13 



efficient of his equation, when compared with observation, was 

 found to give 8*6^' for the mean value of solar parallax. The 

 result agrees with the mean of those obtained, from the transit 

 of Venus in 1769. "It is very remarkable," says Laplace, 

 " that an astronomer without leaving his observatory, by 

 merely comparing his observations with analysis, is enabled 

 to determine the magnitude and figure of the earth and its 

 distance from the sun and moon." (Exposition du systeme dw 

 monde.) 



The protrusion of light from the sun indicates the presence 

 of a medium of continuity ; it is not wholly electrical because 

 electrical action implies separation and reunion with force; it 

 is therefore principally combustion of the metals of the alkalis 

 and alkaline earths, which produce both light and heat with 

 the greatest possible energy. It will appear clear, therefore, 

 that a difference of the sun's distance from the earth, 

 amounting to three millions of miles,would make a considerable 

 meteorological difference to the earth and its atmosphere. 



That the motions of the planetary system are derived from 

 the solar motion is proved by the fact that their mean motions 

 correspond with the plane of the solar equator,and the breadth 

 of the planetary zodiac is taken at 7f degrees on each side of 

 the solar equator, while 7f degrees is the inclination of its 

 pole. The two large hemispheres above and below appear to 

 be the articular region for the range of comets. 



Professor Zollner's late investigation as to the origin of the 

 earth's magnetism, and the magnetic relations of the heayenly 

 bodies, draws the conclusion from simultaneous forces acting 

 at a distance. He considers that the sun is a magnetic 

 body like the earth. The earth in its annual course round 

 the sun cuts a plane perpendicular to the ecliptic twice a 

 year. On September 6th the south pole of the sun is towards 

 the earth, and on March 7th the north pole, and whatever 

 magnetic effects are produced on the earth by the sun will 

 have their maximum at these two dates. 



It is a well known law that every particle of matter in the 

 universe attracts every other particle, with a force directly 

 proportioned to the mass of the attracting particle, and in- 

 versely to the square of the distance between them. There is 

 a disturbing force, oblique to the line joining the moon and 

 the earth, which in some situations acts to accelerate, in 

 others to retard her elliptic orbital motion — in some to draw the 

 earth from the moon, in others, the moon from the earth. 



The known mass of Venus is rather greater, and her 

 density rather less than that of the earth, the force of gravity 

 at her surface is about the same as on the surface of the 

 earth, but she produces disturbing causes both in the orbit of 

 the earth and the moon. 



