OUR CHIEF TIMEPIECE LOSING TIME. 45 



For so remarkable a phenomenon as this none but 

 a cosmical cause can suffice. We can neither say that 

 the spots cause the magnetic storms, nor that the mag- 

 netic storms cause the spots. We must seek for a 

 cause producing at once both sets of phenomena. There 

 is as yet no certainty in this matter, but it seems as if 

 philosophers would soon be able to trace in the dis- 

 turbing action of the planets upon the solar atmosphere 

 the cause as well of the marked period of eleven years 

 as of other less distinctly-marked periods which a dili- 

 gent observation of solar phenomena is beginning to 

 educe. 



(From the Cornhill Magazine, June, 1868.) 



OUR CHIEF TIMEPIECE LOSING TIME. 



A DISTINGUISHED French astronomer, author of one 

 of the most fascinating works on popular astronomy 

 that has hitherto appeared, remarks that a man would 

 be looked upon as a maniac who should speak of the 

 influence of Jupiter's moons upon the cotton-trade. 

 Yet, as he proceeds to show, there is an easily-traced 

 connection between the ideas which appear at first 

 sight so incongruous. The link is found in the deter- 

 mination of celestial longitude. 



Similarly, what would be thought of an astronomer 

 who, regarding thoughtfully the stately motion of the 

 sidereal system, as exhibited on a magnified, and there- 



