METEORS. 187 



tension or perversion of the hypothesis. Development, 

 rightly understood, implies the perfect working of laws 

 assigned to the universe in the beginning by the 

 Creator ; but, according to this new doctrine of deve- 

 lopment, life passes from world to world in a series of 

 catastrophes. It was rightly objected by Leibnitz, that 

 the views of some religious men in his day implied that 

 the machine of the universe required continual win ding- 

 up ; but this is little to the teaching of the new hypo- 

 thesis, according to which the progress of the universe 

 is only secured by repeated collisions. Others, again, 

 have urged that Nature, so far as we can comprehend 

 her acting, seems ' in filling a wine-glass, to upset a 

 gallon ; ' but it was left to this new theory to show that 

 she must destroy two worlds in order to plant a few 



moss-seeds in a new one. 



" < ^ 



[NOTE. Since the above pages were written, Professor Young has 

 witnessed a solar eruption in which glowing hydrogen passed from a 

 height of 100,000 to a height of 200,000 miles in ten minutes. The 

 last-named height would imply ejection at the rate of 213 miles per 

 second ; but I have found, after a careful calculation, that matter 

 ejected at this rate would occupy twenty-six minutes in traversing 

 the observed distance. Hence the velocity of 'ejection must have enor- 

 mously exceeded 213 miles per second, and atmospheric resistance 

 must have acted, depriving the upflung hydrogen of a portion of its 

 excessive velocity, and limiting its range of flight. More condensed 

 matter, flung up along with the hydrogen, would retain a much larger 

 share of the original velocity, which probably exceeded 500 miles 

 per second. Such matter passed for ever from the sun's domain.] 



(From the Cornhitt Magazine for November 1871.) 



