A HINT FROM ASTRONOMY
The physical evidence that our space is thus curved in higher space, some have considered astronomy to furnish in what is called the "negative parallax" of certain distant stars. This cannot be passed by, though it is too deeply involved with the probable error of the observers themselves to be considered more than an interesting fact in this connection. Every one knows that the difference of angle under which an object is seen from two standpoints is called its parallax. The parallax of the stars—and the consequent knowledge of their distance—is obtained by observing them from opposite points of the earth's orbit around the sun. When a star is within measurable distance, these angles are acute, and the lines from the star to the earth at opposite sides of its orbit converge, therefore. But when these lines, as sometimes happens, appear to be divergent, the result is called a negative parallax, and is explainable by higher space relationships. Obviously, the divergence of the lines would indicate that the object lies behind the observer instead of in front of him. This anomaly can be explained