Views of the Architecture of the Heavens (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842 edition. Excerpt: ... 78 WHAT ARE THE NEBULA? in purport answering to its prominence in magnitude. But when we ask, What are the Nebula ? 'we feel that we are venturing into that dim twilight which always surrounds the sphere of positive knowledge. If we would understand them, however, or know whether they are intelligible, we must examine if they can be arranged under characteristic peculiarities of structure, indicative of the operation of Law; and it was the endenvor so to arrange them which led the Astronomer, whose torch has hitherto guided us, to conjectures promising, now more confidently than ever, to throw unwonted light upon the course of material transitions. I have, by means of diagrams, illustrated this part of our subject so fully, that I am encouraged to hope my reader will easily follow the arguments we are about to entertain? In its first or rudest state, the Nebulous matter is characterised by a great diffusion. The Nebula in Orion is an example of this, and Plate XV. represents a few other instances in which the milky light is spread over a large space so equably, that scarcely any peculiarity of constitution or arrangement can be perceived The perfectly chaotic modification here illustrated, is perhaps the nearest to the original state of this matter of any thing now remaining in the firmament; but the reason of its being found in separate patches, varying so much in form, manifestly appertains to remote inquiries, and an inaccessible period in the History of Things. Parting from these perfectly diffused and amorphous Nebulosities, Structure, as governed by Law, begins to appear. Even its first visible indications are very emphatic. The winding Nebulosity in Plate XVI. for instance, exhibits a congregating or condensing of the filmy matter...