238 TIME, SPACE, AND INVISIBLE WORLDS. 



Planetary matter ; also the laws to which we know matter to be 

 subject. The answers which came were definite and complete so 

 far as they went. i. The Stars are found, as well as the faintness 

 of their light enables spectroscopists to judge, to be at least par- 

 tially composed of matter which is identical with that in our Sun 

 and Earth. 2. The Stars are incandescent, and their light, so far 

 as ascertained, is also identical with that of our Sun, varying only 

 according to the prominence of any elements at any moment in 

 the Star's atmosphere. 3. All Stars, bright enough to respond, 

 are found, if not by telescope and micrometer, yet by spectrum 

 analysis, to be swiftly in motion, and to be, just as in the case of 

 our Sun, all coursing on their mighty journeys, at tremendous 

 speeds, varying from 20,000 to more than 200,000 miles per hour, 

 through the fathomless depths of infinite space ; but whither 

 bound, whether on some vast orbit of trackless extent, or in simple 

 obedience to the universal gravitation of all matter, no human 

 being can tell. Here we have another great generalisation, than 

 which there can hardly be a more conclusive testimony to that 

 ubiquitous and all-embracing law of Continuity. 



In considering the question of invisible worlds, it is necessary 

 to remember that our Sun is not only a binary but a multiple Star, 

 that is, a giant centre of lesser stars or planets, which, owing to 

 the gradual cooling they have undergone during some millions of 

 years past, have so contracted in bulk and diminished in brightness 

 that out of the eight primary planets, four— viz., Mercury, Venus, 

 Earth, and Mars — have become solid and dark bodies ; and the 

 other four — viz., Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, although 

 shining partly by their own light, would yet be utterly invisible in 

 even the great Lick telescope, if looked for from the distance of 

 the nearest Star. Even our sun itself, glorious and majestic as he 

 is, would at that distance sink into a Star scarcely brighter than 

 Alcyone in the Pleiades Could we plant ourselves upon one of 

 the globes doubtless revolving round the southern star Phi 

 in Ophiucus, our Sun would appear from thence as a tiny com- 

 panion to Aldebaran, half-way towards the little optical double on 

 its right, and quite possibly the aid of a telescope might be neces- 

 sary to make it visible at all. In the light of considerations like 

 these, it would appear to be more than probable that, excluding 



