*5* fN STARRY REALMS. 



from the reasoning I have given that the whole question 

 turns simply on one point, and that is : How far off are 

 the stars ? The tiniest point of light that is just seen as 

 a glimmer in the mightiest of telescopes may be indeed a 

 sun as great, or indeed a million times greater, than our 

 sun, if only that star be sufficiently far off. To find th^ 

 distance of a star is a problem which taxes the utmost 

 powers of the painstaking astronomer ; every refinement 

 of skill in making his measurements and of care in the 

 calculation of his observations has to be lavished on the 

 operation. Alas ! it but too often happens that the astro- 

 nomer's labours prove to be futile. The surveying navi- 

 gator often has to mark on his chart that no bottom could 

 be found in the depths of the sea. His appliances would 

 not work, or work reliably in those ocean abysses ; so too, 

 the astronomer, when he tries to sound the depths of 

 space to the distances of the stars, has also to mark, 

 generally speaking, "no bottom here/' as the result of most 

 of his investigations. When this is the case we know 

 for certain that the star on which his calculations have 

 been made must be a gorgeous sun, because we are assured 

 of the greatness of its distance, even though we have not 

 been able to find out what that distance was. There are, 

 however, some few places through the sky where the 

 astronomer's sounding line can, so to speak, touch bottom ; 

 there are a few stars of which we do know the distance, 

 and the result is not a little significant. Were our sun 

 to be withdrawn from us to a distance so great as 

 that of the very nearest of the stars, our magnificent 

 ruler and benefactor would certainly have lost all his 

 splendour ; he would, in fact, have shrunk to the simili- 



