relating to the Construction of the Heavens : 325 
opacity, and may possibly be diffused in many parts of the 
heavens without our being able to perceive it. 
That there has been shining as well as opaque nebulous 
matter about the large star, appears from several observations 
I have made upon the light which surrounded it. In 1783 the 
nebulosity about it was so considerable in brightness, and so 
much on one side of it, that the star did not appear to have any 
connection with it. The reason of which is plainly, that the 
shining quality of the nebulous matter then overpowered the 
feeble scattering of the light of the star in the nebulosity. 
32. Of Stellar Nebula. 
It has been remarked that diffused nebulosities may exist 
unknown to us, among the more distant regions of the fixed 
stars ; and though we may not be able to see a nebulous dif- 
fusion that is farther from us than the moderate distance at 
which we now have reason to suppose the faintest visible 
nebulosity of the nebula in Orion to be placed ; yet if some 
former diffusion of the nebulous matter should be already re- 
duced into separate and much condensed nebulae, they might 
then come within the reach of telescopes that have a great 
power of collecting light : this being admitted, there is a pro- 
bability that some of the various diffusions of the nebulous 
matter, from which our present nebulae derive their origin, 
may have been much farther from 11s than others. For, in 
every description of figure, size and condensation, of which I 
have given instances, we find not only very bright and very 
large, but also faint and small, as well as extremely faint and 
extremely small nebulae ; and the same gradations will now 
be found to run through that class whicli I have called stellar 
