166 HI.KSC II! L AND HIS WORK 



it IKT blood-rod streak or corona, Tli- r i DO i 

 to believe that ho even read of them. His j.i^iny moun- 

 tains of three or four hundred miles \\viv molehills to 

 the vast tongues of red flame shot up from tin- Imrnin^ 

 ocean of tli. sun's surface to a height of 200,000 mil. s 

 in a few minutes, rising from and falling laek int<> ihut 

 ocean's bosom in a couple of hours. Herochd \vould 

 have revelled in these gigantic strides of living llame. 

 He would have cast away his theory of solid 1><><1\ 

 atmosphere and luminous solar clouds. Probably h< 

 would have held fast to his comparison of tin- li^ r ht- 

 clouds to our northern lights, and to his idea that the 

 comets help to maintain the light and heat of our sun. 

 How his glory is kept up from age to a^ r < . from mil- 

 lennium to millennium, we know as little as he did 

 Truly we are only at the beginning of our knowledge 

 of this and other glorious stars; Herschel may have 

 thought, and probably did think, that we were nearly 

 at the end. 



