MOTION OF THE STARS. 269 



borrowed light of the planets which revolve round it, belongs 

 to the ever enlarging realm of mythical hypotheses. 



It is a more important consideration, and one more de- 

 serving of thorough investigation, that, on the supposition of 

 a revolving movement, not only of the whole of our planetary- 

 system which changes its place, but also for the proper 

 motion of the fixed stars at their various distances, the centre 

 of this revolving motion must be 90 distant 3 * from the point 

 towards which our solar system is moving. In this connexion of 

 ideas the position of stars possessing a great or very small 

 proper motion becomes of considerable moment. Argelan- 

 der has examined, with his usual caution and acuteness, the 

 degree of probability with which we may seek for a general 

 centre of attraction for our starry stratum in the constel- 

 lation of Perseus.* 7 Madler, rejecting the hypothesis of the 

 existence of a central body, preponderating in mass, as the 

 universal centre of gravity, seeks the centre of gravity 

 in the Pleiades, in the very centre of this group, in or 

 near 38 to the bright star rj Tauri (Alcyone). The present is 



36 Argelander, ibid. p. 42 ; Madler, Centralsonne, s. 9, and 

 Astr., s. 403. 



37 Argelander, ibid. p. 43 ; and in Schum. Astr. Nachr., 

 no. 566. Guided by no numerical investigations, but fol- 

 lowing the suggestions of fancy, Kant long ago fixed upon 

 Sirius, and Lambert upon the nebula in the belt of Orion, 

 as the central body of our starry stratum. (Struve, Astr. 

 Stell, p. 17, no. 19.) 



38 Madler, Astr., s. 380, 400, 407, and 414 ; in his Cen- 

 tralsonne, 1846, pp. 4447 ; in Untersuchungen uber die 

 Fixstern-Systeme, th. ii. s. 183185. Alcyone is in R. A. 

 54 30', Decl. 23 36', for the year 1840. If Alcyone's 

 parallax were really 0"'0065, its distance would be equal 

 to 31^ million semi-diameters of the earth's orbit, and thus 

 it would be 50 times further distant from us than the distance 

 of the double star 61 Cygni, according to Bessel's earliest 

 calculation. The light which comes to the earth from the 



