K ANTIQUITY OF NEBULA 147 



that this ocean of ether ia in any degree impervious 



< )lberH, of Bremen, auggeated 

 be. Precisely aa the glass or the born, 

 li ray 8 of light paaa, keepa part of them 

 back or abaorba them, the infinite ocean of ether may 

 have a similar effect, though in a vastly leaa degree. 

 Thin apprehension remains a mere speculation to 

 day. Son,, tunes these inland* of stars were broken 

 into clusters of atara showing magnitir< nt colours, 

 moat splendid objects that can be 

 in the heavens. They seemed to concentrate 

 a centre. The Milky Way is one of these islands, 

 which the population consists in suns and worlds. 

 Others, separated from it and from each other, and 

 even appa hanging their shape from age to age, 



are " generally seen upon a very clear and pure ground 

 without any star near them that might be supposed to 



; to tin-in." With all this sublimity of expos. 

 and explanation, Herschel at the same time asks for 

 aideration from critics and readers, " for, this subject 

 being so new, I look upon what is here given partly as 

 an example to illustrate the spirit of the method" 

 idea Herschel formed and then figured of the 

 shape of the Milky Way may be best understood 

 niparing it to the palm of the hand with only 

 two fingers the middle and the forefinger and these 

 8tn-trh.-,l fully out. Our sun h- snpp,>rl to ] n--:ir 

 the roots of the fingers, looking out into open space 

 through the interval between them. He had th- 

 also that our star-island " has fewer marks of antiquity 

 upon it than the rest" He believed that its stars 

 " are now drawing towards various secondary centres, 

 and will in time separate into different clusters so aa 



