STAR-GROUPING, STAR-DRIFT, AND STAR MIST. 145 



recess or approach. The task is a very difficult one, but 

 astronomers have full confidence that in the able hands of 

 Mr. Huggins it will be successfully accomplished. I await 

 the result with full confidence that it will confirm my views. 

 (See pages 92-94 for the result) 



Turning to the subject of Star-mist, under which head I 

 include all orders of nebulae, I propose to deal with but a 

 small proportion of the evidence I have collected to prove 

 that none of the nebulae are external galaxies. That evidence 

 has indeed become exceedingly voluminous. 



I shall dwell, therefore, on three points only. 



First, as to the distribution of the nebulas : They are 

 not spread with any approach to uniformity over the heavens, 

 but are gathered into streams and clusters. The one great 

 law which characterizes their distribution is an avoidance of 

 the Milky Way and its neighbourhood. This peculiarity has, 

 strangely enough, been regarded by astronomers as showing 

 that there is no association between the nebulae and the 

 sidereal system. They have forgotten that marked contrast 

 is as clear a sign of association as marked resemblance, and 

 has always been so regarded by logicians. 



Secondly, there are in the southern heavens two well- 

 marked streams of nebulas. Each of these streams is asso- 

 ciated with an equally well-marked stream of stars. Each 

 intermixed stream directs its course towards a Magellanic 

 Cloud, one towards the Nubecula Minor, the other towards 

 the Nubecula Major. To these great clusters they flow, 

 like rivers towards some mighty lake. And within these 

 clusters, which are doubtless roughly spherical in form, there 

 are found intermixed in wonderful profusion, stars, star- 

 clusters, and all the orders of nebulas. Can these coinci- 

 dences be regarded as accidental ? And if not accidental, 

 is not the lesson they clearly teach us this, that nebulas form 

 but portions of the sidereal system, associating themselves 

 with stars on terms of equality (if one may so speak), even if 

 single stars be not more important objects in the scale of 



I. 



