planet; its attraction proportionally greater; the aerolites more
numerous; and hence an infinite hail of stones, small masses and
little worlds, makes ceaseless trails of light, whose individuality
is lost in one dazzling sea of glory.

On the 1st day of September, 1859, two astronomers, independently
of each other, saw a sudden brightening on the surface of the sun.
Probably two large meteoric masses were travelling side by side
at two or three hundred miles per second, and striking the sun's
atmosphere, suddenly blazed into light bright enough to be seen
on the intolerable light of the photosphere as a background. The
earth responded to this new cause of brilliance and heat in the
sun. Vivid auroras appeared, not only at the north and south poles,
but even where such spectacles are seldom seen. The electro-magnetic
[Page 20] disturbances were more distinctly marked. "In many places
the telegraphic wires struck work. In Washington and Philadelphia
the electric signalmen received severe electric shocks; at a station
in Norway the telegraphic apparatus was set fire to; and at Boston a
flame of fire followed the pen of Bain's electric telegraph." There
is the best of reason for believing that a continuous succession of
such bodies might have gone far toward rendering the earth
uncomfortable as a place of residence.

Of course, the same result of heat and light would follow from
compression, if a body had the power of contraction in itself. We
endowed every particle of our gas, myriads of miles in extent, with an
attraction for every other particle. It immediately compressed itself
into a light-giving body, which flamed out through the interstellar
spaces, flushing all the celestial regions with exuberant light.