THE sun's journey THROUGH SPACE 



sun of our system v^as not also moving in space like the 

 rest of the stars, or whether it was an exception to the 

 universal rule. 



Here is, therefore, another grand problem presented 

 for solution by astronomy and worthy of the highest effort 

 to unravel its mj^steries, whither are we going? Because 

 if the sun is moving, the earth and all the planets of our 

 little system are being drawm along with it. In embarking 

 on a journey we invariably desire to know where we are 

 bound for. In this particular case, however, we have 

 absolutely no choice in the selection of our travel, but con- 

 stituted as we are, it is some satisfaction to endeavor to 

 find out the far distant goal our sun is carrying us to. 



It cannot be too clearly pointed out that the journey 

 we are now contemplating has nothing whatever to do 

 with the earth's annual journey around the sun — which 

 constitutes our year. It is the far greater orbital move- 

 ment of the sun making up, in fact, its year, as we are 

 accustomed to reckon time, that we have to do at present. 

 We know that once every year our earth performs a circle 

 within another vast circle, the circumference of which is 

 occupied by the sun and which is the one we are now con- 

 sidering. The last circle is so wide that even in travelling 

 a segment of it the sun appears to be moving in a straight 

 line, and no deviation whatever has yet been observed 

 during the short time man has been enabled to make 

 observations, as the sun's path through space evidently 

 requires many centuries to assume any other than a 

 tangential motion. 



To help us to understand this real movement of the 

 sun among the stars, let us compare the effect of distant 

 objects upon our senses as we approach them on the earth. 

 In walking through a forest, for instance, the trees in front 

 of our path appear quite close together as seen a long way 

 off, but as we approach nearer to them they spread oTit 

 until as we pass them they are actually on either side of 



