he was going to take nebulae under his especial charge. He embarked
in 1833 with his family for the Cape; and his work at Feldhausen,
six miles from Cape Town, marked the beginning of southern sidereal
astronomy. The result of his four years' work there was published
in 1847. From 1855 he devoted himself at Collingwood to the
collection and revival of his father's and his own labours. His
"Outlines of Astronomy," published in 1849, and founded on an
earlier "Treatise on Astronomy" of 1833, was an outstanding
success. Herschel's long and happy life, every day of which added
its share to his scientific services, came to an end on May 11,
1871.

_I.--The Wonders of the Milky Way_

There is no science which draws more largely than does astronomy on that
intellectual liberality which is ready to adopt whatever is demonstrated
or concede whatever is rendered highly probable, however new and
uncommon the points of view may be in which objects the most familiar
may thereby become placed. Almost all its conclusions stand in open and
striking contradiction with those of superficial and vulgar observation,
and with what appears to everyone the most positive evidence of his
senses.

There is hardly anything which sets in a stronger light the inherent
power of truth over the mind of man, when opposed by no motives of
interest or passion, than the perfect readiness with which all its
conclusions are assented to as soon as their evidence is clearly
apprehended, and the tenacious hold they acquire over our belief when
once admitted.

If the comparison of the apparent magnitude of the stars with their
number leads to no immediately obvious conclusion, it is otherwise when
we view them in connection with their local distribution over the
heavens. If indeed we confine ourselves to the three or four brightest
classes, we shall find them distributed with a considerable approach to
impartiality over the sphere; a marked preference, however, being
observable, especially in the southern hemisphere, to a zone or belt
passing through _epsilon_ Orionis and _alpha_ Crucis. But if we take in
the whole amount visible to the naked eye we shall perceive a great
increase of numbers as we approach the borders of the Milky Way. And
when we come to telescopic magnitudes we find them crowded beyond
imagination along the extent of that circle and of the branches which it
sends off from it; so that,