that the multiple star lies nearest the earth, for if the nebula is composed of material similar to earth, we could not think at such a distance to be able to see through a single foot, or even inch, of its substance. There are about 5,000 stars visible to the naked eye in both the northern and southern hemispheres, but only about one-third of that number are visible at any one time. Few people are able to see two thousand of them on the clearest night, while many do not see one thousand, because of their inability to detect those of the sixth magnitude. The Milky-Way, therefore, is quite like a great nebula to man’s unaided vision. At each increase of photographic and telescopic power new stars are observed, until it is now said that 100 millions may be visible by their aid. If all these knowable stars are no more to space than a drop of water is to the Atlantic ocean, as the above writer has said, it is not in the least surprising that we see a great number of nebulae. This we must ever expect, even though our telescopes be increased a millionfold in power. In fact it would be most surprising if unresolvable nebulae did not forever appear in space as often as instruments of increasing penetration should be brought into positions to examine them. If space, like our oceans and our atmosphere, should be subordinate to something greater that we have never seen, and have no prospect of seeing in our present state, we can form concerning it no adequate conception. To obtain an impression of the greatness of the nebulae in the heavens let us discord every instrument as though there were none, and upon some clear, moonless night stand gazing into the starry heavens. It might seem as though we were looking at millions of stars, but we should find by counting that the distinct points of light were only about one thousand. Imagine our sight to increase so that we beheld two thousand stars, then four thousand, eight thousand, and so on until finally, with our sight increased a thousand-fold, we were able to see one hundred millions of stars, the number that may be seen with the most powerful instruments. What we beheld as nebulae when we saw but one thousand distinct stars would thus be resolved into shining suns with sufficient increase of power. Then is it not a fair supposition that—if our sight were adapted to the beholding—we should be able to detect not only one hundred millions of stars, but myriads of them? Again, when we think of the irregular shapes that many of the nebulae have, can we believe that they are rotating like the sun and planets? for we look to spherical bodies for revolution. We know there are many peculiar-shaped nebulae emitting light and heat, yet that light and heat may in nowise be produced by their swift revolutions, and we cannot think of them as undergoing a change such as we would expect from the nebular theory of world-formation.