of minor orbs; there are clustering stellar aggregations showing every variety of richness, of figure, and of distribution; there are all the various forms of star cloudlets, resolvable and irresolvable, circular, elliptical, and spiral; and, lastly, there are irregular masses of luminous gas, clinging in fantastic convolutions around stars and star systems. Nor is it unsafe to assert that other forms and varieties of structure will yet be discovered, or that hundreds more exist which we may never hope to recognise.'

THE STAR DEPTHS ASTIR WITH LIFE.

I Do not know which thought is more stupendous, that the millions of suns which people space should all be fixed or should all be in exceedingly swift motion. It is an impressive conception that multitudes of suns, each competent to rule over a scheme of circling worlds, should remain steadfast each in its own domain, that the infinite universe should be divided, as it were, into separate kingdoms, ruled over in the main by single orbs, but some governed by multiple suns, and each, undisturbed in its integrity by rival empires, constant and stable for all time. But it is a no less impressive thought that each of these great ruling orbs should be urging its way through space with a velocity compared with which the swiftest motions known to us are as absolute rest-that the mighty star kingdoms of the universe should have constantly changing boundaries, or rather, since every subordinate orb in every star kingdom must partake in the motion of its ruler, that these kingdoms are carried bodily onwards, in every second of time passing over many miles of their wonderful flight through space.

But more impressive than either thought is the con

sideration that to our apprehensions both these conceptions are true. Each sun of our universe of suns is indeed in swift motion, as is our own. Each bears its family of dependent worlds along with it at an amazing velocity. Each star domain is continually changing not in boundary alone, but altogether. And yet so enormous is the scale on which the universe of stars is constructed that while momentarily changing it may be regarded as more unchanging than any object within its own infinite extent. If there could be constructed on any scale which would not be too large to prevent the whole being seen at once a perfect model of the stellar system, or rather of the part of the stellar system which lies within man's cognisance, and if within that model motions took place corresponding to those which are actually taking place in the stellar universe, then ages must elapse before the appearance of the system would be appreciably altered.

The most seemingly unchanging objects-a block of granite, a mass of steel, a diamond-are in reality undergoing moment by moment changes of structure, shape, and condition which surpass infinitely in extent those which would represent the changes in the stellar universe, even though the imagined model of that universe were as large as some great metropolis. If, passing beyond such puny and inadequate conceptions, the distance separating our sun from his nearest neighbour among the stars were represented by a mile-in which case the model would probably have to be as large as our earth

and supposing that nearest star moving with respect to our sun (regarded as at rest) at the rate of 100 miles per second, then the motion of the star in the enormous model would be so slow that in an hour it would amount but to the 850th part of an inch, and it would require thirty-five days to traverse a single inch relatively to our sun as represented in the same model. It will be conceived, therefore, how absolutely unchanging a model on any ordinary scale would appear. For probably no star moves with respect to any other at the rate of 100 miles per second; and a model of the star universe, so far as our telescopes reveal it, would require to be several miles across, in order that the distance separating our sun from the nearest star should be represented by a single yard.

In the star universe, then, we have a strange combination of the changing and the unchanging. It is astir with energy, instinct with the most amazing vitality, and yet it is to our feeble senses constant. Only in the eyes of Him to whom a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years, is the life of the universe a reality. He alone recognises harmony and perfection in the system of star motions. We cannot see the har monious relations of the universe regarded as a whole, simply because we do not recognise the laws of stellar motions. We see stars gathered together in one place. and sparsely strewn elsewhere, apparently without law or order-precisely as an observer of our solar system

from some distant stand-point would see no signs of regularity in the momentary distribution of the planets.

But precisely as the astronomer knows that, regarded not alone in all its parts, but with due reference to all its motions, the solar system is a regular and orderly scheme, so to the All-knowing Creator the stellar universe, inharmonious in all its parts if regarded without reference to the motions actuating its various members, is a scene of regularity and system, because not only are the actual places of the stars known to Him (which is not the case with astronomers), but the complete series of motions which are taking place within the system is recognised and understood.

Let us, however, consider how astronomers first ascertained that the stars are not absolutely fixed, and what has since been ascertained respecting the stellar motions.

The actual recognition of the displacement of a star by its own motion is a work which can only be accomplished by means of a powerful telescope, well mounted, and so arranged as to afford the means of determining any star's place with extreme nicety. In fact, this amounts to saying that the motion of the star must be very much magnified before it can be perceived.

But although this is true of any given astronomer, no str moving fast enough to be appreciably displaced to ordinary vision in any man's lifetime, yet in the course of centuries a star may shift so much in position as no longer