ELECTRIC UNIVERSE ETERNAL 259 



sun could only send them the electric currents the 

 planets draw by reason of their opposite polarity; 

 just as a receiving station of wireless telegraphy 

 receives only the electric currents intended for it 

 because of the peculiar attracting power it possesses. 



I am aware that the recent flaring out in light, 

 and increase in size of the star Nova Persei in the 

 constellation of Perseus, has given plausibility to 

 the conjecture of some astronomers that it was 

 caused by a collision between two suns. But I 

 think the better opinion is that this star is a new 

 sun, partly nebulous and in its formative state; 

 and that it was visited by a great cloud or swarm 

 of meteors, which produced the great illumination 

 which flared out into space for a few days and then 

 subsided. 



Its former small size, to which it has returned, 

 and its present nebulous condition, or the nebulae 

 that surrounds it, seems to fully justify this con- 

 clusion. I do not believe there ever has been or 

 ever will be a collision among the suns or planets. 

 The wisdom of the Creator, as manifested in the 

 great universal laws of electro-magnetism, forbid it. 

 If such a catastrophe was likely ever to occur, it 

 would have happened many times since the history 

 of the race began, and we would have had many 

 undoubted demonstrations of the direful uncertainty 

 of the life of the suns and planets and the vary- 

 ing chances and unstable condition of the universe. 



Let us hear the conclusion of Prof. Newcomb's 

 hypothesis in the last words of the last man on the 

 earth, in the person of the professor of physics : 

 "Such is the course of evolution. The sun, which 

 for millions of years gave light and heat to our 



