6 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



on the heavens ? If we do this it will not matter 

 whether our observatory or our telescope have slightly 

 shifted, whether the air acts more or less strongly in 

 bending the rays of light from the star, and so on. For 

 now, we are no longer concerned in trying to find the, 

 absolute place of the star upon the heavens, but in 

 noting how it seems to be placed with regard to a 

 neighbouring star, an inquiry which can be in no way 

 affected by these difficulties. 



Now Herschel had repeatedly noticed faint stars 

 very close by bright ones. There were some instances 

 in which the faint star was so minute and so close by 

 the larger one, that it required one of his most powerful 

 telescopes to see the small star at all as an object 

 distinct from the larger one. Cases such as this ob- 

 viously promised to afford very satisfactory information 

 about star distances. The very faint orb must lie at an 

 enormous distance beyond the bright one so, at least, 

 Herschel believed, while a fortunate chance seemed 

 to have placed the two orbs so nearly in the same 

 direction that the least displacement of the brighter 

 orb, on account of the earth's motion, must necessarily 

 be made apparent. 



But the careful study of many such cases brought 

 only disappointment, so far as Herschel's main object 

 was concerned. There was absolutely no trace, in any 

 instance examined by him, of that seeming vibratory 

 motion of the brighter orb, year after year, which 

 Herschel had hoped to recognize. The conviction grew 

 gradually upon him that there had been a flaw in his 



