IHE MILKY WAYS OF STARS AND NEBUL.E. 



Arcturus at but one-tenth part of a second, 

 the actual diameter of this star would still 

 come out eleven times greater than that of our 

 sun(^«). The distance of the star 61 Cygni, for 

 the discovery of which we are indebted to Bes- 

 sel, has led us approximatively to a knowledge 

 of the quantity of material particles, which, as 

 a double star, it contains. Although the por- 

 tion of the apparent path which has been 

 passed through since Bradley's observations, 

 is not yet sufficiently great to enable us to con- 

 clude with perfect certainty upon the true path, 

 and the semi-axis major of the same, it has still 

 become matter of probability to the great as- 

 tronomer of Konigsberg, " that the mass of the 

 double star in question is not materially either 

 less or more than half the mass of our sun(")." 

 This is the conclusion from actual measure- 

 ment. Analogies which are derived from the 

 greater masses of the moon-attended planets 

 of our solar system, and from the fact that 

 Struve finds six times as many double stars 

 among the brighter fixed stars as among the 

 telescopic ones, have led other astronomers to 

 conjecture that the mass of the greater num- 

 ber of the twin-stars is in the mean greater 

 than that of the sun(^^). General results, how- 

 ever, cannot be looked for in this direction for 

 long years to come. With reference to proper 

 motion in space, our sun, according to Arge- 

 lander, belongs to the class of fixed stars which 

 are in rapid motion. 



The view of the heavens inlaid with stars, 

 the relative position of the stars and nebulous 

 spots, as also the distribution of their luminous 

 masses,' the charms of the landscape, if I may 

 here make use of the expression, presented by 

 the firmament at large, will depend, in the 

 course of millenniums, relatively on the proper 

 actual motions of the stars and nebulae, on the 

 translation of our solar system in space, on the 

 bursting out of new stars, and on the disap- 

 pearance, or sudden diminution in the inten- 

 sity of light in old stars ; finally, and especially, 

 on the alterations which the axis of the earth 

 experiences through the attraction of the sun 

 and moon. The beautiful stars of the Centaur 

 and the southern Cross will one day become 

 visible in these northern latitudes, whilst oth- 

 er stars and constellations, Sirius and Orion's 

 belt, will have sunk. The stationary north 

 pole will be indicated in succession by stars in 

 Cepheus (/5 and a), and the Swan (S), until, 

 after the lapse of 12,000 years, Vega in Lyra 

 will appear as the most brilliant of all the pos- 

 sible polar stars. These statements serve to 

 bring sensibly before us the vastness of the 

 motions which in infinitely small divisions of 

 time go on incessantly like an eternal clock — 

 the timepiece of the Universe. If we imagine, 

 as in a vision of the fancy, the acuteness of 

 oar senses preternaturally sharpened, even to 

 the extreme limit of telescopic vision, and in- 

 cidents compressed into a day or an hour, 

 which are separated by vast intervals of time, 

 everything like rest in spacial existence will 

 fortliwith disappear. We shall find the innu- 

 merable host of the fixed stars commoved in 

 groups in different directions ; nebulae drawing 

 hither and thither, like cosmic clouds ; the 

 milky way breaking up in particular parts, and 

 Its veil rent ; motion in every point of the 



vault of heaven, as on the surface of the earth, 

 in the germinating, leaf-pushing, flower-unfold- 

 ing organisms of its vegetable covering. The 

 celebrated Spanish botanist, Cavanilles, first 

 conceived the thought of*' seeing grass grow," 

 by setting the horizontal threads of a microme- 

 ter attached to a powerful telescope, at one 

 time upon the tip of the shoot of a Bambusa, 

 at another upon that of the fast-growing flow- 

 ering stem of an American aloe (Agave Ameri- 

 cana), precisely as the astronomer brings a cul- 

 minating star upon the cross wires of his in- 

 strument. In the aggregate life of nature, or- 

 ganic as well as sidereal, Being, Maintaining, 

 and Becoming, are alike associated with motion. 



The disruption of the milky way, to which I 

 have alluded above, seems to require a more 

 particular explanation in this place. William 

 Herschel, our safe and admirable guide in these 

 regions of space, discovered, by means of his 

 star-gau^ings, that the telescopic breadth of 

 the milky way is six or seven degrees greater 

 than it appears upon our maps of the heavens, 

 and than the star-glimmer indicates it to the un- 

 assisted eye("). The two brilliant nodes in which 

 both branches of the milky zone unite, in the 

 regions of Cepheus and Cassiopea, as in those 

 of Scorpio and Sagittariu^, appear to exercise a 

 powerful attraction upon the neighbouring 

 stars ; betwixt (3 and y Cygni, however, in the 

 most brilliant region, of 333,000 stars that lie 

 in 5° of latitude, one-half draw towards one 

 side, the other half towards the opposite side. 

 Here Herschel suspects that the stratum breaks 

 up(^°). The number of the distinguishable tel- 

 escopic stars of the milky way — stars that are 

 broken by no nebulae — has been estimated at 

 eighteen millions. In order, I will not say to 

 give any idea of the magnitude of this number, 

 but to contrast it with something analogous, I 

 will remind the reader, that of stars between 

 the 1st and 6th magnitude, that are visible to 

 the naked eye, there are but some 8,000 scat- 

 tered over the whole face of the heavens. In 

 the barren astonishment, excited by vastness 

 of number and of space, without reference to 

 the spiritual nature or the faculty of perception 

 inherent in man, extremes in respect of dimen- 

 sions of the things that exist in space, likewise 

 me^ and contrast — the heavenly bodies with 

 the smallest forms of animal life : a cubic inch 

 of the tripoli of Bilin, contains, according to 

 Ehrenberg, 40,000 millions of the siliceous cov- 

 erings of the Galionellae ! 



To the milky way of stars, to which, accord- 

 ing to Argelander's acute observation, many 

 of the bright stars of the firmament appear re- 

 markably to approximate, there is a milky way 

 of nebulae opposed almost at right angles. The 

 former, according to Sir John Herschel's views, 

 forms a ring, a detached and somewhat remote 

 girdle, from the lenticular star-island similai 

 to the ring of Saturn. Our planetary system 

 lies excentrically, nearer to the region of the 

 Cross than to the diametrically opposite point 

 of Cassiopea(^^). The form of our astral stra- 

 tum, and the parted ring of our milky way, pre- 

 sent themselves reflected with wonderful simi- 

 larity in a nebula discovered by Messier, in 1774, 

 but imperfectly seen by him(«2) The milky 

 way of the nebulae does not properly belong to 

 our astral svstem ; it surrounds this, without 



