OF INFINITE SPACE. 69 



BODIES, AND SUBSTANCES, THAT HAVE FALLEN FROM 



HEAVEN. From every region of the globe, and in all ages 

 of time within the range of history, exhibitions of apparent 

 instability in the heavens have been observed, when the cur- 

 tains of the evening have been drawn. Suddenly, a line of 

 light arrests the eye, darting like an arrow through a va- 

 rying extent of space, and in a moment the firmament is as 

 sombre as before. The appearance is exactly that of a star 

 falling from its sphere, and hence the popular title of shoot- 

 ing star applied to it. The apparent magnitudes of these 

 meteorites are widely different, and also their brilliancy. 

 Occasionally, they are far more resplendent than the bright- 

 est of the planets, and throw a very perceptible illumination 

 upon the path of the observer. A second or two commonly 

 suffices for the individual display, but in some instances it 

 has lasted several minutes. In every climate it is witnessed, 

 and at all times of the year, but most frequently in the 

 autumnal months. As far back as records go, we meet with 

 allusions to these swift and evanescent luminous travelers. 

 Minerva's hasty flight from the peaks of Olympus to break 

 the truce between the Greeks and Trojans, is compared by 

 Homer to the emisssion of a brilliant star. Virgil, in the 

 first book of the Georgics, mentions the shooting stars as 

 prognosticating weather changes : 



" And oft, before tempestuous winds arise, 

 The seeming stars fall headlong from the skies, 

 And, shooting through the darkness, gild the night 

 With sweeping glories and long trains of light." 



Antiquity refers us to several objects as having descended 

 from the skies, the gifts of the immortal gods. Such was 

 the Palladium of Troy, the image of the goddess of Ephesus, 

 and the sacred shield of Numa. The folly of the ancients 

 in believing such narrations has often been the subject of 

 remark ; but, however fabulous the particular cases referred 



