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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 402. 



by the investigator, and it, in turn also, 

 is next studied, in its relations to other 

 similarly circumscribed laws, with a view 

 to further combinations and extension; 

 and thus gradually a science is built up. 

 This process is well illustrated by the work 

 of Rankine and of Clausius in the construc- 

 tion of the modern science of thermody- 

 namics. The earlier work of Carnot as 

 well illustrates the different work, the 

 radically different work, the radically dif- 

 ferent methods, of the investigator conduct- 

 ing a research in his study on the simple 

 basis of an ascertained principle or a broad 

 and probable assumption. The one inves- 

 tigation results in the construction of a 

 science upon two fundamental principles, 

 revealed by a series of experimental studies 

 extending from the time of Rumford to 

 the time of Joule and the builders of the 

 science ; the other is a logical construction 

 based upon an assumed, but later fully re- 

 vised and substantially confirmed, prin- 

 ciple ; which being admitted, the series of 

 deductions follow as directly, as definitely 

 and as certainly, as the propositions of 

 Euclid, once the axioms are recognized.* 



The spectroscope and the telescope co- 

 operate in the revelation of facts and data 

 of singular interest and importance in as- 

 tronomy; permitting, often, the prediction 

 of a future likely to embrace hundreds of 

 thousands of years. They determine the 

 number, the periods and the magnitudes of 

 visible stars, and through the revelation of 

 their movements lead to the detection, and 

 even the weighing, of invisible companions. 

 It is not inconceivable that predetermina- 

 tion of the location, orbit and direction and 

 velocity of the stars may ultimately lead to 

 the prediction of events of enormous impor- 

 tance. The occasional sudden appearance of 



* Compare Rankine's ' Manual of the Steam 

 Engine ' with Clausius's ' Mechanical Equivalent 

 of Heat,' and both with Carnot's ' Reflections on 

 the Motive Power of Heat.' 



new stars lends at least some confirmation 

 to the idea of Haeckel that the renewal of 

 kinetic stores of energy throughout the uni- 

 verse, and throughout all time, may be a re- 

 sult of collision of masses moving across the 

 fields of travel of other heavenly bodies, 

 causing by their inconceivable and immeas- 

 urable impacts increase of temperature and 

 such reconstruction of systems as at once 

 accounts for the appearance of the new stars 

 and the reconstitution of universes. The 

 new star in Perseus very possibly thus il- 

 lustrates this renewal of long latent and 

 potential energy and the possibly eternal 

 life of the universe in its essentials as we 

 now know it. 



When svtfficient data have been revealed 

 by these wonderful instruments, it may be 

 found that some 'runaway star' is direct- 

 ing its course toward our own solar system 

 and threatening the extinction of existing 

 life and the rebirth of a new system, with 

 renewed evolutions from a new beginning. 

 There is nothing inconceivable in the notion 

 that at some future time, science may thus 

 predict the impending catastrophe and the 

 time when 'the heavens shall melt with 

 fervent heat,' confirming an old, and giv- 

 ing a new and more exact, revelation. 

 When the exact direction, distance, course 

 and velocity of '1830 Goombridge' shall 

 have been thus ascertained, it may possibly 

 give us intelligence of a coming catastrophe 

 among distant worlds more astounding and 

 awe-inspiring than was ever before con- 

 ceived by the mind of man, thus predicted 

 by contemporary science and perhaps actu- 

 ally illustrated by many an earlier world- 

 collision, as by that impact, beyond meas- 

 ure of our understanding, which has but 

 just now produced Nova Perseus and its 

 fast-forming new nebula. Such a world- 

 history would exhibit a cycle in which but 

 one instant is catastrophic and of which the 

 complete tracing measures an eternity. A 

 series of such eternities, of infinite num- 



