328 COSMOS. 



looked, therefore, almost as if there were a hiatus or inter- 

 ruption. I have frequently observed this phenomenon, and 

 up to the present time as always unchanged in form ; whence 

 it would appear that this marvellous object, be its nature 

 what it may be, is very probably permanently situated at this 

 spot. I never observed anything similar to this appearance 

 in the other fixed stars." (The nebulous spot in Andromeda, 

 described fifty-four years earlier by Simon Marius, must there- 

 fore either have been unknown to him, or did not attract his 

 attention.) That which has usually been regarded as nebu- 

 lous matter, adds Huygens, " even the Milky Way, when 

 seen through telescopes, exhibits nothing nebulous, and is 

 nothing more than a multitude of stars, thronged together 

 in clusters.'' 63 The animation of this first description tes- 



63 "Ex his autem tres illai pene inter se contiguse stellge, 

 cunique his alise quatuor, velut trans nebulam lucebant : ita 

 ut spatium circa ipsas, qua forma hie conspicitur, multo 

 illustrius appareret reliquo omni coelo ; quod cum apprime 

 serenum esset ac cerneretur nigerrimum, velut hiatu quodam 

 interruptum videbatur, per quern in plagam magis lucidam 

 esset prospectus. Idem vero in hanc usque diem nihil immu- 

 tata facie seepius atque eodem loco conspexi ; adeo ut per- 

 petuam illic sedem habere credibile sit hoc quidquid est por- 

 tenti: cui certe simile aliud nusquam apud reliquas fixas 

 potui animadvertere. Nam ca3tera3 nebulosec olim existi- 

 matse, atque ipsa via lactea, perspicillo inspects, nullas 

 nebulas habere comperiuntur, neque aliud esse quam plurium 

 stellarum congeries et frequentia." Christian! Hugenii, Opera 

 varia, Lugd. Bat. 1724, pp. 540-541. "Of these, however, 

 those three almost contiguous stars, and, with these, four 

 others shone, as it were, through a nebula ; so that the space 

 around them, as is shown in this figure, is much more bril- 

 liant than all the rest of the sky ; and when this is very 

 serene and appears quite dark, it seemed broken by a sort 

 of gap, through which one looked upon a brighter region 



