THE GREAT NEBULA IN ORION. 8 7 



ceivably enormous in extent that the star-system of 

 which our sun is a member shrinks into nothingness in 

 comparison ? Surely it seemed far more reasonable to 

 recognise in the Orion nebula but a portion of our 

 galaxy, a portion very vast in extent, but far inferior 

 to that c limitless ocean of universes ' presented to us 

 by the other view. 



And when Sir W. Herschel was able, as he thought > 

 to point to changes taking place within the Orion 

 nebula, it seemed yet more improbable that the object 

 was a star-system. 



But now telescopes more powerful than those with 

 which the elder Herschel had scanned the great nebula 

 were directed to its examination. Sir John Herschel, 

 following in his father's footsteps, applied himself to 

 the diligent survey of the marvellous nebula with a 

 reflecting telescope eighteen inches in aperture. He 

 presented the nebula to us as an object of which ' the 

 revelation of the ten-feet telescope was but the mere 

 rudiment.' Strange outlying wisps and streamers of 

 light were seen, extending far out into space. Yet 

 more strange seemed the internal constitution of the 

 object. So strange, indeed, did the nebula appear, ' so 

 unlike what had hitherto been known of collections of 

 stars,' that Sir John Herschel considered the evidence 

 afforded by its appearance as sufficient to warrant the 

 conclusion of a non-stellar substance. 



But this eminent astronomer obtained a yet better 

 view of the great nebula when he transported to the 

 Cape of Good Hope an instrument equal in power to 



