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SYDNEY T. KLEIN, F.L.S._, E.K.A.S., ON 



myriads more stars, and more haze comes up from the deep 

 beyond, showing that the visual ray was not yet strong enough 

 to fathom the mighty distance ; but let the full aperture be 

 applied and mark the result. Mist and haze have disappeared ; 

 the telescope has pierced right through the stupendous distances, 

 and only the vast abyss of space, boundless and unfathomable, 

 is seen beyond. Let us pause here for a moment to think what 

 we have done. Light, travelling with its enormous velocity, 

 requires as a minimum average ten years to traverse the 

 distance between our solar system and stars of the first magni- 

 tude ; but the dimensions of the Milky Way are built up on 

 such a huge scale that to traverse the whole stratum would 

 require us to pass about 500 stars, separated from each 

 other by this same tremendous interval; 10,000 years may 

 therefore be computed as the time which light, travelling with 

 its enormous velocity, would take to sweep across the whole 

 cluster, it being borne in mind that the solar system is 

 supposed to be located not far from the centre of this 

 great star cluster, that the cluster comprises all stars 

 visible arrayed in a flat zone, the edges of which, where 

 the stratum is deepest, being the locality of the Milky AVay. 



Let us once more continue our journey. We have traversed 

 a distance which even on the wings of light we could only 

 accomplish in 10,000 years, and now stand on the outskirts of a 

 great star cluster, in the same way, and, I hope, with the same 

 aspirations, as when we paused a short time ago on the confines 

 of our Solar System. Beliind us are myriads of shining orbs, in 

 such countless numbers that human thought cannot even suggest 

 a limit, and yet each of these is a mighty globe like our sun, the 

 centre of a planetary system, dispensing light and heat under 

 conditions similar to what we are accustomed to here. Let us, 

 however, turn our face away from these clusterings of mighty 

 suns, and look steadfastly forward into the unbroken darkness, 

 and once more brace our nerves to face that terrible phantom 

 —immensity. We require now the most powerful instruments 

 that science can put into our hands, and by their aid we will 

 again essay to make another stride towards the appreciation of 

 our subject. In what to the unaided was unbroken darkness, 

 the telescope now enables us to discern a number of luminous 

 points of haze, and towards one of these we continue our journey. 

 The myriads of suns in our great star clusters are soon being 

 left far behind: they shrink together, resolve themselves into 

 haze, until the once glorious universe of countless millions of 

 suns has dwindled down to a mere point of haze almost invisible 



