THE STARS AND NEBULAE 313 



The double spectra of stars are never visible except 

 where two bright stars are knowingly examined at one 

 time, as in the case of binaries, or where there is evidence 

 of some special eruption in progress on the body under 

 examination. In the latter case the confusion of spectra 

 is due, I opine, to the violent geyser-like ejection of gas 

 from one section, while the other part of the surface re- 

 mains normal. A suggestive illustration of this may be 

 seen in certain comets, which now and again exhibit lum- 

 inous spurs, or jets, directed toward the sun. Moreover, 

 geyers that rise must concurrently fall back by the action 

 of gravity, thereby producing double spectra, indicating 

 both plus and minus radial motions. 



THE KINGS OF SATURN 



In the large sense, all celestial bodies may fairly be 

 included under the generic name of stars, for even the 

 smallest of them may conceivably be the embryo of a 

 Canopus or Arcturus ge stating in the fertile womb of 

 Time. Such enormous planets as Jupiter and Saturn are 

 not very distant approximations to lucid stars, as may be 

 inferred from the phenomena of the " great red spot" 

 characterizing the former, and the "rings" that render 

 Saturn so gloriously unique among telescopic objects. 

 My explanation of these wonderful appendages is that 

 Saturn has, in comparatively recent times probably as 

 late as the Neolithic age been profoundly shattered by 

 an explosion, from causes such as I have outlined, there- 

 by giving birth to a genuine, if relatively minute, nebula, 

 which, under the tutelage of the Prime Resultant subse- 

 quently took on permanent vortical motion. 



