264 THE CHEMISTRY OF THE SUN. [CHAP. 



Now, that is an ideal scale. The question is, Is it absurd ? 

 How can we honestly answer that question ? By asking whether 

 we are or are not on the lines on which nature works in the 

 region of the known in the region which we can get at. 



We will now refer to another table ; we will pass from the 

 ideal to the concrete, and it will be seen that there is, if one can 

 invert the term in such a way, a distinct precedent for such a 

 table as the last ; for here are the absolute facts with regard to 

 one series of the combinations of carbon and hydrogen. 



TABLE II. 

 CONCRETE SERIES OF HYDROCARBONS. 



We have gases CH 4 , C 2 H 6 , C 3 H 8 ; followed by liquids from 

 C 4 H 10 to C 15 H 32 ; each of them formed, not by the addition 

 of my hypothetical aZ> 2 , but by a concrete CH 2 , and we have 

 connected with that a beautiful order and exquisite regularity 

 in the way in which the boiling-points and specific gravities of 

 the successively more complex forms increase, as will be seen in 

 the next table. 



