ELECTRIC UNIVERSE ETERNAL 257 



tudes, and the destruction of the great city of Hat- 

 ten, built on the ruins of the old city of Neeork, 

 would duplicate the horrors of Dante' s * ' Inferno. ' ' The 

 illustrations are equally horrible and terrific, and 

 both are calculated to shock the mind of the reader 

 and retard mental composure and aesthetic culture. 



He states, in the words of the professor, his theory, 

 thus : "My theory is that if one of these dark ob- 

 jects chances to strike a star it bursts through its 

 outer envelope and sets free the enormous fires 

 pent up within." These pent-up fires within the 

 sun, he claims, are going to blaze up more furious 

 and be the cause of this dread catastrophe of ruin 

 and death to the sun and planets. With all respect 

 to this eminent astronomer, I insist, first, there are 

 no pent-up fires in the sun. Second, no dark or 

 light star, planet or globe can ever fall into the 

 sun, because the law of electric repulsion in the 

 sun will send it off, as it does the comets, in an 

 opposite direction; besides this same law of electric 

 repulsion will forbid any such object from coming 

 into the solar system. 



He says this dark star, many times the size of 

 our earth, striking the sun, would destroy it and 

 our earth and planetary system by fire. All life 

 and combustible material, including stones and the 

 surface of the sun and planets, he insists, would be 

 utterly consumed by the heat engendered by such a 

 collision. Now, I contend, in the first place, that 

 such an event is virtually impossible ; and if it were 

 possible, a star of many times the size of our earth, 

 coming in collision with the sun, would make little 

 more impression on it than a dozen hogsheads of 

 dynamite thrown against the surface of the moon. 

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