Astronomy and the Bible;

THEBANDSOFORION 161

Now ithasbeen scarcely ageneration sincemen
learnedthatthePleiadesandOrionwereeachagroup
ofstarstravelingthroughthe depthsof space, held,
asitwere,bysomemightychain. Wewillgivesome
ofthestatementsofprominentastronomerswhichwill
verifythistextfromtheWordofGod. Wefirstgive
aquotation from "Other Worlds than Ours," pub-
lishedbyRichardA.Proctor,astronomerandauthor,
asearlyas1870. Hesays:
"Amongother instances maybe cited the nebula
roundthestarsciandC2inOrion. Inthisobjecttwo
remarkable nebulous nodules centrally surroundtwo
double stars. Admitting the association here to be
real (andnootherexplanationcanbe reasonablyad-
mitted),weareledtointerestingconclusionsrespect-
ingthewholeofthatwonderfulnebulousregionwhich
surroundsthe swordof Orion. Webecome certain
thattheothernebulae inthatregion arereallyasso-
ciatedwiththefixedstarsthere;thatitisnotamere
coincidence, forinstance, thatthe middlestarinthe
beltofOrionisinvolvedinnebula,orthatthelowest
starofthe swordis similarlycircumstanced. Itisa
legitimate inference, fromthe evidence, that all the
nebulae inthis region belong to onegreat nebulous
group,whichextendsitsbranches tothesestars. As
a mightybandthisnebulous region seems togather
thestarshereintocloseassociation,showingus,ina
waythereis nomisinterpreting,thatthese starsand
thenebulaformonesystem."
The astronomer, judgingonly by appearances re-
vealedtotheeye,concludedthatthesestarsmade up

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