RECENT ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES 131 



from the vast openings in the sun's photosphere 

 sufficiently he can and did see them. 



I am a firm believer in the inhabitability of the 

 sun, and that it is a perfected, self-luminous world 

 a world like our world, only vastly larger and more 

 prolific in life and power. As it is the source of all 

 life and power to the planets, it must be the creator 

 of all life to its celestial inhabitants. 



Profs. Proctor and Herschell seem to believe that 

 most of the heavenly bodies are inhabited. Sir 

 Wm. Herschell went so far as to contend for a time 

 that the sun was inhabited or inhabitable be- 

 cause, he said, the heat of the sun was in its photo- 

 sphere, which was far out in space and many miles 

 from the sun's surface, and that there were cool 

 clouds and layers of atmosphere, he thought, be- 

 tween the heat and the sun's surface which made 

 the body of the sun cool enough for animal and 

 vegetable life and human habitation. He changed 

 his mind, however, in a few years and held the heat 

 of the sun was too hot to allow anything in na- 

 ture to keep such excessive heat from its surface, 

 and besides, the law of the conservation of forces 

 just coming into scientific prominence then forbid it. 



Prof. Proctor, says: "I adopt the principle of 

 Sir Wm. Herschell that analogy is the chief and 

 the best guide for the student of astronomy. That 

 general resemblance of structure indicates a general 

 resemblance in the purpose which the celestial bodies 

 are intended to subserve is evident when we compare 

 the stars with our sun or with each other. Some 

 time or other those worlds have been or will be 

 the abode of intelligent creatures seems to be a fair 

 conclusion from what we know of their structure." 



