of this most beautiful science of celestial geometry may be considered the ultimate object of the labors of the astronomer. The philosophic observer is not and never can be content with mere observations of details which do not disclose the living, all-pervading spirit of nature. 17. If, then, the mystery of the gathering of stars into clusters is now penetrated and traced to the clustering power of universal gravitation, so also is the mystery of the converse problem of starless space, which was a subject of such profound mediation by the great Herschel. 18. This incomparable astronomer likewise correctly concluded that the breaking up of the Milky Way into a clustering stream is an inevitable effect of the ravages of time; but we are now enabled to foresee the restorative process, under the repulsive forces of nature, by which new nebulæ, clusters and sidereal systems of high order eventually will develop in the present depopulated regions of starless space. 19. If there be an incessant expulsion of dust from the stars to form the nebulæ, with the condensation of the nebulæ into stars and stellar systems, while the gathering of stars drawn together by a clustering power operating over millions of ages gives at length a globular mass of thousands of stars accumulating to a perfect blaze of starlight in the center, but surrounded externally by a desert of starless space resulting from the ravages of time, certainly the building of these magnificent sidereal systems may well engage the attention of the natural philosopher. 20. The foremost geometers of the eighteenth century, including Lagrange, Laplace and Poisson, were greatly occupied with the problem of the stability of the solar system; and in his historical eulogy on Laplace the penetrating Fourier justly remarks that the researches of geometers prove that the law of gravitation itself operates as a preservative power, and renders all disorder impossible, so that no object is more worthy of the meditation of philosophers than the problem of the stability of these great celestia' phenomena. But if the question of the stability of our single planetary system PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC., LI, 204 H, PRINȚED JUNE 7, 1912. may so largely absorb the talents of the most illustrious geometers of the age of Herschel, how much more justly may the problem of the stability of clusters, involving many thousands of such systems, claim the attention of the modern geometer, who has witnessed the perfect unfolding of the grand phenomena first discovered by that unrivaled explorer of the heavens? The grandeur of the study of the origin of the greatest of sidereal systems is worthy of the philosophic penetration of a Herschel! The solution of the dynamical problem presented surpasses the powers of the most titanic geometers, and would demand the inventive genius of a Newton or an Archimedes! Yet notwithstanding the transcendent character of the problem, and the hopelessness of a rigorous solution in our time, even an imperfect outline of nature's laws may aid the thoughtful astronomer, in penetrating the underlying workings of the sidereal universe, and thus enable him to perceive the great end subserved by the development of the cosmos. If so, he may well rejoice, and exclaim with Ptolemy: "Though but the being of a day, Up to the throne of God I mount STARLIGHT ON LOUTRE, MONTGOMERY CITY, MISSOURI, February 19, 1912. |