THE MILKY WAY 



ASTRONOMY is the most beautiful of all the 

 sciences, but its beauties are hidden; mathe- 

 mathics shroud it with a veil too thick for 

 most. What astronomy deigns to reveal forms 

 the subject of cosmography, but, being restricted 

 to the study of the solar system, cosmography 

 sees in the stars only the motionless sentinels 

 watching over the paths of the heavens, and 

 tells us nothing about their transformations, 

 nor does it show us that they form an army 

 with a unity and a life of its own. Teaching 

 has its necessary limitations, nevertheless, 

 under the pretext of symplifying the exposition, 

 we ought not to be left with the idea that our 

 solar system is the only organised and animated 

 system in the world. This is doubly necessary, 

 because our experience seems to prove the con- 

 trary. At first sight the most utter disorder 

 appears to prevail in our universe; the con- 

 stellations, with their ridiculous names and 



220 



