RATOR1ES OF THE UNIVERSE 139 



Construction of the Heavens, Herachd, with wider 

 views, a better instrument, and a clearer inai-ht 

 into what he oonaidered M the Laboratories of 



rse, wherein the roost salutary remedies for the 



decay of the whole are prepared/' essayed a bolder 



into a woi things, unattempted yet in 



prose or rhyme." Stars, clusters of stars, and nebula) 



were the tmiMing stones, so to speak, out of which 



.rhty Wisdom constructed the htarry sphere 

 i id our earth. How many of them exist, what 

 are their relations to each other, and how are they 

 arranged in space 7 were some of the questions to v 

 he sought an answer. When he began the work of 

 observation, he " surmised that several nebulae might 

 yet remain undiscovered for want of sufficient light to 

 detect them. . . . The event has plainly proved that 



expectations were well founded; f-r 1 have 

 already found 466 new nebulas and clusters of stars, 

 none of which, to my present knowledge, have been 

 sen before by any person." Great though the dis- 

 covery was, it was only the beginning of others 

 still greater. These nebulae or little white clouds 

 were similar to the Milky Way in the colour of their 

 but apparently of immensely leas extent The 



known of them, properly so called, was that of 



omeda, to which the attention of astronomers 

 was directed by Simon Marius in 16' 'there 



were seen and recorded during the next century 

 and a half, but the Magellanic clouds were visible 

 to the naked eye and formed a striking spectacle 

 in th. sou t hern heavens. The Dutch, who saw them 

 in t iges to India round South Africa, called 



the Clouds of the Cape. Astronomers were 



