INTRODUCTION. 13 



almightiness of God was declared to be composed of a 

 cluster of 170 worlds ; by the new stellar photographic 

 process no fewer than five thousand are " clearly im- 

 printed." 



After many years of close observation, our astronomers 

 succeeded in making a great map of the Pleiades, referred 

 to in perhaps the oldest book in the world, the poem of 

 Job. That map numbered 671 stars, though to our un- 

 aided eyes there would appear but seven; by the new 

 system of stellar photography 1421 are visible. Thus it 

 appears that stars may be photographed which the tele- 

 scope fails to discover, but which the microscope reveals 

 after the subtle influence of light has been united to the 

 mysterious power of chemistry; and in this way it is 

 said that seven thousand nelulce, or clusters of stars, 

 have been discovered already. 



David was quite correct, then, when he sang, "The 

 heavens declare the glory of God." 



But what will the reader say if I tell him that I am 

 informed by a living authority of undoubted credibility * 

 that he had an astro-photograph, taken by one well- 

 known observer (Mr. J. Koberts), and examined by another 

 (Professor G. Darwin), on a small plate, covering an area 

 of only three inches and a quarter, which, on a careful 

 examination, was found to represent such a number of 

 stars for the area it imprinted, as, if held to be the 

 type of the distribution of the stars throughout space, 

 would show the existence of 175 millions? But this 

 was an exposure of one hour only ; there have been 

 exposures, he says, for four hours with an ever-increasing 

 number of star-disclosures on the plate so exposed. So that 

 it is only fair to say, he adds, that there are at present 

 within the reach of man's vision as many or more stars 



* Dr. Dallinger. 



