Astronomy. : 295 
any sign of resolution into stars.” “It is not easy,” he adds, “ for lan- 
guage to convey a full impression of the beauty and sublimity of the 
spectacle which the nebula offers as it enters the field of the telescope.” 
arrange themselves, and thus the whole mass would, in process of time, 
be transformed into a determinate number of discrete bodies, which 
would ultimately assume the condition of a cluster of stars.” : 
That this condition is partly carried out in the object 7 Argus will be 
manifest by comparing the Cape description with the present one. A 
great difference may be caused by the optical means employed, as far as 
resolvability goes; but if an increased number of brilliant isolated stars, 
the centre and surrounded OPEN 
with nebule, in the most 
dense part of which is situ- 
ated 7 Argus. The appear- 
“NEBULA 
Open space or dark part, and : ee 
surrounded with an almost innumerable quantity of brilliant stars, many 
of which are arranged in groups, some being of 4 lue, an eof a 
muddy color. They are eck Ee brilliant in the dark space, and afford 
a comparison with the variable star itself. = : 
_It appears somewhat paradoxical that in 1838, when examined by Sir 
J. Herschel, the star 1 Argus was situated in the most dense part of the 
ioe The irregularity of this star, and the nebulosity surrounding it, involve 
