great as this.

The idea that the nebulosity around the new star was formed by the
illumination caused by the light of the explosion spreading out on
all sides therefore fails to satisfy us, not because the expansion
of the nebula seemed to be so slow, but because it was many times
as swift as the speed of light. Another reason for believing that
it was not a mere wave of light is offered by the fact that it did
not take place regularly in every direction from the star, but
seemed to shoot off at various angles.

Up to the present time, the speed of light has been to science, as
well as to the intelligence of our race, almost a symbol of the
greatest of possible speeds. The more carefully we reflect on the
case, the more clearly we shall see the difficulty in supposing
any agency to travel at the rate of the seeming emanations from
the new star in Perseus.

As the emanation is seen spreading day after day, the reader may
inquire whether this is not an appearance due to some other cause
than the mere motion of light. May not an explosion taking place
in the centre of a star produce an effect which shall travel yet
faster than light? We can only reply that no such agency is known
to science.

But is there really anything intrinsically improbable in an agency
travelling with a speed many times that of light? In considering
that there is, we may fall into an error very much like that into
which our predecessors fell in thinking it entirely out of the
range of reasonable probability that the stars should be placed at