se are stars whose parallax has been determined, and
which are therefore nearest to us.

[Sidenote: Clusters of stars.] Of suns visible to the naked eye there
are about 8000, but the telescope can discern in the Milky Way more than
eighteen millions, the number visible increasing as more powerful
instruments are used. Our cluster of stars is a disc divided into two
branches at about one-third of its length. In the midst of innumerable
compeers and superiors, the sun is not far from the place of
bifurcation, and at about the middle of the thickness. Outside the plane
of the Milky Way the appearance would be like a ring, and, still farther
off, a nebulous disc.

[Sidenote: Distribution of matter and force in space.] From the
contemplation of isolated suns and congregated clusters we are led to
the stupendous problem of the distribution of matter and force in space,
and to the interpretation of those apparent phantoms of self-luminous
vapour, circular and elliptic discs, spiral wreaths, rings and fans,
whose edges fade doubtfully away, twins and triplets of phosphorescent
haze connected together by threads of light and grotesque forms of
indescribable complexity. Perhaps in some of these gleaming apparitions
we see the genesis, in some the melting away of universes. There is
nothing motionless in the sky. In every direction vast transformations
are occurring, yet all things proclaim the eternity of matter and the
undiminished perpetuity of force.

[Sidenote: Limit of the theory of gravitation.] The theory of
gravitation, as delivered by Newton, thus leads us to a knowledge of the
mathematical construction of the solar system, and inferentially
likewise to that of other systems; but it leaves without explanation a
large number of singular facts. It explains the existing conditions of
equilibrium of the heavenly bodies, but it tells us nothing of their
genesis; or, at the best, in that particular it falls back on the simple
fiat of God.

[Sidenote: Phenomena of the solar system.] The facts here referred to
conduct us, however, to another and far higher point of view. Some of
them, as enumerated by Laplace, are the following:--1. All the planets
and their satellites move in ellipses of such small eccentricity that
they are nearly circles; 2. The movements of the planets are in the same
direction and nearly in the same plane; 3. The movements of the
satellites are in the same direction as those of the planets; 4. The
move