, 1874-03-10

Ths nobnla Ii called tito truo lovers knot. NoI-
,lm R,icll III that giyo Bpcctrn Indicative Of tho
taslety Of tho Bourcc Of light. They spread
through all thcso wonderful topths OF gpaco.
longtl, Of tho earth's orbit by Which 1t Ia
1noaBurot. We hayo tho diameter Of TINT
orbit as 183,0OO,000 miles. Compared with tho
stars distance, tllo whole orbit Of our cayti
tic loast Of tllcso atars--tts nero dsls-aa ouor-
moua lloating powor; then romonbr how great
the distance from atnr to star Of those shown IN
this Wow, and then conHiaor TINT tllia nobnous
matter IL sproad between these stara and coll
tinuos from one star 10 another, md then you
hnvo MI idoa Of tho wonderful extouAton Of that
matter.
There aoonB to bo m ASSOCIATION betwcen tho
,obula and Tho star to wlloso influence 1t Aoc1nB
sfRes' ] d mosS0l s aaarsd nssGsd e s9F tn q aFss I
second magnitude; tifty yoars later it lad sunk
to tho fourth magnitude; when uorachel no-
tiocd it It wns Of tho second magnitude, md It
rose to the first while }lo was at tho Oapo of
tint 1t had 'rIscn until its Brightness exceeded
oyoty.. star III tho hoavolls wlth tho
exception Of S!rius At this mon.ont TINT star
can only ho soon on tho darkoat and c1oarest
night. It shows now with llsbtro less than tlle
ono-i,antlrclth part Of what it lind quafter Of
n century ngo, suggesting this idea. that many
Of tho planets aro not fit to bo nbodoB OF life.
So tlero nro many stars OF which this Is Il typo,
stnrs which are unfit to bo tho contrcs Of circling
worlds simply because their light Is variable.
THE FUNDAMENTAL LAwB OF THE SOLAR sYsrEM.
Tho gront astronomer, Kerlcr, discovered tho
three fundamental laws Of tho solar syeton,.
Now, ho imagined that the centre Of tho universe
WAS tho solar systom. IIo considered thai tho
light aud lioat Of the snn aproad out and was
caught up by n sholl, iuclosing tho stars. ard
tlcro was no waste. Hc ,natln series OF calou-
1atious which have not tho leust trlstworthinosa
In tllom, mud cnu1e to the conclusion TINT tho
shell Of tie universe III seventy milcs III thick
noEa.
Imow paas to WrIght'a theory, which Is COM
monty asorctt to Sir William Hcrschol, TINT our
Hsarry systom ia ono Of several starry aystonls.
as you know Hcrsclol gaugcd tho heavens,
and, because he found tho atars wero great in
number III tho direction Of tho Milky Way and
lit it's noighborlloodt llo concluded tho. starry
nystom IN 4 groat extenaiom toward thc. zonc Of
tho Milky Way, and, because that zonois divided
iu orc part, he concluded the Bygtem is cloyen
III that direction, nrd ilo camo to tho conelueion
TINT that system iu eleven diBk. According to
tlaat theory, tho nebu1m would appear to 10 q
number OF gaiaxicB Of gtarB.
Wn1OitT'8 THEORY OF THE Un1yEnsE.
But another astronomer noted TINT tho Milky
Way waa not Of TINT uniform structure which
the theory Of Wright Beemcd to rGQuire. It iH
like cloud, mud there is sufficient to indicato
tint tho Milky Way consists of clouds Of stars,
supposed to bo . multitude Of comparatively
small spherical clusters Of Rtars. According to
Lambert, these nphcrical clusters form together
| Il cloyon, i[a. diali.
1AMnERT 8 THEORY or THE UNIVERSE.
Then cnn,o tito work Of Sir William HorHchol.
astronomy, repeated ovor aud over ngain, of
BuppoBing HorBchel's theory to bo that our
starry system il like tlat disk. It must DO
remembered that VIC cannot ta!o tho lnbors
l-F $j,n<f t3+1 hall
century, and front all rs if toy oil woro pnrt OF
ono work. Hia cssayB III tho Philosophical Tran
aactions cannot be troatcd like book wrlt.en ut
once, and wo must motto now Ito tolls lis that l1o
llnlsolf changed his mind. Dut in. tho MILKY
| Nay ho thought tho stars were Bpread uniformly.
~ nm convicted" lo said, :" By prolonged OK
animation, thnt tlo stars III tho E[ilsy Way nre
differently spread from those which ie immodi-
! ato1y arollud.' no uAed tho Balme telescope, nnd
llo counted tho stars in diTorent localities. That
was tho first part Of his nothod. III other sots
| Of observation she usod different telcucopos I:
| first small QUO, md tion larger, and then {,
still largor one, nnd he dealt with the difficult
parts VI tho heavens whore tho stars arc clustered
80 richly TINT tho telescope refused to Bho,: thor,
| separately; anil then he used a moro powerful
toloscope, md considered that he was le!iotrat-
| ing fuathor and further into space. Tint was
when he was nearly f"urscoro years Of ego, and
| thero was a possibility TINT any error in TINT
| method would not be detected by him, and ho
fniloti to noto that il ho woro looking at a small
cuater Of stars, and looking at them first with a
smull telescope, and thcn with . moro powerful,
really passing further aud furthor on, thas cluB-
| tor, instead OF being spherical group, would he
| spite Hhapcd, Il projection Of stars extending
ont backward from our cart',, which il incon-
ccivabio, when wo consider tho immense number
Of thcne clusters OH our Milky Wny.
| THE SYSTEM or MAPPING TIE HEAVENS.
What wish and hope to do, III to calry Oh TINT
system of star-gauging, combined witt, tho gya-