NEWS FROM THE MOON. 237 



planets. The evidence on this point will be found 

 fully detailed in the article called ' The Eecent Meteor 

 Shower and Meteor Showers generally,' which pre- 

 cedes the present. And the circumstance will there 

 be found noted, that we need not inquire into the 

 dimensions of a body in considering the possibility 

 of its expelling matter from its interior with a velocity 

 sufficient to carry such matter altogether away ; since, 

 in point of fact, the inferiority (for instance) of the 

 major planets compared with the sun, is compensated 

 by the inferior attractive power which their eruptional 

 forces have to overcome. All that is required is a 

 sunlike condition with respect to heat ; granting this, 

 a small globe like the earth, or even so small a globe 

 as the moon, would be as competent to expel matter 

 to great distances from its interior as the major 

 planets, or as the sun himself, or even as an orb like 

 Sirius, exceeding our sun at least a thousand times in 

 volume. 



So long then as our earth continued in a sunlike 

 state, she would probably expel matter in all directions 

 with a velocity small indeed compared with the velocity 

 of matter erupted from the sun, but quite as large 

 relatively to the attractive power of the earth. This 

 process of continual eruption would not exhaust the 

 earth, simply because it would be compensated by 

 arrivals from without ; and moreover, far the greater 

 quantity of the erupted matter would doubtless fall 

 back upon the glowing orb of the earth. But it is 

 manifest, that whatever matter was erupted directly 



