of the kind has occurred in modern times, presenting the most unequivocal evidence of the reality of this inexplicable wonder. 1572, a new star of great splendour appeared suddenly in the constellation of Cassiopeia, occupying a position which had previously been blank. This star was first perceived by Schuler, of Wittemburgh, on the 6th of August. It was detected by Tycho, the Danish astronomer, on the 11th of the following November, and the wonder produced by this most extraordinary phenomenon induced him to give to the star the most unremitting attention. Its magnitude increased until it is said to have surpassed even Jupiter in splendour, and finally became visible in the day time. It retained its greatest magnitude but for a short time, when it commenced to diminish in brilliancy, changing from white to yellow, then to reddish, and finally it became faintly blue; and, so diminishing by degrees, it vanished from the sight in March 1574, and has never since been seen. In the year 1604, while the scholars of Kepler were engaged in observations of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, then in close proximity to each other, having been interrupted a day or two by clouds, on the return of fine weather, Maestlin was astonished to find near the planets then in the constellation Ophiuchus, a brilliant star, which certainly had not been there a few days before. This object attracted the attention of all the great astronomers then living, and was particularly observed by Galileo and Kepler. It is said to have attained a splendour equal to that of the planet Venus, and from this, its greatest brilliancy, it gradually declined, until, about the beginning of 1606, it ceased to be visible, and no telescopic power has since been able to detect any star in the place once occupied by this remarkable stranger. Although observed with the greatest care, no sensible parallax was ever detected in either of these objects, and no doubt exists as to their occupying the region of the fixed stars. Many other less remarkable examples are on record, but up to the present no satisfactory explanation of this astonishing phenomenon has been given. Whether it indicates the actual destruction of some magnificent system, or the revolution of these stars in orbits of great eccentricity, causing them to appear to us, like the comets, only in the perihelion points of their mighty orbits, is equally uncertain. One thing is certain they present evidence of change in the starry heavens, of the most startling and irresistible kind. : While new stars have occasionally made their appearance, to astonish mankind with their brilliancy, there are many well-authenticated cases of the entire disappearance of old stars, whose places had been fixed with a degree of certainty not to be doubted. In October, 1781, Sir William Herschel observed a star, No. 55 in Flamsted's catalogue, in the constellation Hercules. In 1790, the same star was observed by the same astronomer, but since that time no search has been able to detect it. The star is gone; whether never to return, it is impossible to say. A like disappearance has occurred with reference to the stars numbered 80 and 81, both of the fourth magnitude, in the same constellation. In May 1828, Sir John Herschel missed the star numbered 42 in the constellation Virgo, which has never since been seen. -Examples might be multiplied, but it is unnecessary. In these cases the stars have been lost entirely; -no return has ever been marked; and but for the discovery of another class of remarkable objects among the stars, no return would probably ever have been suspected. If I could direct your attention to-night to a brilliant star named Algol, in the head of Medusa, and bring a powerful telescope to aid in your examinations, this star, while you are watching it, might be seen to lose its splendour, and from its rank of the second magnitude to decline in brightness to the naked eye. Having reached a certain limit, it would commence an increase, and by slow degrees resume its original splendour. This decrease and increase is actually accomplished in about eight hours. Having regained its usual light, it remains stationary for about two days and a half, and then repeats the changes already detailed; and thus have its periodical fluctuations continued since the date of its discovery, with the most astonishing regularity. The bright star marked Beta, in the constellation Lyra, is known to pass from the third to the fifth magnitude, and to regain its light in a period of six days and nine hours. These are called periodical stars, and a sufficient number have already been detected to present a progressively increasing series of periods from two days twenty-four hours up to four hundred and ninetyfour days, and in one case even many years. Here, again, are phenomena indicative of extraordinary activity in these remote regions of space. No explanation of these changes has yet been given in all respects satisfactory. Some have attributed them to the existence of dark spots on the stars, which, by rotation on an axis, periodically present themselves, and thus dim the lustre of the stars. Others think the changes are due to the revolution of large planets about the stars, which, by coming between the eye and the star, eclipse a portion of its light; while a third class conceive the fluctuations to arise, in some instances at least, from an orbitual motion of the stars in orbits of excessive elongation, and so located as to have their greater axis directed towards our system. It will be seen that this theory may be readily extended so as to embrace the new stars already referred to, and even to account for those which have been lost from their places in the heavens. Here, however, we enter the confines of the uncertain. Centuries may roll away before the true explanation of these astonishing changes shall be given; but the mind is on the track, and with a steady and resistless movement is slowly pushing its investigations deeper and still deeper into the dark unknown. While the phenomena of the new and lost stars, and the fluctuations in the light of the variable ones, gave undeniable evidence of constant change in what Aristotle was pleased to call the eternal and incorruptible heavens. Herschel's brilliant discovery of the orbitual motion of the double stars gave to the mind the opportunity of determining the nature of the law which sways the movements in these distant regions of space. It was natural, in the first efforts to compute the orbits of the double stars, to adopt the hypothesis that they attracted each other by the same law which prevails in the planetary system. Results did not disappoint expectation. Gravitation, which Newton, in the outset of his great discovery, had boldly affirmed exerted its influence wherever matter existed or motion reigned, was extended, in the most absolute manner, to the region of the fixed stars. There, at a distance from our own system almost inconceivable, suns and systems of suns, rising in orders of greater complexity, revolving with swift velocity, or with slow and majestic motion, bore testimony, ample and un equivocal, to the truth of the great law of universal gravitation. Every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other particle of matter with a force which is proportioned directly to the mass, and which decreases as the square of the distance at which it operates increases. This is no longer a bold hypothesis. The double star marked Zeta, in the constellation Hercules, has been subjected to the analysis of the computer. The elements of its orbit have been obtained, and true to its predicted period, it has actually performed an entire revolution in a period of thirty-five years. The components of the star Eta, in the Northern Crown, revolve around their common centre in about fortyfour years. Both of these pairs have completed an entire revolution since their discovery. Many others might be named, but my only object, at present, is to exhibit the evidence which shall remove all doubt as to the actual extension of the law of gravitation to fixed stars. Let it be remembered that this department of astronomy is yet in its infancy. Thousands of double stars have been detected, and every year adds hundreds to the list. Among these, a large proportion must prove to be binary systems, varying in their periods of revolution, from thirty years or less, up to many thousands, perhaps millions of years. The association of two suns naturally suggests the possible union of a greater number, forming more complicated systems. This idea has been verified-a large number of triple systems has been discovered. In few instances quadruple sets have been found, of which a remarkable example exists in the constellation of the Harp. Here was found four suns, arranged in pairs of two. The components of the first pair revolve around each other |