A VOYAGE TO THE SUN. 59 



seem unlikely that such action may afford the true 

 explanation of the radiations seen in the outer solar 

 envelope. 



Although not liable to any sense of fatigue, and 

 impervious to any of those risks which seemed to 

 multiply around us, we began to be bewildered by the 

 succession of wonders which had been revealed to us. 

 Y., in particular, wished to escape from the fierce light 

 and the dazzling colours, as well as from the incon- 

 ceivable uproar and tumult, which we had now 

 experienced, for some hours in reality, but for an age 

 to our perceptions. X. was desirous of penetrating 

 deeply beneath the photosphere, in order to obtain an 

 answer to some of those questions which have lately 

 arisen respecting the condition of the sun's interior. 

 He suffered himself, however, to be overruled, though 

 exacting from us a promise that this, our first voyage 

 to the sun, should not be the last. 



Shall I tell you the thought that chiefly occupied us 

 as we returned to the earth ? On all sides were count- 

 less myriads of stars ; in front, the mighty convolutions 

 of the galaxy, infinitely complex in star-texture ; directly 

 below, the great Magellanic cloud, full of stars and 

 star-clusters ; suns everywhere, of every order of magni- 

 tude and splendour. We had wondered at the beautiful 

 spectacle presented by the sun of our own system ; but 

 now that we had visited that sun, and had learned 

 something of its amazing might and activity, the 

 thought seemed awful, nay, almost appalling, that 

 all those suns, as well as the unnumbered millions 



