593rd OEDINAEY GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN THE CONFERENCE HALL, THE CENTRAL HALL, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, JUNE 18th, 1917, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



The Right Hon. the Earl of Halsbury, F.R.S., President 

 OF the Institute, took the Chair. 



The Minutes of the preceding Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The Secretary announced the election of Mr. J. Gilbert Dale, 

 F.R.G.S., as a Member of the Institute. 



The President introduced Sir Frank W, Dyson, the Astronomer 

 Royal, and asked him to deliver the Annual Address. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



THE DISTANCES OF THE STARS. Bj Sir Erank W. 

 Dyson, M.A., E.R.S., Astronomer Royal. 



THE American astronomer, Simon Newcomb, places at the 

 head of a chapter of his book on the stars a quotation 

 from Kant : "Two things ever fill my mind with new 

 and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and longer I 

 reflect on them — the star-strewn sky above me and the moral 

 law within me." A parallel passage might be taken from the 

 Psalmist, " The heavens declare the glory of God," and later in 

 the same psalm, " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting 

 the soul." A being who could look at the stars without 

 awe and wonder would surely be of extraordinarily limited 

 intelligence. But he who watches them in their courses from 

 night to night cannot fail to be struck by a sense of the mystery 

 which surrounds them. This is increased with the increase of 

 our knowledge, and therefore I think it fitting for me to 

 take as the subject for my address to-night " The Distances 

 of the Stars," for the distance is one of the most important 

 facts we can discover about a star, and is the key to the 

 discovery of several others. 



Now the stars are bodies like the sun ; the sun is, in fact, 

 the star about which we know most. We know how large it is, 

 that it has a diameter of 865,000 miles — we know how dense 



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