108 Randomness and its scientific treatment. [CHAP. v. 



division. What we are now discussing is a question of fact, 

 viz. the nature of a certain ultimate arrangement; we are 

 not discussing the particular way in which it is brought 

 about. In other words, the antithesis is between what is and 

 what is not random : it is not between what is random and 

 what is designed. As we shall see in a few moments it is 

 quite possible that an arrangement which is the result, if 

 ever anything were so, of design , may nevertheless present 

 the unmistakeable stamp of randomness of arrangement. 



Consider a case which has been a good deal discussed, 

 and to which we shall revert again: the arrangement of the 

 stars. The question here is rather complicated by the fact 

 that we know nothing about the actual mutual positions of 

 the stars, all that we can take cognizance of being their ap 

 parent or visible places as projected upon the surface of a 

 supposed sphere. Appealing to what alone we can thus 

 observe, it is obvious that the arrangement, as a whole, is 

 not of the random sort. The Milky Way and the other re 

 solvable nebulae, as they present themselves to us, are as ob 

 vious an infraction of such an arrangement as would be the 

 occurrence here and there of patches of ground in a rain-fall 

 which received a vast number more drops than the spaces 

 surrounding them. If we leave these exceptional areas out 

 of the question and consider only the stars which are visible 

 by the naked eye or by slight telescopic power, it seems 

 equally certain that the arrangement is, for the most part, a 

 fairly representative random one. By this we mean nothing 

 more than the fact that when we mark off any number oi 

 equal areas on the visible sphere these are found to contain 

 approximately the same number of stars. 



The actual arrangement of the stars in space may alsc 

 be of the same character: that is, the apparently densei 

 aggregation may be apparent only, arising from the fact thai 



