NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



map, measure, and even weigh vast objects that 

 affect no human sense. Of all the triumphs of the 

 scientific method, there is none more striking. 



It is clear from all this that, even if we could 

 count all the visible stars of space, we should still 

 have little idea of the total number of heavenly 

 bodies in a word, of the aggregate mass of the 

 universe. That has not hindered curious man 

 from attempting the count, and very ingenious is 

 the method employed. 



Early in the last century, Sir William Herschel 

 attempted to classify the stars according to their 

 brightness. They were divided up into stars of 

 "the first magnitude," the second, and so on, ac- 

 cording to their ability to shine through a screen 

 (later, according to extremely delicate photo- 

 metric methods). A French astronomer, the late 

 M. 1'Hermite, observed that the number of stars 

 from one "magnitude" to another in this classifica- 

 tion increased in steady progression. Measuring 

 very carefully the amount of light given out by 

 each order of stars, he was able to calculate the 

 total number of stars that would be required to 

 supply the total light we get from the stars now. 

 His estimate was something like sixty billion suns 

 (60,000 millions) larger than our own. 



From this a captivating suggestion. So far as 

 we know, the light of the stars is absolutely un- 



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