WORLD- MAKING II 



themselves into systems of suns and planets, but with this 

 difference from ours, that the suns were very large and sur- 

 rounded with a wide luminous haze, and each of the planets 

 was self-luminous, like a little sun. In some the planets were 

 dancing up and down in spiral lines. In others they were 

 moving in one plane. In still others, in every variety of 

 direction. Some had vast numbers of little planets and 

 satellites. Others had a few of larger size. There were even 

 some of these systems that had a pair of central suns of con- 

 trasting colours. The whole scene was so magnificent and 

 beautiful that I thought I could never weary of gazing on it. 

 " Here," said he, " we have the most beautiful condition of 

 systems of worlds, when considered from a merely physical point 

 of view : the perfection of solar and planetary luminousness, but 

 which is destined to pass away in the interest of things more 

 important, if less showy. This is the condition of the great 

 star Sirius, which the old priest astronomers of the Nile 

 Valley made so much of in their science and religion, and 

 which they called Sothis. It is now known by your star- 

 gazers to be vastly larger than your sun, and fifty times more 

 brilliant. 1 Let us select one of these systems somewhat 

 similar to the solar system, and suppose that the luminous 

 atmospheres of its nearer planets are beginning to wane in 

 brilliancy. Here is one of them, through whose halo of light 

 we can see the body of the planet. What do you now per- 

 ceive ?" The planet referred to was somewhat larger in appear- 

 ance than our earth, and, approaching near to it, I could see 

 that it had a cloud-bearing firmament, and that it seemed to 

 have continents and oceans, though disposed in more regular 

 forms than on our own planet, and with a smaller proportion 

 of land. Looking at it more closely, I searched in vain for 



1 In evidence of these and other statements I may refer to Huggins' 

 recent address as President of the British Association, and to the " Story 

 of the Heavens," etc., by Sir Robert Ball. 



