VIII 

 M I S( 1 ELLANEOU8 PROBLEMS 



Beautiful though some of them are, the comets 

 have ever been regarded by the ignorant as forerunners 

 of disaster; and as disasters have an unfortunate habit 

 of occurring "right along," the comets have not failed 

 of sustaining their unevitable repute. Scientifically, 

 they are now looked upon as strays from other systems, 

 and this character they undoubtedly merit, notwith- 

 standing that many of them have succeeded in insinu- 

 ating themselves as permanent members of our solar 

 hearth. Their manners it is that proclaim them strang- 

 ers; they move with a certain nervous haste, redden 

 when they near the sun, and presently turn tail and 

 hurry away, perhaps never to return. But what in 

 truth are they? Why do they behave as they do? 



The reader will recall my version of planetary 

 motions, how our system is to be regarded as an entity 

 poised in space, with its great, invisible, gravitational 

 arms outstretched, each bearing in its palm a celestial 

 body, automatically preserving an even balance by the 

 continual readjustment of its multitudinous parts. 

 Into this orderly system is sometimes shot without 

 warning a burning ember from an exploding star, 

 which, by having perished in the act, has lost its power 

 of recall. The comets are just such embers. 



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