TRANSLATORY MOTION. 149 



the brighter than among the telescopic fixed stars, have led 

 other astronomers to conjecture that the average mass of the 

 larger number of the binary stars exceeds the mass of the 

 Sun.* We are, however, far from having arrived at general 

 results regarding this subject. Our Sun, according to Arge- 

 lander, belongs, with reference to proper motion in space, to 

 the class of rapidly-moving fixed stars. 



The aspect of the starry heavens, the relative position of 

 stars and nebulae, the distribution of their luminous masses^ 

 the picturesque beauty, if I may so express myself, of the 

 whole firmament, depend in the course of ages conjointly upon 

 the proper motion of the stars and nebulas, the translation of 

 our solar system in space, the appearance of new stars, and 

 the disappearance or sudden diminution in the intensity of the 

 light of others, and, lastly and specially, on the changes which 

 the Earth's axis experiences from the attraction of the Sun 

 and Moon. The beautiful stars in the constellation of the 

 Centaur and the Southern Cross will at some future time be 

 visible in our northern latitudes, while other stars, as Sirius 

 and the stars in the Belt of Orion, will in their turn disappear 

 below the horizon. The places of the North Pole will suc- 

 cessively be indicated by the stars 13 and a Cephei, and 6 Cygni, 

 until after a period of 12,000 years, Vega in Lyra will shine 

 forth as the brightest of all possible pole stars. These data 

 give us some idea of the extent of the motions which, divided 

 into infinitely small portions of time, proceed without inter- 

 mission in the great chronometer of the universe. If for a 

 moment we could yield to the power of fancy, and imagine 

 the acuteness of our visual organs to be made equal with the 

 extremest bounds of telescopic vision, and bring together that 

 which is now divided by long periods of time, the apparent 

 rest that reigns in space would suddenly disappear. We 

 should see the countless host of fixed stars moving in thronged 

 groups in difierent direction^ ; nebulae wandering through 

 space, and becoming condensed and dissolved like cosmical 

 clouds ; the vail of the Milky Way separated and broken up 

 in many parts, and motion ruling supreme in every portion of 

 the vault of heaven, even as on the Earth's surface, where we 

 see it unfolded in the germ, the leaf, and the blossom, the or- 

 ganisms of the vegetable world. The celebrated Spanish bot> 

 anist Cavanilles was the first who entertained the idea of 

 " seeing grass grow," and he directed the horizontal microme- 

 ter threads of a powerfully magnifying glass at one time to 

 • Madler, Astron., s. 476; also in Schum., Jahrb., 1839, a 95. 



