The Evolution of the Sciences 



orbit, and revealed stars whose light takes 

 more than two thousand years to reach us. 

 With this instrument the firmament appeared 

 peopled with thousands of millions of stars. 



In the midst of this swarm of worlds the 

 Milky Way alone gives us an impression of 

 continuity; though its long whitish trail, which 

 stretches round the heavens, presents great 

 variations of size, for its apparent width is in 

 places four times as great as in others, and it 

 separates into two branches for a third of its 

 length. But its continuity is only an illusion. 

 Seen with the telescope it resolves itself into 

 myriads of stars more or less densely packed 

 together. However, its median line forms 

 practically a great circle of the celestial sphere, 

 at an angle of 60 with our equator, 

 called the galactic circle; thus the Milky Way 

 appears to us as an immense ring encircling 

 our world and apparently alone representing 

 order in the chaos of the universe. 



In reality it represents order more than 

 would appear from a superficial examination. 

 In order to understand the true role of the 



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