Thomas Dick, the philosopher, thus speaks of this luminous nebulae:— GSAM 259.5
“Were we placed as near it as one half the distance of the nearest star, great as that distance is, from such a point it would exhibit an effulgence approximating to that of the sun; and to beings at much nearer distance it would fill a large portion of the sky, and appear with a splendor inexpressible. But the ultimate design of such an object, in all its bearings and relations, may perhaps remain to be evolved during the future ages of an interminable existence; and, like many other objects in the distant spaces of creation, it excites in the mind a longing desire to behold the splendid and mysterious scenes of the universe a little more unfolded.” 8Dick’s Sidereal Heavens, page 96. GSAM 259.6
Elder Bates, in concluding an article upon the subject, said:— GSAM 260.1
“Thus we see from all the testimony adduced (and we could give much more, were it necessary), that here is a most wonderful and unexplainable phenomenon in the heavens; a gap in the sky more than eleven billion and three hundred and fourteen [11,000,000,314] miles in circumference. Says the celebrated Hugins, ‘I never saw anything like it among the rest of the fixed stars—a free view into another region more enlightened.’ “ GSAM 260.2