Comet Systems. 
[April, 
192 wiw - 
students of Nature or philosopers-can yet ■ ^urne (by 
virtue of their loud voices it would seem) t0 , procl f‘? ' 
the house-tops the wickedness and the de S r ^ at '° n th ° e f 
Darwin and his disciples. And passing from L which 
Milkv Wav we perceive there — in almost any spo 
our telesofpe happens to be pointed-the affinity winch qu te 
obviously exists between the large and small mbs which to 
cether make up that wonderful zone. Wherevei a brilliant 
fta! exists, there either is the adjacent space ® f 
small stars or these last are clustered in moie than average 
numbers -both of which circumstances prove an affinity 
or else, if we like to close our minds to e y ld ence, : mo 
remarkable concourse of coincidences ; at al ev , 
sufficiently formidable to prove that the distances sepai a * 
the brighter from the less brilliant orbs is not so g‘ e a a 
had previously been supposed. Now except in those 
branches which must here and there extend outwarsawa 
from the Earth— for we cannot logically suppose that all the 
branches from the main stream of the Galaxy aie la d , 
that is, that they all run in directions square to the visual 
ray from the Earth— the Milky Way cannot possibly have 
a greater average depth than it has average breadth. VY e 
mat in fadt, fairly regard it as a belt. And because nothing 
leads us to conclude that the most powerful telescopes yet 
constructed have been powerful enough to thoi°ugh y 
analyse this belt (every increase of instrumental range 
showing a greater number of stars), we may safely infer 
that the number of stars made visible would go on in- 
creasing with every further such increase of range, these 
stars of lesser brilliancy must therefore be actually, as well 
as apparently, small ; and indeed analogy points to the 
conclusion that there is not any limit to then smallr le , 
for here, it does appear, have the bulk of the whole ol t e 
small bodies (those parents of the larger orbs) fiom the 
bounds of the visible universe been collected. 
