SKETCH OF LOUIS FIGUIER. 841 



tern, the sun, whose inhabitants, possessing immortality, form a 

 part of the divine government ruling over this portion of the 

 astronomical system. 



To merit such superior happiness man must apply himself 

 during his life on earth to perfecting himself, to purifying his 

 souj, loving his neighbor, spreading happiness about him, increas- 

 ing his knowledge. He who, on the contrary, perseveres in in- 

 justice and ignorance will be condemned to recommence his 

 earthly career, and that again and again until he is fit to leave 

 this globe. 



One attractive feature of M. Figuier's interplanetary heaven 

 which he develops in his book is the novel means of travel he 

 imagines to exist there. " Since science," he writes, " excuses itself 

 from explaining the nature of the comets and the role they play 

 in the universe, it is permitted to the imagination to say a word 

 on the subject. 



" Is it forbidden to believe that certain comets, notably those 

 that return into our solar system, are agglomerations of super- 

 human beings which have just finished a voyage in the profound 

 depths of the sky and end their trip by returning into the sun ? 

 According to this hypothesis, these comets are pleasure trains 

 made up of the inhabitants of ethereal spaces." 



In the last conversation I ever had with him I asked him, just 

 as I was about to say good- by, " M. Figuier, do you really believe 

 in your comets made up of souls ? " 



His stern face lighted up. " Ah, my excursion trains ! Who 

 knows ? who knows ? Perhaps I shall travel in one. But that, 

 you know, is imagination." 



And when we rose to leave the salon, and I stopped to regard 

 for the last time the gay wreaths and bouquets on the walls, he 

 added with a nod of complete conviction, " But of one thing I am 

 sure there I shall succeed with my scientific theater." 



M. VALLOT'S observatory, on the Rocher des Bosses, Mont Blanc, about 

 fourteen thousand five hundred feet above the sea, has developed into a 

 really comfortable abode of eight rooms, furnished with adequate means of 

 keeping out the cold and the snow and with conveniences for housekeeping. 

 The walls and windows and outer door are double. The house has a kitchen 

 and shop near the entrance ; a room for guides, with five beds ; a provision 

 room ; a director's room, with two beds ; a registering room ; a photograph 

 and spectroscope room ; a guest chamber, with three beds ; and a physical 

 laboratory. A peculiarity of the kitchen utensils is the construction of the 

 kettles to compensate for the lowered boiling point of the mountain height. 

 The observatory, instituted in 1890, was at first devoted to meteorology ; 

 but since the new observatory was erected on the summit, more attention 

 has been given in it to terrestrial physics. 



