THE SUN AS A CHEERFUL DWELLING-PLACE. 53 



says : " While the exterior was sufficiently excited 

 to dart off sparks several inches in length from 

 the outer sides, I could not detect the least 

 evidence of the existence of any electric action 

 within the chamber? 



Considering the globe of the sun to be in a 

 highly excited electrical state, corresponding with 

 the metallic chamber, or with the earth overarched 

 by the coruscations of the aurora borealis, we may 

 rationally discard the theory of its being covered 

 with billows of flaming gases or molten lava, 

 seething like the crater of a volcano, or that it 

 suffers the terrible pounding of falling meteors 

 and asteroids. The great central orb may have 

 an unvarying temperate clime, exempt from ex- 

 tremes of summer heat or winter cold, with no 

 nights of gloom. It may even be a bright and 

 cheerful dwelling-place, with sunny landscapes ; a 

 paradise of perennial verdure and ever-blooming 

 flowers. 



If a few small magnets revolved around the axis 

 of a magneto-electric machine suffice to illumine 

 more than a thousand square miles of dark head- 

 lands and waters, reasoning from terrestrial to 

 celestial mechanics, how indescribable must be the 

 magnificence of that lighthouse in the heavens, 

 whose beams are the result of the combined move- 

 ments of more than one hundred and fifty vast 

 magnetic planets revolving around the central orb 

 of the solar system ! 



