262 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



whiter (or more bluish) its light, the brighter it is, and 

 the more refractory its normal spectrum. This rule is 

 subject to one general qualification, namely, that all stars 

 are liable to collapse (as a result either of spontaneous 

 explosions due to clogged radiation, or of puncturing by 

 flying missiles from other stars) and also to variations 

 (e. g. sun-spots), which are in the nature of collapses, 

 only minor in degree and quickly periodical in recurrence. 

 In these collapsed or semi-collapsed states, the star, by 

 reason of the sudden escape of great quantities of its 

 superheated gases, drops for a spell into a lower order of 

 stars, not so much because of the actual loss of substance, 

 which is relatively insignificant, but because of its de- 

 cided fall in temperature, whereby its phenomena are for 

 the time being modified. We will now consider the vari- 

 ous characteristics separately. 



TEMPERATURE. According to current notions, based 

 as they are on the doctrine of the conservation of energy, 

 all the stars, the sun, and the planets are in the process 

 of cooling down from an initial state of incandescence ; 

 hence, argue the scholastics, the duller a star the older. 

 In the next chapter I shall attack this law of conserva- 

 tion and expose its hideous absurdity, establishing in its 

 stead the proposition that heat is a staple product of 

 Nature's, and that gravitation, as represented in quantity 

 of mass, is a perpetual generator of it. 



DENSITY. Were the density of every cosmic body 

 the very same, then mass and volume could be treated 

 in mathematical computations as synonymous terms. It 

 is, however, far from being the same ; each planet having 

 its own particular density, the sun having his, and every 

 star presumably having its. There must be some physi- 

 cal cause or causes for this contrariety, What are they? 

 These three occur to me: (1) Difference in chemical con- 

 stitution, (2) Self-compression, (3) Expansion by heat. 



That there is considerable difference in the chemical 

 composition of the celestial bodies if not in the number 

 of elements represented, at least in their relative propor- 

 tions seems altogether likely ; but there is no way of as- 



