Notices respecting New Books. 371 



zone of smaller stars which appears to bound our view of the heavens 

 when we look towards the Gralaxy ; and we can also understand 

 that these two collections of larger and smaller stars may be ar- 

 ranged as two comparatively^ thin disks — one in which the larger 

 stars are scattered (more or less congregated or otherwise) over 

 its area, the other in which the smaller stars (those constituting 

 the Milky Way) are congregated towards its edges ; but we can- 

 not understand how large collections of nebulae formiug entirely 

 a different class from the two before mentioned can exist above 

 and below these planes, and at the same time form intimate por- 

 tions of the far distant zone of small stars ; indeed the zone in 

 which nebulae are very sparsely distributed so distinctly separates 

 the region of these bodies from those of the larger and smaller 

 stars, as shown in the charts, that it is a matter of surprise that 

 they should ever have been associated together. If, however, Mr. 

 Proctor considers that the four orders of aggregation mentioned by 

 him constitute " the universe," we fully agree with him ; but that 

 universe must, from his own showing of the distribution of nebulae, 

 greatly exceed the dimensions of the Milky Way properly so 

 called. 



Passing from the consideration of the three great phenomena of 

 the starry heavens, the Milky Way, with its clustering aggrega- 

 tions of stars of inferior magnitude and brilliancy, the regular and 

 irregular nebulae, and the zone of lucid stars, we proceed to examine 

 the views set forth by Mr. Proctor under the title of " Star Streams." 

 This is the subject of his opening Essays ; and in them he en- 

 deavours to show that all the brighter stars are arranged in 

 streams, adducing in the second Essay the connecting-band of 

 Pisces and other collections of stars of nearly the same order of 

 brightness as examples. If these are considered in connexion with 

 the foregoing classes of phenomena, it becomes apparent that our 

 author recognizes (although it may be difficult for him to enunciate 

 its nature) the existence of a force that draws the stars together, 

 not into the spherical aggregations suggested by Sir William Her- 

 schel, but into long narrow thin streams, and this alike in every 

 part of the heavens reached by our telescopes. The wisps and 

 sprays characterizing as well the borders of the Milky Way as the 

 convolutions and spires of the irregular nebulae, the great stream 

 of lucid stars encircling the heavens, and the streams of various 

 extent seen in our nocturnal skies, are alike phenomena of the same 

 class, and betoken, should their existence be established, the opera- 

 tion of a force differing, it would seem, from that great and mighty 

 force to which the spherical aggregations of Sir William Herschel 

 are due ; and it becomes an important point to ascertain if the star- 

 streams advocated by Mr. Proctor are only apparent or have a real 

 existence. 



In the consideration of the evidence of the actual and real exist- 

 ence of star-streams it is necessary to take distance into account. 

 Apparent star-streams, according to Mr. Proctor's own showing, 

 extend over vast spaces of the hollow celestial sphere as recognized 



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