purlion o! [hv way i (uniilclcly bitun atcd. Sup|)()S(' an astronomer, 

 located on one of the worlds composing a spiral nebula, should point 

 his telescope towards the so-called sidereal system in which our little 

 earth is located, what would he see? He would behold a character- 

 istic spiral nebula, so minute, in consequence of its vast distance, 

 that he could only be assured that it was an assemblage of suns by 

 anal_\'zin,!j; the li^ht that issuecj from it. 



ikit the most astounding fact connected with the investigation of 

 these spiral nebulae is their vast number. Mr. Heber D. Curtis, an 

 astronomer engaged in this special line of research at the Lick Ob- 

 servatory, has charted 762 with the thirty-two-inch Crossley reflector. 

 But it is now estimated that the total number of spirals which are 

 visible in the sixty-inch reflector on Mt. Wilson and other large space- 

 penetrating telescopes, will number 722,000, and it is possible that 

 the new 100-inch instrument will bring the number up to 1,000,000. 



in other words, that portion of boundless space which lies within 

 the range of our great telescopes, is studded with a million mighty 

 aggregations of suns, some of which are, in extent and diversity and 

 novelty, of the order of our own "grand Sidereal System. And it is 

 believed that their distances from us range from 100,000 to 1,000,000 

 light years. 



Xow our brightest star, Sirius, is something more than eight light 

 years distant; the familiar North Star is forty-six light years away; 

 while the multitude of stars in the Milky Way dimly shine from dis- 

 tances varying from six to 10,000 light years. 



Compare these figures with those of the nearest spiral nebulae^ 

 and the human mind, accustomed to the familiar distances traversed 

 by steam on our globe, is overwhelmed with the vast magnitudes, in- 

 conceivable distances, and yet wealth of universes in that portion ot 

 limitless space which lies within the reach of the powerful instruments 

 which have been recently devised by the genius of man. 



Oh ye puny sons of men, striving to pile dollars upon each other, 

 no matter how many handfulls of gold ye gather, your hands will 

 loosen their grasp upon them in a few years, your names will sink 

 into oblivion, and the astronomical ages will roll on through an end- 

 less eternity, unmarked by an iota of all your strivings. Is it not 

 worth while to pause for a moment now and then, and catch an oc 

 visional glimpse of the innumerable worlds and suns and system= 

 and universes that fill the unfathomable depths of space? 



If the human intellect, that spark of the Divine mind, can com- 

 pass these flights of thought and imagination, peer into the deep 

 arcana of nature, grasp her profound secrets, and watch some of her 

 wonderful processes of world-building, has it not a splendid resource 

 well worth cultivating? 



32 



