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most glorious objects in the heavens. "If we suppose this nebula to be one continuous bed of stars of different sizes for its entire extent, it must comprise the enormous number of 30,000,000." The distance, of such nebulæ from the earth entirely passes our comprehension. Some astronomers have estimated that a ray of light would require 800,000 years to span the gulf that intervenes. Imagination wearies itself in the attempt to understand these figures. They only teach us something of the limitless expanses of that space in which God is working the mysterious problem of creation.

The annular nebulae have the form of a ring. There are but four of these "ring universes." In

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the cut is a representation of one in Lyra-first as seen by Herschel, and having in the centre a nebu-. lous film like a "bit of gauze stretched over a hoop;' second, as shown in Lord Rosse's great telescope, which resolves the filmy parts of the nebula into excessively minute stars, and reveals a fringe of stars

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most glorious objects in the heavens. "If we suppose this nebula to be one continuous bed of stars of different sizes for its entire extent, it must comprise the enormous number of 30,000,000." The distance of such nebulæ from the earth entirely passes our comprehension. Some astronomers have estimated that a ray of light would require 800,000 years to span the gulf that intervenes. Imagination wearies itself in the attempt to understand these figures. They only teach us something of the limitless expanses of that space in which God is working the mysterious problem of creation.

The annular nebulae have the form of a ring. There are but four of these "ring universes." In

[merged small][graphic][merged small]

the cut is a representation of one in Lyra-first as seen by Herschel, and having in the centre a nebu-. lous film like a "bit of gauze stretched over a hoop;" second, as shown in Lord Rosse's great telescope, which resolves the filmy parts of the nebula into excessively minute stars, and reveals a fringe of stars

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