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group, and was therefore a little disappointed when I found 
Beta going the opposite way.” 
We have at length, then, evidence, which admits of no ques- 
tion — so obviously conclusive is it — to show not only that 
star-drift is a reality but that subordinate systems exist within 
the sidereal system. We moreover recognise an unquestion- 
able instance of a characteristic peculiarity of structure in a 
certain part of the heavens. For, though star-drift exists 
elsewhere, yet every instance of star-drift is quite distinct in 
character — the drift in Cancer unlike that in Ursa, and both 
these drifts unlike the drifts in Taurus, and equally unlike the 
drift in Aries or Leo. Much more, indeed, is contained in the 
fact now placed beyond question, than appears on the surface. 
Bightly understood, it exhibits the sidereal system itself as a 
scheme utterly unlike what has hitherto been imagined. The 
vastness of extent, the variety of structure, the complexity of 
detail, and the amazing vitality, on which I have long insisted, 
are all implied in that single and, as it were, local feature which 
I had set as a crucial test of my theories. I cannot but feel a 
strong hope, then, that those researches which my theories 
suggest, and which I have advocated during the last few years, 
will now be undertaken by willing observers. The system of 
star-gauging, which the Herschels did little more than illustrate 
(as Sir W. Herschel himself admitted), should be applied with 
telescopes of different power to the whole heavens,* not to a 
few telescopic fields. Processes of charting, and especially of 
equal surface charting, should be multiplied. Fresh determin- 
ations of proper motions should be systematically undertaken. 
All the evidence, in fine, which we have, should be carefully 
examined, and no efforts should be spared by which new evidence 
may be acquired. Only when this has been done will the true 
nature of the galaxy be adequately recognised, its true vastness 
gauged, its variety and complexity understood, its vitality 
rendered manifest. To obtain, indeed, an absolutely just esti- 
mate of these matters, may not be in man’s power to compass ; 
but he can hope to obtain a true relative interpretation of the 
mysteries of the stellar system. If any astronomer be disposed 
to question the utility or value of such researches, let him re- 
member that Sir W. Herschel, the greatest of all astronomers, 
set u a knowledge of the constitution of the heavens,” as 66 the 
ultimate object of his observations.” 
* This is a work in which telescopes of every order of power would he 
useful. The observations, also, would be very easily made and would tell 
amazingly. 
