26 



CAN WE COUNT THE STARS? 



of twenty millions (20,374,034) the number of stars visible 

 with the Herschel 2o-feet telescope. 



But, in presence of all the nebulae resolvable into stellar 

 masses, and before the development of the artificial range of 

 our sight, in presence, finally, of that hopeless perspective 

 which the more we discover the more we perceive how 





FIG. 4. 



much there remains to discover, are we not forcibly carried 

 back to our point of departure ? 



Ought not the imagination which, at the first glance, led us 

 to believe the number of stars to be infinite, ought it not to 

 draw us nearer to the truth ? 



How should the imagination reveal to us, without difficulty, 



