22 ON SHOOTING STARS. 



If telescopic meteors are considered, this number ought doubtless to be increased at least 

 forty-fold. 



There seems to be little reason for supposing that the space near the earth's orbit is very 

 much more thickly strewn with these bodies than other parts of the solar system. That they 

 are gi-ouped according to some law is altogether probable. But a velocity different from that 

 of the earth implies, of necessity, that they are not grouped closely about the earth's orbit. 



These bodies cannot be regarded as the fragments of former worlds; they are rather the 

 materials from which worlds are forming. If astronomy furnishes any measure of their total 

 mass, we may therefrom obtain some idea, rude though it be, of the mass of the individuals. 



(312) 



