THE ORIGIN OF WORLDS. 9 



both bodies were ten times as great, the conflict of the invading mass 

 would be about 100,000 times as violent, and a correspondingly greater 

 amount of energy would be converted into electric, magnetic, and calo- 

 rific forces. Accordingly, great suns, in passing through their most ter- 

 rific scenes, call forth a world-making power of the greatest vigor ; and 

 will not only give birth to larger spheres, but also send them forth in 

 wider orbits. 



But the size and mass which a world attains must depend mainly on 

 the numbers of meteors and comets frequenting the solar dominions 

 while it was in the course of formation. At the birth of Jupiter this 

 vagrant matter was more than usually abundant, and it served to give 

 the planet a predominance over the other members of the solar family. 

 It is very probable that the minute and the rare tenants of space are 

 very numerous in the Milky Way ; but this abundance of chaotic mate- 

 rial, though calculated to increase the size of worlds, must shorten their 

 term of existence, as the increase which suns obtain in mass and attrac- 

 tion would have the same effect as a resisting medium in abridging the 

 lives of their planets. Events involving the mortality of worlds would 

 thus become more frequent ; and it is worthy of remark that it was in 

 or near this part of our universe that most of the temporary stars have 

 sent forth their sudden display of brilliancy. In such a region a planet 

 of large size in closing its career by incorporating with a sun would be 

 attended by an electro-magnetic energy sufficient to give birth to an- 

 other planetary member of considerable magnitude on the outer zone 

 of the solar system, so that the existence of worlds would not be wholly 

 dependent on the union of double suns. 



But even in our own part of the celestial domain there are to be 

 found evident marks of the occurrence of one of those stupendous events 

 to which I have ascribed the appearance of temporary stars, and which 

 are so intimately connected with the birth and death of worlds. On com- 

 paring the observations of Carrington and Spoerer with those of Vogel 

 and Young, it appears that for the sun's equatorial zone the time of ro- 

 tation is scarcely twenty -two days, while it is nearly four weeks for the 

 parallel of fifty degrees. So great and unexpected a difference in the 

 diurnal motion of its parts proves that our central luminary must have 

 at some past time received a large mass, which had a direct motion over 

 his equator, and was finally precipitated to his surface. Whether the 

 incorporating mass was a planet, or the last remains of the great com- 

 panion which cooperated in giving being to the solar family, the effects 

 deserve attention so far as they show the present working of a power 

 which has been long in a declining condition. The movement of one 

 zone of matter over another having a different velocity of rotation 

 must be a source of solar magnetism, and this force may be therefore 

 regarded as much weaker than it was a million years ago, but much 

 stronger than it will be in very distant future ages. 



Yet, even in its reduced state, this magnetic agency is not without 



