103 



knowledge of this magnitude it is not easy to find the 

 magnitude of the orbit itself. 



Certainly from the point of view of a purely intelec- 

 tual curiosity, the determination of the orbits oi move- 

 ment of a double star is interesting in the highest de- 

 gree. The movement of our own solar planets in fully 

 intelligible to us being founded on the principles of mu- 

 tual aid and self-perfection ; the growth of the planets 

 harmonises with the output of solar heat, and the heat 

 energy of the sun is in direct proportion to the growth 

 and maturity of the planets, both these mutual factors 

 being maintained by the amorphous cosmic material of 

 comets and of clouds, but the relations between the prin- 

 cipal star and its satellite in a double star are comple 

 tely different from those which bind the planets to our 

 sun and hence the double star presents an example of 

 quite another cosmic life, of quite new relations ; and 

 this it is which attracts the interest and rouses the rival 

 efforts of so many astronomers. 



Who knows but that perhaps the ever improving te- 

 lescope, with the aid of photography and spectral ana- 

 lysis, may in time yield full and precise results ? at pre- 

 sent however such results float in the region of ambi- 

 tious dreams. 



The tendency of every planet is to dry up, and to 

 continue this process of desiccation until it becomes 

 capable of passing to the solar state. In this process it 

 derives assistance chiefly from two sources on the one 

 hand the Sun, on the other Man. The sun says to the 

 planet, give me your oxygen for my flame, and I will 

 send you my heat for your vegetation and besides will 

 absorb your water in the form of hydrogen, to prepare 

 you for your future state? The earth says to man I have 

 formed you, vivified you, endowed you with health 

 and all earthly joys: vivify me in your turn; dry my 

 rivers, marshes, lakes, seas; develop in their place my 

 vegetation and you will see what a blessed thing life on 



