112 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



There is, however, a grandeur in the interpretation placed 

 by modern science upon these beautiful displays which 

 dwarfs into littleness even such ideas as have been suggested 

 by the terrors of superstition. We perceive that meteors 

 are not mere terrestrial phenomena, nor of brief existence. 

 They speak to us of domains in space compared with which 

 the volume of our earth nay, even the volume of the sun 

 himself is a mere point ; of time-intervals compared with 

 which the millions of years spoken of by geologists appear 

 but as mere seconds. 



The special meteor family whose track the earth crosses 

 on November 13-14 forms a mighty ellipse round the sun, ex- 

 tending more than 19 times farther from him than the track of 

 our earth, which yet, as we know, lies more than 92,000,000 

 miles from the sun. Along this tremendous orbit the 

 meteors speed with planetary but varying velocity, crossing 

 the track of our earth with a velocity exceeding by more 

 than a third her own swift motion of about 1 9 miles in every 

 second of time. Coming down somewhat aslant, but other- 

 wise meeting the earth almost full tilt, the meteors rush into 

 our air at the rate of more than 40 miles per second. They 

 are so intensely heated as they rush through it that they are 

 turned into the form of vapour, insomuch that we never 

 make acquaintance with the members of this particular 

 meteoric family in the solid form. In this respect they 

 resemble the greater number of our meteoric visitants. It 

 it, indeed, a somewhat fortunate circumstance for us that 

 this is so, for if Professor Newton, of Yale College (United 

 States), is right in estimating the total number of meteors, 

 large and small, which the earth encounters per annum at 

 400,000,000, it would be rather a serious matter if all or 

 most of these bodies were not warded off. The least of them, 

 even though a mere grain perhaps in weight, would yet, 

 arriving with planetary velocity exceeding a hundredfold or 

 more the velocity of a cannon-ball, prove an awkward missile 

 if it struck man or animal. But the air effectually saves us 

 from all save a few fire-balls which are large enough to 



