CELESTIAL PHENOMENA "1 



the foimative processes manifested in the original and per- 

 haps still progressive agglomerations of matter. In proceed- 

 ing from general to special considerations, it was particularly 

 desirable to draw attention to this diversity, not merely as i\ 

 possible, but as an actually proved fact. 



The purely speculative conclusions arrived at by Wright, 

 Kant, and Lambert, concerning the general structural ar- 

 rangement of the universe, and of the distribution of matter 

 in space, have been confirmed by Sir William Herschel on 

 the more certain path of observation and measurement. That 

 great and enthusiastic, although cautious observer, was the 

 first to sound the depths of heaven in order to determine the 

 limits and form of the starry stratum which we inhabit ; and 

 he too was the first who ventured to throw the light of inves- 

 tigation upon the relations existing between the position and 

 distance of remote nebulae and our own portion of the sidereal 

 universe. William Herschel, as is well expressed in the ele- 

 erant inscription on his monument at Upton, broke through 

 the inciosures of heaven (coelorum perrupit claustra^ and, like 

 another Columbus, penetrated into an unknown ocean, from 

 which he beheld coasts and groups of islands, w r hose true posi- 

 tion it remains for future ages to determine. 



Considerations regarding the different intensity of light in 

 stars, and their relative number, that is to say, their nume- 

 rical frequency on telescopic fields of equal magnitude, have 

 led to the assumption of unequal distances and distribution in 

 space in the strata which they compose. Such assumptions, 

 in PS far as they may lead us to draw the limits of the indi- 

 vidual portions of the universe, cannot offer the same degree of 

 mathematical certainty as that which may be attained in all 

 that relates to our solar system, whether we consider the 

 rotation of double stars with unequal velocity round one com- 

 mon centre of gravity, or the apparent or true movements of 

 ull the heavenly bodies. If \ve take up the physical descrip- 

 tion of the universe from the remotest nebulce, we may be 

 inclined to compare it with the mythical portions of history. 

 The one begins in the obscurity of antiquity, the other in that 

 of inaccessible space ; and at the point where reality seems to 

 flee before us, imagination becomes doubly incited to draw 

 from its own fulness, and give definite outline and pcrmnneucd 

 to the changing forms of objects. 



