24: THE NEBULAE HYPOTHESIS. 



with the naked eye, or through a telescope of low power. 

 It is reasonably suspected that many of the still unresolved 

 nebulae might yield to a still higher telescopic power, were 

 such available to science and art ; and acting upon this sup- 

 position, some few astronomers have abandoned the nebular 

 theory, in which they previously believed, and attempted to 

 prove its impossibility. But in reference to this change of 

 astronomical faith from such a cause, Professor Michell 

 forcibly remarks, that " Herschel only adopted the [nebular] 

 theory after he had resolved many hundred of the nebulae into 

 stars ; and, if there ever existed a reason for accepting the 

 truth of this remarkable speculation, that reason has been 

 scarcely affected in any degree, by recent discoveries." 



The phenomenon of nebulous stars, especially, still remains 

 in its unimpaired force, as an argument for the probable truth 

 of the theory in question. These stars are spherical bodies, 

 bright in the center, from which there is a gradual shading 

 off into undistinguishable dimness as the circumference is ap- 

 proached. They exist in all degrees of apparent concentration, 

 from a diffused blur with a no very distinct nucleus, to a well 

 defined star surrounded by a haze. What can these bodies be 

 but masses of primeval matter, in various degrees of pro- 

 gression between their original, or most chaotic state, and that 

 of fully developed suns and planets? But these are pre- 

 cisely the various conditions which the nebular theory sup- 

 poses to take place during the different and progressive 

 stages of the process by which suns and planets are ultimately 

 formed. 



A brief summary of the further proofs of the nebular theory 

 may be presented as follows : 



1. It has already been remarked that the earth is an oblate 

 spheroid, flattened at the poles and bulged at the equator. 



