PORTION OF THE COSMOS. NEW STARS. 151 



cannot be here determined, and belongs rather to the my- 

 thical department of Astrognosy. Of the 21 new stars 

 enumerated in the list above given, 5 (those of 134, 393, 

 827, 1203, and!584) appeared in the constellation Scorpius ; 

 3 (those of 945, 1264, and 1572) in Cassiopeia and 

 Cepheus; and 4 (those of 123, 1230, 1604, and 1848) in 

 Ophiuchus. On one occasion, however, a new star (that of 

 the Monk of St. Galle in 1012) appeared very far from the 

 Milky Way, or in Aries. Kepler himself, who considered 

 the star which Fabricius described as shining forth in the 

 neck of the Whale in 1596, and as having disappeared from 

 view in October of the same year, to be really a new star, 

 yet gives i\s position as a reason to the contrary. (Kepler 

 de Stella Nova Serp. p. 112.) Ought the comparative fre- 

 quency of these phenomena in the same constellations to 

 lead us to infer that, in certain directions in space, for ex- 

 ample, in those in which we see the stars of Scorpius and 

 Cassiopeia, the conditions of this kindling or beaming forth 

 are peculiarly favoured by local conditions or relations? 

 Are there situated in these directions rather than in any 

 others such celestial bodies as are peculiarly adapted for 

 explosive luminous processes of short duration ? 



The luminosity was briefest in the stars of the years 

 389, 827, and 1 1 2. In the star corresponding to the first 

 of these dates it lasted 3 weeks, in the second 4 weeks, and 

 in the third 3 months. On the other hand, Tycho Brahe's 

 star in Cassiopeia shone for 17 months, and Kepler's in 

 Cygnus (1600) was fully 21 years before it disappeared. It 

 reappeared in 1655, being then, as on its first appearance, 

 of the 3rd magnitude, whence it declined to the 6th; but, 



