Quote#Children
It will be found that those contained in one article, are so closely…
Quote byWilliam Herschel · 1738–1822
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Astronomical Observations relating to the Construction of the Heavens... (1811).
English (original)
it will be found that those contained in one article, are so closely allied to those in the next, that there is perhaps not so much difference between them... as there would be in an annual description of the human figure were it given from the birth of a child till he comes to be a man in his prime.
— William Herschel
More from William Herschel
'We may... have surmised nebulae to be no other than clusters of stars disguised by their very great distance, but a longer experience and better acquaintance with the nature of nebulae, will not allow a general admission of such a …
A knowledge of the construction of the heavens has always been the ultimate object of my observations...
I must freely confess that by continuing my sweeps of the heavens my opinion of the arrangement of the stars and their magnitudes, and of some other particulars, has undergone a gradual change...
An equal scattering of the stars may be admitted in certain calculations; but when we examine the milky way, or the closely compressed clusters of stars... this supposed equality of scattering must be given up.
I compared it to H Geminorum and the small star in the quartile between Auriga and Gemini, and finding it so much larger than either of them, suspected it to be a comet.
An object may not only contain stars, but also nebulosity not composed of them.