THEORY AND HISTORY OF THE SUN. 163 



and overflow their shores, till they now cover the ele- 

 vated regions of the solar body, and again make them 

 sink back into their bounds; charred rocks which stretch 

 their fearful peaks up out of the flaming abysses, and 

 which, when flooded or exposed by the waves of fire, 

 cause the alternating appearance and disappearance of the 

 sun spots ; dense vapours which suffocate the fire, and 

 which, lifted by the violence of the winds, produce dark 

 clouds which plunge down again in sheets of raining fire, 

 and then pour themselves as burning rivers from the 

 heights of the solar land into flaming valleys. And 

 all this accompanied with the crashing of the elements, 

 the downrush of burned-out matter, and nature the while 

 struggling with the power of destruction amid the awful 

 horrors of her overthrow, yet working out the beauty of 

 the world and the utility of the creatures. 1 



Now, if the centres of all great world systems .are 

 flaming bodies, this is most of all to be supposed of the 

 central body of that enormous system which is consti- 

 tuted by the fixed stars. But if that body, whose mass 

 must have a proportion relative to the size of its system, 



1 Not without cause do I ascribe to the sun all the inequalities of 

 the solid land, mountains, and valleys, such as we encounter on our 

 own earth and other planetary bodies. The formation of a celestial 

 globe, as it changes from a fluid to a solid state, necessarily brings 

 about such inequalities upon its surface. When the surface hardens, 

 the materials in the internal fluid portion of the mass are still sinking, 

 in the ratio of their gravity, to the centre ; and the particles of 

 elastic air or fire which are found mingled with these particles are 

 expelled, and they accumulate under the meanwhile solidified crust, 

 beneath which they produce immense cavities, proportional to the 

 mass of the sun. Into these cavities the said crust falls with many 

 folds, and thereby are produced not only elevated regions and moun- 

 tains, but also valleys and the beds of vast seas of fire. 



