132 THE UNIVERSE 



Deity does no irrational things, nature is always 

 logical and consistent, and where there is such 

 vast resources of substance and power bestowed, 

 as in our sun and the eighteen millions of suns 

 of the universe, it was not for the purpose of mak- 

 ing bonfires and blazing furnaces of them. But 

 they were created for vaster, more perfect theatres 

 of intelligent life and activities. Besides, burning 

 them up could bestow no benefit on the planets; 

 the heat could not reach them, and if it could it 

 is only a sensation, and sensation cannot produce 

 vegetable or animal life, or control the earth's 

 motion. 



One of the greatest of modern discoveries is that 

 heat is not a substance but a sensation, produced 

 by electric currents. So that eighteen millions to 

 one hundred millions of suns do not need to be 

 burning up to furnish electric currents to their 

 planetary worlds. And our sun is not burning up 

 thirty quintillions cubic feet of itself annually, and 

 a hundred millions of suns many a thousand times 

 larger than ours are not burning up a thousand 

 times more of themselves, as the astronomers claim, 

 and the whole thing is a great absurdity and 

 superstition. 



