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ere in the presence of infinite power, aud wo may say 

 v.-ith the Psalmist that man cannot by search- 

 Intr find out God. " Canst thou find out the 

 Almighty into perfection t It is as hitrh 

 as Heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than Hell, 

 what canst thou know 1" I think we may content our- 

 eelves with viewing the matter in that lierht. MJU of 

 ecience tell us on every side that science teaches them 

 nothing of God. That Is the very thins? we 

 are told in the words of the Scripture. 

 "Thou canst not )>y searching find out God." Myste- 

 ries are brought before us which no effort on our part 

 enables us to resolve. So far from inducing doubt.it 

 Ehould encourage our faith. As we are in the presence 

 of infinite space and intlnite time, so also are we 'in the 

 presence oi infinite wisdom and infinite power. 



COMETS AND METEORS. 



THIED LECTURE OF R. A. PROCTOR 



REMARKABLE COMETS OF HISTORY REPULSIVE AC- 

 TION I!Y WHICII THE TAILS APPEAR TO 

 BE FOr;M!:D COMET FAMILIES OF JUPITER AND 

 HIS I'lillXW GIANTS THE METEOR SYSTEMS 

 METEOR. 1 ? ANO COMETS IN THE SUN'S NEIGHBOR- 

 HOOD- -EVIDENCE OF THE THEORY THAT METEOR 

 SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN EXPEIXED FROM THE 

 GREAT PLAXETS. 



Prof. K. A. Proctor, F. E. S.. gravo the third lecture 

 of the course of six, on Astronomy, under the 

 anspices of the Young Men's Christian Association, 

 at Association Hall, on January 17. The subject, 

 ** Comets and Meteors," was treated as in form- 

 er lectures, by means of pictures and diagrams 

 prepared specially for Mr. Proctor, and also by pho- 

 tographs, exhibited on a large scale by means of tbe 

 oxy-liydroi_ r en stereopticon of the Stevens' Techno- 

 logical Institute. 



THE LECTURE. 

 The longer I continue to give these lectures 



In America the more my difficulty seems to increase, 

 When in Boston, I was asked to give twelve lectures, and 

 fean-d it would lie too great a task. Before I came over 

 to America I thought it impossible that any audience 

 would attend so n a-iy as twelve lectures; but since 

 then, since thatj diiliculty has passed away from my 

 mind, the feeling I Lave is that these lectures are not 

 neailv enough to give the facts I would like to 

 lay before you.' ^Eacd time I give a lecture I 

 fed more and more how much I have to omty- I men- 

 tion this because I should like you to hear in mind that 

 If I seem to bring the facts too rapidly before you, it is 

 due to the difficulty under which I labor. I ff<*l th it I 

 am taxing an audience greatly r>y bringing fa<-ts before 

 them, one after another, with eucli rapidity. It is onlv 

 tiie confidence I have In American audiences which im- 

 pels me to go on with these lectures, bringing on these 

 fact* without giving time, as It were, for any rest of 



mind. I de.-ire you, QOWever, to FOOOtfEJze MiG 

 under which I labor. 



The subject I have to deal with to-night is really a fill 

 subject for twelve lectures. It is full of mysteries, and full 

 also of great discoveries which have recently been made. 

 To deal with it in one lecture is a somewhat ambitious 

 attempt.. We have, to begin with, the great wonder 

 that comets and meteors should in any way be 

 associated, they are so unlike each other. Comets are 

 very large bodies, much exceeding the sun In magni- 

 tude and the largest of the stars, and having that 

 mysterious faculty that they possess of coming from 

 fathomless depths of space, after journeys which must 

 have lasted over millions of years, rushing up toward 

 the Sun, passing close around him, and then passing 

 away with no hint as to what depths of space they will 

 fly to. It la a strange fact that we should have to' asso- 

 ciate with bodies like meteors, so small in dimen- 

 sions that a child could iu many cases carry them, 

 bodies so large that our sun sinks into iussuiflcance In 

 comparison with them. 



THE COMET'S COUIISE EXPLAINED BY GRAVITY. 



Now let us puss to the facts most important in this 

 matter. Again, I remind you that I am obliged to leave 

 out the facts dealt with in our text-books of astrono- 

 my, to take the more striking facts associated with the 

 views taken by astronomers of the present day. To 

 begin with comets. We have in the first place the fact 

 that comets come from outer space, and alter traveling 

 almost directly toward the sun for a long period 

 of time, circle around him. and pass away 

 again Into the depths or space. There is a 

 fact which seems at first to remove them from 

 all the ordinary laws or motion, certainly all the Luvs 

 presented by the planetary system ; but it was pre- 

 cisely in that, especially, that comets first gave astrono- 

 mers a proof lhat there was no resisting the truth of 

 the law of gravity. Newton took the comot or 1G30, and 

 having found that it was traveling on a parabolic conrsa 

 .-"ttsr described as an exceedingly long oval w.is 

 able to say that that comet would follow such ami such 

 a course, although its orbit was of an entirely uiffiircut 

 nature from the planets, and continually changing day 

 by day. Yet he said: "I will follow that body aud 

 tell precisely where it will go ;" and it was thif 

 mastery of Newton over the laws of celestial motion tlias 

 first convinced astronomers of the truth of the laws of 

 gravitv. The comet came and folio .vcd the precise path 

 that Newton suggested. Let us see how the comot 

 m:ived. It came traveling up toward the sun, seeming 

 to move directly toward him, marked among all comets 

 by the directness of its patii toward the sun. When it 

 was within a sixth part of tlio sun's diam- 

 eter it circled around him and ' then 

 passed away on a track precisely liko that on 

 which It had an i vcd. Like all other comets of 

 distinction it had a long tail, and as it approached the 

 sun, that tail extended, according to the known laws of 

 comets, away from the sun, and was thus carried b - 

 hind the comet; but us the comet passed around ti. > 

 f-un ami pa.sHcd around it in a few hours when It, w;> 

 seen on the other side, a long tail I cannot call it tu,; 



