88 THE SUN. 



(45.) There is only one more point which my limits 

 will allow me to touch upon. I will go back to my origi- 

 nal metaphor. Our giant may be a huge giant and a 

 strong giant, and a good-natured giant, but if he be a 

 sluggard he is no giant worth the name. We have seen 

 that he is a little slow to turn on his axis and roll himself 

 round in his nest. But take him in his relation to the 

 outer world, he is lively enough; he "rejoices as a giant 

 to run his course ;" and vindicates his credit as a swift 

 runner with a vengeance ! Hitherto I have only spoken 

 of the sun as a sun, the centre of our system ; and, as 

 such, regarded by us as immovable. Even in this 

 capacity he is not quite fixed. If he pulls the planets, 

 they pull him and each other ; but such family struggles 

 affect him but little. They amuse them, and set them 

 dancing rather oddly ; but don't disturb him. As all the 

 gods in the ancient mythology hung dangling from and 

 tugging at the golden chain which linked them to the 

 throne of Jove ; but without power to draw him from his 

 seat : so if all the planets were in one straight line, and 

 exerting their joint attractions, the sun, leaning a little 

 back as it were to resist their force, would not be dis- 

 placed by a space equal to his own radius ; and the fixed 

 centre, or, as an engineer would call it, the centre of 

 gravity of our system, would still lie within the sun's 

 globe. 



(46.) But the sun has another and, so far as we can 

 judge, a much vaster part in creation to perform than to 

 sit still as the quiet patriarch of a domestic circle. 

 He is up and active as a member of a community like 



