ace very far removed from this plane. The zodial light,
therefore, is not the resisting medium, but the passage of the radial
stream through a diffuse nebula of atoms, brought down the poles of the
vortex by the polar current, and held in check along the central plane
by gravitation.

If these atoms partook of the velocity of the ether, they would not be
luminous; but being held back by gravitation, they are opposed to the
radial stream, and hence the light.

Many stars are also nebulous. In some cases we see the nebulosity
edgewise, or along the equatorial planes of the stellar vortices; in
others we look down the poles, and the nebulosities are circular, and
there is an endless variety in the shape and intensity of this light.
But the universe seems full of motion, and we are not justified in
supposing, because a star shows no such light, that it is without
rotation. The parallax of the nearest star is only one second, the whole
lenticular mass of light which surrounds our sun would therefore only
subtend an angle of a single second at the nearest fixed star. Seeing
its extreme faintness, therefore, the effulgence of the star would
render it totally invisible, provided that it _could_ traverse the vast
immensity of intervening space, without feeling the influence of that
extinction, which Struve has proved does actually diminish the number of
visible stars.

Corruscations and flickerings have also been noticed in the zodial
light, and as usual, the learned have suggested atmospheric conditions
as the cause, instead of trusting to the evidence of their own senses.
How prone is philosophy to cling to that which is enveloped in the mist
of uncertainty, rather than embrace the _too simple_ indications of
nature. As if God had only intended her glories to be revealed to a
favored few, and not to mankind at large. Blessed will be the day when
_all_ will appreciate their own powers and privileges, and no longer
regard the oracles which emanate from a professional priesthood, whose
dicta have so often tended to darken the simple counsels of truth! To
set the question of pulsations in the zodial light, as well as in the
tails of comets, at rest, only requires previously concerted
observations, in places not very widely apart; for it is scarcely
possible, that atmospheric conditions should produce simultaneous
pulsations in two distant places. If the pulsations are found to be
simultaneous, they are real; if not simultaneous