

 well as the boldest and most original of astronomical 

 theorisers. 



Herschel had pointed out various circumstances 

 which, in his opinion, justified a belief in the existence 

 of a nebulous substance fire-mist or star-mist, as it 

 has been termed throughout interstellar space. He 

 had discovered and observed several thousand nebulae, 

 and he considered that amongst these he could detect 

 traces of progressive development. Some nebulae were, 



