Q 1 



J/ L 



that centre wanes. Planet after planet passes from this 

 parent sun, until at last, deprived ot too much vital gas 

 its influence upon the comet world becomes less power- 

 ful. These losses progressively sap its solar energy until 

 the radiant sun of the old system dies out and perishes. 

 Certainly for such a change millions of years must pass, 

 but what are a few million years in comparison with the 

 inconceivable longevity of the universe? 



And so our sun, as such, having perished, we ask 

 what further ensues? Can it be that all is lost? No; the 

 nature of these cosmic organisms is still alive; it will 

 change its form, but will not suffer annihilation. Oxo- 

 hydrogen will enter on the scence once more. The life- 

 less remnants of the solar globe, surrendered to the cos- 

 mic tide, will float along far from surrounding suns in 

 masses still hot though no longer bright with the ra- 

 diance of heat. Here it is chilled by the indifference of 

 its environing globes and is assailed by the now destruc- 

 tive forces of cosmic gas, which attack it in cosmic storms 

 and torrents. It can no longer shine; it can no longer 

 blossom with the bright hues of floral life. The hydro- 

 gen tears it mercilessly, rending and breaking it in frag- 

 ments of a size enabling it to serve for purposes of 

 cosmic food, with which the life of younger worlds can 

 be sustained. 



From such fragments the amorphous masses known 

 as cloud spots and comets are formed, and the matter 

 of the same sun which once warmed us with its living 

 rays, diffusing everywhere the joys of life upon the 

 planetary spheres, becomes converted into a product for 

 the consumption if not of its own children at least of 

 the progeny of other organisms like itself. 



Do we not see the same thing going on round us on 

 the earth itself? Does not the same fate attend the bodies 

 of our ancestors, whicfr serve with all decayed living 

 matter to nourish the vegetation upon which we support 

 existence. We carefully apportion to these bodies con- 

 secrated spots; but life ds it flows wipes out our memo- 



