Revelations 

 Reversion 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



588 



such as Sirius and Vega, show hydrogen 

 lines only; and these are supposed to be 

 hotter than our sun, and in an earlier stage 

 of development, while red stars are sup- 

 posed to be cooling. Other explanations of 

 these facts have, however, been suggested. 

 Much information has also been obtained 

 as to the nature of the nebulae. Sir Will- 

 iam Herschel supposed that they were all 

 really star-clusters, but so enormously re- 

 mote that even the most powerful tele- 

 scopes could not render visible the stars 

 composing them. Later observations have 

 shown that many of them do consist of 

 stars, or star-dust, as it has been called; 

 and this seemed to support the theory that 

 all were so composed, including the Milky 

 Way. A study of the distribution of stars 

 and nebulae by Proctor and others led, how- 

 ever, to the conclusion that they were often 

 really connected, and that nebulae were not, 

 on the average, more distant than stars; 

 and this view has been confirmed by the 

 spectroscope, which has shown them often 

 to consist of glowing gas; and this is 

 especially the characteristic of all those 

 situated in or near the Milky Way. The 

 first great result of spectrum analysis has 

 thus been to demonstrate the real nature of 

 many stars and nebulae, to determine some 

 of the elements of which they are formed, 

 and to give us some indications of the 

 changes they have undergone, and thus 

 help us toward a general theory of the de- 

 velopment of the stellar universe. WAL- 

 LACE The Wonderful Century, ch. 6, p. 43. 

 (D. M. & Co., 1899.) 



29O9. REVELATIONS OF THE TEL- 

 ESCOPE FRAGMENTARY Each View but 

 of a Narrow Field A Human Eye with 

 Telescopic Power Could Get the Perspective 

 of the Heavens Science Seeks to Present 

 Such a Scene to the Mind's Eye. If 

 the human eye could suddenly obtain the 

 power of telescopic vision, those wealths of 

 star-strewing which it is the province of 

 star-gaging to measure would be revealed 

 to our view, not piecemeal, as under tele- 

 scopic scrutiny, but at once as in a grand 

 celestial panorama. Those varieties of dis- 

 tribution to which Herschel applied his 

 resolution test would be clearly recognized. 

 Here the stars would be seen spread richly 

 over a region of the heavens, but clearly 

 separated from each other; elsewhere 

 would be regions where the stars would 

 more closely cluster, tho still separately 

 discernible; but in parts of the heavens 

 veritable star-clouds would be seen, regions 

 where the stars gather so closely together 

 that even the enhanced powers of vision I 

 have imagined nay, tho the power of the 

 Rosse telescope had been acquired by man 

 would fail to show discrete stars, the sky 

 in those parts being aglow with condensed 

 starlight, on which, as on a splendid back- 

 ground, brighter stars would be seen spread 

 with inconceivable richness. 



Such a scene might not be intelligible at 

 a first view; it might even baffle all at- 

 tempts at interpretation, all efforts to 

 estimate the relative distances and propor- 

 tions of its several parts. But our only 

 path to the solution of the noblest problem 

 in science is by presenting to the mind's eye 

 such a picture of the great star- strewn 

 sphere which surrounds us on all sides; 

 when that has been done we shall begin to 

 know whether the great problem is alto- 

 gether beyond our mastery. PROCTOR Ex- 

 panse of Heaven, pp. 262-3. (L. G. & Co., 

 1897.) 



2910. REVERENCE FOR ANTIQUITY 



Decline of, under Modern Civilization. 

 The whole country [of Denmark] appears 

 to have been, at one time, thickly studded 

 with tumuli; where the land has not been 

 brought into cultivation, many of them are 

 often in sight at once, and even in the more 

 fertile and thickly populated parts the 

 plow is often diverted from its course by 

 one of these ancient burial-places. Fortu- 

 nately, the stones of which they are con- 

 structed are so large and so hard that 

 their destruction and removal is a labori- 

 ous and expensive undertaking. While, 

 however, on the one hand, land grows 

 gradually more valuable, and the stones 

 themselves are more and more coveted for 

 building or other purposes; on the other, 

 the conservative traditions, the feeling of 

 superstitious reverence for the dead, which 

 have so long protected them from desecra- 

 tion, is gradually becoming weaker; and 

 it is estimated that not a day passes with- 

 out witnessing the destruction of one or 

 more of these tumuli, and the loss of some, 

 perhaps almost irrecoverable, link in the 

 history of the human race. AVEBURY Pre- 

 historic Times, ch. 7, p. 213. (A., 1900.) 



2911. REVERENCE GROWS WITH 

 KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE Sublimity 

 Not the Product of Ignorance. The fear 

 [is] entertained by some persons that Na- 

 ture may by degrees lose a portion of the 

 charm and magic of her power as we learn 

 more and more how to unveil her secrets. 

 . . . It is true that, properly speaking, 

 the forces of Nature can only exercise a 

 magical power over us as long as their ac- 

 tion is shrouded in mystery and darkness, 

 and does not admit of being classed among 

 the conditions with which experience has 

 made us acquainted. The effect of such a 

 power is, therefore, to excite the imagina- 

 tion, but that, assuredly, is not the faculty 

 of mind we would evoke to preside over the 

 laborious and elaborate observations by 

 which we strive to attain to a knowledge 

 of the greatness and excellence of the laws 

 of the universe. The physical philosopher 

 measures with admirable sagacity the 

 waves of light of unequal length which by 

 interference mutually strengthen or destroy 

 each other, even with respect to their 



