60 WALKS AND TALKS. 



upper thin air in the film of space which separates earth 

 from heaven borne hither by the simoon, thither by the anti- 

 trades, hurled in the vortex of a cyclone and precipitated in 

 mid-ocean by a down-falling mass of vapor. Then, perhaps, 

 seized by the waves, and rocked and beaten at the surface till 

 it reached a zone of calm, it began its silent descent into the 

 dark world where it is destined to rest undisturbed for 

 centuries. 



Here too is cosmic dust. The seeds of worlds have been 

 sprinkled through space, and some of them have been planted 

 in the soil of this abyss. These minute globules of magnetic 

 iron were sparks emitted from a burning meteor. The meteor 

 was a small mass or particle of material stuff coursing swiftly 

 through the cold interplanetary spaces. It pierced the atmos- 

 phere of the earth ; the friction resulting ignited the meteor, 

 and for a brief moment it painted a fiery streak in its flight, 

 when all had been transformed to ashy particles which floated 

 in the air like volcanic dust, until it found, at last, a 

 resting place in the cold bed of the Atlantic. What a rever- 

 sal of fortune was here ! The particle might have swept on 

 through space, as many of its companions did, until it became 

 part of a glowing comet. Perhaps it once shone in a star 

 now it is dead for a cycle of ages. It is an impressive 

 thought that here, in this rayless night, we find the black 

 ruins of a star. The realities of material history exceed in 

 wonder all the fictions of imagination. 



We still stand wondering over the scene which surrounds 

 us. How oppressive is this silence. How welcome would be 

 the cheerful chirp of the sparrow. Even the piping of the 

 hated mosquito would break the eternal monotony. From 

 age to age this reign of death persists. A chill which is more 

 than icy, pierces us to the marrow. Sometimes, as we grope 

 through the Egyptian gloom, we kick the bones of aquatic creat- 

 ures which have perished in the water above us. Often their 

 kind is still in existence ; but sometimes their species are long 

 extinct. Here are teeth of sharks and ear-bones of whales 

 which have lin during geologic ages. Grand vicissitudes 



