May 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOMTLEDGK 



225 



of the workman or explorer. By Egyptian belief the dead 

 man became a part of the god Osiris, and thus by a natural 

 ti-ansition the funeral chapel became the temple. In this 

 may be found the explanation of the fact that, while temples 

 dedicated to a god alone are found on the east bank of the 

 Nile, on the west, where funeral chapels would naturally 

 be built near the City of the Daad, these exist in temple 

 form in honour of a king and god conjointly. Such is the 

 temple of Seti at Abydos in honour of six gods and of Seti 

 himself. On Egyptian, as well as Assyrian and Phoenician 

 art, pictui-e-writing had a very great influence. In the 

 hidden recesses of the Egyptian tomb are painted and 

 sculptured the history of the dead man's deeds in life, the 

 story of the soul's wanderings and transformations after 

 death. On bas-reliefs, on the stone copies of the robes of 

 Assyrian monarchs, on Phcenician bowls are sculptured the 

 adventures of kings, the myths of the gods, and metaphori- 

 cal representations of the nation's power and history. The 

 Phcenician colonies spread over the Mediterranean Sea, and 

 the treasures of E;isteru art brought by these enterprising 

 tradere aroused the rude artists of Greece to rivalry. The 

 metope of Selinus' temple, now in the Palermo Museum, 

 the subject of which is the slaying of Medusa by Perseus, 

 is a specimen of the childhood of Greek art. It shows 

 traces of colouring, and the clear influence of the East. 

 (See fig. 6, p. 157.) With the Greeks, however, the human 

 form was looked upon as the perfection of beauty. Among 

 their predecessors the form was nothing, attention being 

 given only to the face and the di-apery. The first Greek gods 

 were heroes, and just as the gods were idealised men, 

 endowed with human emotions, so they were represented 

 in human form with the bodies of men and women rendered 

 as perfect as study and the selection of the most perfect 

 models could make them. 3*Iiss Harrison sketches the pro- 

 gress and decay of art in Greece, from its rise to its foil, 

 under the influence of Home ; but in this branch of her 

 work space forbids our following her. Her book is not only 

 instructive, but very plea.sant reading, since her style is 

 easy, forcible, and entirely devoid of pedantry. The book is 

 beautifully illustrated with photographs reproduced by the 

 Meisenbach process, which greatly enhance its value. 



THE SIDEREAL SYSTEM FATHOMLESS.* 



Br Richard A. Proctor. 



T is commonly supposed that Sir W. Hei-schel's 

 plan of star-gauging demonstiated that the 

 sidereal system has limits to which his gauging 

 telescopes peneti-ated (save in a few directions), 

 and that even where the system has its widest 

 extent its limits are certainly attainable by 

 such telescopes as men may well hope to 

 construct. I would invite attention to certain e%'idence 

 pointing to a very difierent conclusion. 



It is perfectly clear that if the sidereal system have the 

 figure hypothetically assigned to it by Sir SV. Herschel, that 

 of a lens shaped stratum throughout which stars ai-e distri- 

 buted with tolerable uniformity, then we must accept the 

 evidence adduced by him as sulScient to prove that we can 

 attain to the Limits of this stratum. To use the words of 

 Professor Nichol : '' When an eye is directed towards a pro 

 longed bed of stars, there is no reason to fancy that it has 

 reached the termination of that stratum, so long as there 

 appears behind the luminaries, which are individuaU)' seen, 



* This paper, like that on the Figure of the Milky Way, was 

 written when I was in correspondence with Sir John Herschel aboat 

 the architecture of the Heavens. 



any milky or nebulous light, such light probably arising 

 always from the blended rays of remoter masses. But if, 

 after struggling long with a nebulous ground, we obtain a 

 telescope that gives us additional light with a perfecthj blacl- 

 ski/, we then have every reason the circtrmstances can 

 furnish on Ijehalf of the supposition that at length we have 

 pierced through the stratum — a probability, indeed, which 

 can be converted into certainty in only one way, viz., when 

 no increase of orbs follows the applicKition of a still larger 

 instrument." Sir John Herschel also says that in those 

 regions where the zone is clearly resolved into stars well 

 separated and seen projected on a black ground, it is certain 

 if the ordinarily accepted theory be correct, that we look out 

 beyond into space. 



But this conclusion would no longer follow as a necessary 

 consequence of such observations if, instead of regarding the 

 sidereal system as of the figure and structure suggested by 

 Sir W. Herschel, we supposed it to consist of clustering 

 aggregations (including streams under that expression) of 

 stars of every variety of magnitude. Then, in struggling 

 with a nebulous ground, we should not be penetrating 

 farther and farther into the celestial depths, but should be 

 simply analysing more and more searchingly a definite 

 aggrecjation of stars. 



Let us consider a noteworthy instance, interesting not 

 only because it illustrates the mist-akes which might arise from 

 falsely assuming a certain uniformity in stellar aggi'egation, 

 but because it shows how a thoughtful astronomer like Sir 

 W. Herschel would instinctively recognise, under such cir- 

 cumstances, the fact that he was going astray, and would be 

 capable of quietly relinquishing views on which he had 

 before laid considerable stress. 



In the constellation Perseus there is a magnificent double 

 cluster, visible to the naked ej-e on tolerably clear nights, 

 and presenting, even in small telescopes, a scene which forces 

 sensations of awe and reverence tipon the least thoughtful 

 mind. With a huge telescope the spot " appears lighted 

 up," says Nichol, " with unnumbered orbs, and these pass on 

 and on, through the depths of the infinite, until even to 

 that penetrating glance they escape all scrutiny, withdraw- 

 ing into regions un\Tisited by its power. But shall we 

 i adventure into these deeper retirements 1 Then assume an 

 ' instrument of higher efficacy, and lo I the change is only 

 repeated ; the nearer stars now shine more brilliantly ; 

 those scarce observed before appear as large orbs ; and 

 liehind, a new series begins, again shading gradually away, 

 leading towaids fiu-ther mysteries I The illustrious Herschel 

 penetrated, on one occasion, into this sjjot, until he found 

 himself among depths whose light could not have reached 

 him in much less than four thousand years. No marvel 

 that he withdrew from the pursuit, conceiving that such 

 abysses must be endless 1 " 



But this conclusion, that the light from the furthermost 

 parts of the cluster occupy some forty centuries in reaching 

 us, while the light from the larger stars in the cluster, 

 according to the usual estimate of star magnitudes, would 

 occupy but one or two centuries, brought with it perplexities 

 which Sir W. Herschel was too clear-sighted not to recognise. 

 It required that the real shape of the cluster should be 

 somewhat as is shown in the accompanying figure, in which 

 s is the sun, and s b is some twenty times as great as s a. 

 On no other supposition could the peculiarities of the cluster 

 te explained, so long as it was underetood that a geneml 

 uniformity of magnitude and distribution prevails among 

 the component stars. 



Sir W. Herschel was thus led to recognise the cluster 

 as including within its bounds stars varying gre;itly in real 

 magnitude. Nay, he pronounced the opinion that we have 

 in this cluster a sort of nodule of the Milky Way — a dis- 



