46 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



plation of the vast scheme much has to he presumed, 

 yet in the sifting of the various theories ventured in 

 regard to the evolution of Cosmos, grains of truth 

 may be gathered. Besides, our mental capacities are 

 widened by the endeavor to comprehend the profound 

 and the mysterious. 



COMETS. 



In the consideration of stellar matter we have to 

 contemplate comets erratic bodies which occupy el- 

 liptic or swerving orbits, and whose range is immense. 

 They may be strangers to the sun's range of authority, 

 visiting the different solar empires as messengers from 

 one grand luminary to another. Their velocity is very 

 great, therefore they may come from the regions of the 

 " fixed stars," trillions of miles away. Under such a 

 supposition they must possess some propelling force 

 not at present understood. Comets may have had an 

 origin similar to that of meteorites, yet some unknown 

 force projected them on eccentric courses. They pos- 

 sibly may have an office in the distribution of energies 

 among sidereal bodies. The sudden liberation of heat 

 attendant upon collision of non-luminous masses might 

 project comets from one solar system to another. 

 While a study of cornets is intensely interesting and 

 somewhat instructive, only a smattering of knowledge 

 has been contributed to physics by a contemplation of 

 their forces, of their erratic courses, and of their ele- 

 mentary constituents. 



A speculative idea in the nebular theory is that 

 matter was gaseous in the "beginning," and gradually 

 condensed into molecules, masses, and stellar bodies ; 

 and when the transformed state existed, something 

 like maturity had been attained, and an "end" was 

 theoretically in view. Such is not my comprehension 



