posed to rage at the sun. Unquestion- 

 ably this has been a tax upon ingenuity 

 which neither we nor our scientific fath- 

 ers have been able to bear. If the 

 magnetic process be admitted, the loss 

 aii'l waste involved in the combustive 

 process, enormous beyond computa- 

 tion, may possibly be relieved, and the 

 great law of conservation of force thus 

 jeopardized, even in the house of its 

 friends, may stiil be maintained in its in- 

 tegrity. 



The demonstrations of our senses, as 

 well as the teachings of all the ages 

 based upon these demonstrations, lead 

 us to attribute to the sun the possession 

 of a most dazzling briilancy, and an 

 unlimited amount of heat. So it cer- 

 tainly appears ; and every hypothesis 

 that has ever had a hold upon the scien- 

 tific mind has been based upon that con- 

 ception. Yet the simple fact that the 

 earth receives its heat through the 

 agency of the sun is not conclusive evi- 

 dence that the sun is itself hot. On the 

 contrary it is well known that heat rap- 

 idly diminishes in the direction of the 

 sun; and at the altitude of con- 

 siderably less than two miles lies the 

 line of perpetual frost, the temperature 

 of space progressively lowering beyond 

 that point. 



Standing as diametrically opposed to 

 the old methods of thought is the tact 

 that the sun is not inherently brilliant. 

 Beyond the lower portions of the at- 

 mospheric mass there is no dazzle. 

 Only a short distance upwards from the 

 earth at a point where respiration, by 

 reason of the rarity of the atmosphere, 

 becomes impeded, the human eye may 

 behold that great orb undazed. 



