190 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



lates the apparently giddy proceedings of society's neophyte, so it appears 

 possible on this new hypothesis to show that all this apparent stellar 

 disorder conforms to laws as completely as the most carefully watched 

 young lady. 



Besides these variables which have been long out, it occasionally happens 

 that a star blazes forth before the astonished gaze of beholders, and for a 

 time monopolizes all attention. But after a little while, sometimes only a 

 few weeks, sometimes a year or so, this meteor-like sun gradually loses its 

 brilliancy, and passes away altogether, or becomes a very insignificant httle 

 star ; the temporary star having no longer any existence except in history. 

 The celestial temporaries have one advantage over our earthly stars, they 

 are sufficiently rare that it is seldom any one is cut out by the appearance 

 of a rival. Two of these stars have however appeared within the last 

 twelve years. 



But there appear several reasons to suppose that there is quite another 

 class of stars, modest retiring suns, of altogether an unobtrusive character. 

 Suns which have put up then- shutters, and retired from business. Suns 

 with very little vitality, or perhaps altogether dead suns. 



In addition to all these varieties of stars there is a very wonderful class 

 of bodies called uebulffi. These are deHcate luminous clouds, probably con- 

 sisting of masses of glowing gas. Some of them are of very definite 

 structm-e, spherical, spindle-shaped, spu'al, comet-like, and frequently 

 strewn all over with brilliant stars. Some of them are so large that the 

 size of our whole Solar System would be hardly a sufficient unit to measure 

 them with. Most of these nebulae are spread out in two sheets covering a 

 large part of the celestial sphere at the poles of the galactic circle. 



As in the human family so with the stellar inhabitant of space, many 

 are associated into well-marked grouj^s ; as we have families, tribes, nations, 

 and the whole race, so we have our solar family, our multiple star- system, 

 and probably, by the recent researches of Proctor, the whole visible heavens 

 is a definite and connected system, consisting chiefly of a vast ring of stars, 

 with nebular caps at both its poles. 



All of these bodies appear to be moving indiscriminately about, without 

 common direction or purpose, although certain pairs and groixps seem to 

 have considerable community of motion. But they move fast in those 

 celestial regions, they quite out-do our Canterbury snail ways, a thousand 

 times as fast as our fastest railway train is only a walking star, and I feel 

 afraid to tell you how fast some can run. And every star is pulling hard 

 at all its near neighbours. The nearest star to our sun must have a velocity 

 of sixty miles an hour to escape the sun's attraction. 



But amidst all this flying about, this indescribable hurry, these powerful 

 attractions, surely you will say there must occasionally be collisions. The 



