We now turn to the cluster of circumpolar constellations sometimes called the Royal Family, in allusion to the well-known story of the Ethiopian king Cepheus and his queen Cassiopeia, whose daughter Andromeda was exposed on the seashore to be devoured by a monster, but who was saved by the hero Perseus. All these mythologic personages are represented in the constellations that we are about to study.[4] We begin with Andromeda (map No. 24). The leading star alpha marks one corner of the great square of Pegasus. The first star of telescopic interest that we find in Andromeda is , a double difficult on account of the faintness of the smaller component. The magnitudes are four and eleven, distance 49", p. 110 deg.. A few degrees north of the naked eye detects a glimmering point where lies the Great Nebula in Andromeda. This is indicated on the map by the number 116. With either of our three telescopes it is an interesting object, but of course it is advisable to use our largest glass in order to get as much light as possible. All that we can see is a long, shuttle-shaped nebulous object, having a brighter point near the center. Many stars are scattered over the field in its neighborhood, but the nebula itself, although its spectrum is peculiar in resembling that of a faint star, is evidently a gaseous or at any rate a meteoritic mass, since photographs show it to be composed of a series of imperfectly separated spirals surrounding a vast central condensation. This peculiarity of the Andromeda nebula, which is invisible with telescopes although conspicuous in the photographs, has, since its discovery a few years ago, given a great impetus to speculation concerning the transformation of nebulae into stars and star clusters. No one can look at a good photograph of this wonderful phenomenon without noticing its resemblance to the ideal state of things which, according to the nebular hypothesis, must once have existed in the solar system. It is to be remembered, however, that there is probably sufficient material in the Andromeda nebula to make a system many times, perhaps hundreds or thousands of times, as extensive as that of which our sun is the center. If one contemplates this nebula only long enough to get a clear perception of the fact that creation was not ended when, according to the Mosaic history, God, having in six days finished "the heavens and the earth and all the host of them," rested from all his work, a good blow will have been dealt for the cause of truth. Systems far vaster than ours are now in the bud, and long before they have bloomed, ambitious man, who once dreamed that all these things were created to serve him, will probably have vanished with the extinguishment of the little star whose radiant energy made his life and his achievements briefly possible. [4] For further details on this subject see Astronomy with an Opera-glass.