KNOAA/LEDGE ♦ 



[Skpt. 25, 1885, 



grow less and less violent, and to come more and 

 more from the east, until when she was steaming due 

 east it would seem to come from somewhere about 

 north-east by north, and with a velocity of about 

 thirty-two miles an hour. If she still continued her 

 circuit the wind would gradually return in direction 

 towards the north, still diminishing more and more 

 in velocity till she was steaming due south, when the 

 wind would seem to reach her as a north wind having a 

 velocity of only seven and a-half miles an hour. Similar 

 changes would have been observed had she turned origi- 

 nally towards the west, the direction of the wind changing 

 apparently more and more to the west, till it was about 

 west by north (when she was steaming due west), then 

 becoming more and more northerly again, till it fippearcd 

 as a north wind of seven and a-half miles an hour. It is 

 manifest that if, instead of these changes, the wind rc- 

 aiained all the time apparently a north wind, that would 

 prove, not that the wind had really remained a north 

 wind, but that the wind had changed, the change by some 

 odd chance coinciding with the change in the ship's course 

 30 precisely as to leave the apparent wind all the time 

 northerly. An apparently north wind felt on a shij) 

 steaming rapidly eastwards must of necessity be a wind 

 with a good deal of west in it, and vice versA. 



There is but one way of interpreting the steady con- 

 tinuance of a meteor shower in the same apparent direc- 

 tion while the earth is greatly changing her direction. 

 We have only to consider the illustration just used to 

 -see what that way is. If the velocity of the wind were 

 enormously greater than that of the ship, no change in 

 the ship's course would appreciably afPect the apparent 

 course of the wind. The ship might steam round and 

 ffound in a circle at the rate of one mile an hour witli- 

 ,out noticeably aifecting the apparent direction of a wind 

 blowing steadily at the rate of fifty miles an hour. If 

 it were a north wind, it would seem a north wind 

 whether she steamed east or west north or south. Nor 

 would the northerly wind of fifty-one miles an hour she 

 -would seem to encounter when steaming due north seem 

 noticeably stronger than the northerly wind of forty-nine 

 miles an hour blowing over her when she was steaming 

 due south. 



If this explanation were allowed in the case of those 

 meteors which Mr. Denniag believes he has observed to 

 pour in upon the earth in the same unchanged direction 

 for months in succession, then we should have to assume 

 that the real velocities of these bodies amounted to 200 

 or 300 miles per second at least. If so, they would 

 assuredly not be attendants on our sun. They must have 

 possessed the greater part of those enormous velocities 

 long before they reached our system, and they must be 

 carried away again by those excessive velocities into the 

 interstellar depths never to return, tmless actually cap- 

 tured by our earth or some other planet. 



But, unfortunately for our peace of mind, neither 

 Mr. Denning, who brings his discovery of " stationary 

 radiants " before us, nor Colonel Tupman, who endorses 

 the discovery after long resisting it (and who has mathe- 

 matical knowledge for his guidance), will admit that such 

 enormous velocities exist. They trust in those multiple 

 observations of bright meteors in which one observer, 

 perhaps in Yorkshire, announces that the meteor track 

 ran from near such and such a star to near such and such 

 another star, and was traversed in about three-quarters 

 of a second; while another observer, say in Oxford- 

 .shire, notes that as seen from his more southerlj' 

 station the meteor track was different, the duration 

 of flight being estimated at about half a second. Such 



observations are unsatisfactory-, fir there is nothing more 

 diflScult to estimate than the time in which a tody 

 suddenly appearing has rapidly traversed a certain track 

 before as suddenly disappearing. But on the strength of 

 such observations Mr. Denning and Colonel Tupman 

 practically reject the observations of stationary radiants 

 which they had seemed to accept. It is absolutely 

 certain that if meteors seem to come from the same 

 direction within a degree or so for months they must 

 travel much more swiftly than the earth. If, then, there 

 are no meteors travelling so rapidly, there can be none 

 which retain their ajinarLiit directions unchanged for 

 months. 



The inquiry is one i f .Miiu-ulai- interest, because if there 

 are such swiftly travelling meteors we liave tn adopt 

 strange ideas as to their origin and i" . . i ;lieir 



tremendous velocities. If there are n ■ to 



rely so confidently as heretofore on li, ;iiih 



Messrs. Greg, Denning, Alex. Herselu!, .,,,.i ...i.v/., liuve 

 formed respecting the r.^.diiints of the various meteor 

 streams. In either case, it is clear thtit the meteoric 

 field of inquiry requires man}- new labourers. 



MYSTERIES AXD MORALITIES. 



Br Edward Clodd. 



!f comparing the several plays on kindred subjects in 

 the four series of English Mysteries, one is sorely 

 ipted to continue extracts from them in detail, the 

 es, all of 



more so on account of 0;, r.ii 



which, the recently-] : 



been long out of j:: • l: 



would, even if space [> : 



of our readers, the majority 



with a general idea of the clia 



of these forerunners of the 1 



sincerity, earnestness, skill, a 



,, . . ejited, ha^ 

 ji '1 abstract 

 - the patience 

 1 lie content 

 I . ; rary ability 

 :. .. :, and of the 

 J « iiole, good taste 

 ■ith which the primitive dramatists converted Bible 

 story into Mystery Play. There are, however, among 

 the twenty-five or thirtj- {.ageant.-, yet unnoticed three 

 or four which demaial ; :.' ' " nie account 



of the Moralities is ji. :; : - -t inn of the 



Three Kings ; The T r Pilate's 



Wife; The Grucifi.viu.: :n,.\ i // /Hell. 



In the first of these, the conceiiti.-n -f Herod as a 

 swaggering boaster is common to all the series. Xotably, 

 in the York variant, the most elaborate of the four, does 

 he in alliterative rhymed lines play the braggart : — 



Herod. The clowdes clapped in clerenes that ther clematis in-closis 

 (climates encloses) 

 .Tubiter and Jouis, Martis an>l Mercury emyde, 



Haykand ouerc r : -^ '' rcioyse?,* 



Blonderande th' V "; I bidde. 



The rakke o£ tiir 1' : ; Iv I ridde, 



Thondres full tlirallyo by tliousandes I thraw 



That prit 



;s to play in hym piMs (clicose 



The prince of planetis th.',t proudelv is pi_'l;t 

 SaU brace furth his hemes that oiire bebk- Mitli. :s, 

 The mone at my myght he mosteres his my^ht : 

 And kavssaris (emperors) in castellis cre'e lyndr 

 kythes (show), 



* i.e., I ride on the wandering clou ?s. 



