THE ORIGIN OF NEW STARS. 1M 
material which Kant imagined—for in his days they could 
hardly have known much of its existence. 
What I want you to look at in this picture is the faint 
diffused light—light not from a solid material—not from the 
stars at a distance, but ight from incandescent gas. In this 
picture we have instances of nebule which are chaotic, and 
here you see nebule in strange wisps. You might think 
they were little bits of cloud in the sky ; but they are there, 
night after night, hardly to be seen with the aid of the 
best telescope. 
There we have one of the great glories of the heavens— 
the great nebula in Orion, this being the famous picture taken 
by Dr. Isaac Roberts, and here we have parts of it above and 
below extending to a vast distance. [Zwvhibiting on the screen.] 
In this we have the nebulous gaseous material, as it were, 
drawing itself into shape. 
Now we will look at another. This is the famous “ Dumb- 
bell Nebula.” This gives an astonishing illustration of the 
possibilities of the photographic plate. It has a patience 
and delicacy that no human eye possesses. 
Now we come to another—the “Crab Nebula,” as it is 
called. I have shown this with the view of illustrating 
as it were the varieties of these nebule. We may look at 
different trees in a forest—the old veteran that weathers 
the centuries, and then we come down gradually to the 
little sapling until we come to the little acorn just sprouting. 
We can read the history of the oak by looking at individuals 
in the forest. So we try to learn what nebule have to tell 
us by their structure as to the history of the individual objects. 
But here is a form still more advanced. [Ewhibiting on 
the screen.| Here we have a photograph of one of the 
most interesting subjects m1 the universe. That is the 
great spiral nebula. You can magnify it, and it will bear 
the test that it ought to stand. It was taken by Mr. W. 
E. Wilson, in [reland—a most accomplished astronomical 
photographer, and I ask you to observe in this that sort of 
evolution that Laplace explains. Parts of it tend to form 
what may in all probability be the planets that are ultimately 
to attend on that sun in the centre. You see here indications 
of the direction in which the rotation proceeds. They are 
all moving round the same way. We see this planetary 
system lying near the same plane, and now there is an 
astonishing fact that I have to state. Here is another spiral 
taken by Dr. Roberts. We look at this with more interest 
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