9, p. 137-139. The last-named astronomer has found, by a mo4re
recent combination, 261??degrees 23' R.A.+37??degrees 36' Decl. for the
direction of the Sun's motion; and, taking the mean of his own results with
that of Argelander, we have, by a combination of 797 stars, the formula
259??degrees 9' R.A.+34??degrees 36' Decl.
If we consider the proper, and not the perspective motions of the stars, we
shall find many that appear to be distributed in groups, having an opposite
direction; and facts hitherto observed do not, at any rate, render it a
necessary assumption that all parts of our starry stratum, or the whole of
the stellar islands filling space, should move round one large unknown
luminous or non-luminous central body. The tendency of the human mind to
investigate ultimate and highest causes certainly inclines the intellectual
activity, no less than the imagination of mankind, to adopt such an
hypothesis. Even the Stagirite proclaimed that "every thing which is moved
must be referable to a motor, and that there would be no end to
p 147
the concatenation of causes if there were not one primordial immovable
morot."*
[footnote] *Aristot., 'de C??lo', iii., 2, p. 301, Bekker: 'Phys.', viii.,
t, p. 256.
This material taken from pages 147-203
COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol.
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