ichich causes the Stellar Radiations. 221 



Two great ideas are now clearly proved. First, the incon- 

 ceivably large amount of repulsive force coupled with every 

 single infinitesimally small portion of the sun when in the ne- 

 bulous condition, as illustrated by the last line of the Table of 

 Marsh. Secondly, the still greater amount of chemical force 

 then residing in the nebulous sun, which overcame the repul- 

 sive force and compressed the sun to his present size — as illus- 

 trated by that same force when it compresses oxygen and 

 nitrogen into nitric acid, and when it compresses oxygen and 

 hydrogen into water — in the case of nitric acid, retaining a 

 vast store of chemical force, and, in the case of water, produ- 

 cing a large amount of heat and also of cohesion, as I will 

 soon show. 



Both these stores of original force, the repulsive and the 

 chemical, must now reside in the compressed sun, the same as 

 great stores of force reside in compressed gunpowder. And 

 no finite mind can pretend to say how long that reservoir of 

 solar force may be able to send out the radiations from the sun. 

 Count up millions of years as we may, we cannot begin to 

 touch the problem. We stand before its immensity bowed in 

 reverence, as when we contemplate the infinity of space and 

 the eternity of time. 



In this condensation of the nebulous stars, our sun included, 

 we behold the origin of the so-called simple chemical elements. 

 These are not eternal entities. They are mere modifications 

 of the primitive gaseous diffusion, formed successively as con- 

 densation went on. The proofs I cannot epitomize here, as 

 they are already condensedly stated in my volume, i _ The Origin 

 of the Stars,' where they occupy nearly the entire Second 

 Part, more than forty pages. In the meteorites there are only 

 about 22 chemical elements, the same monotonous catalogue, 

 more or less complete, coining down at every meteoric fall. 

 In our Earth, after a longer condensation and a more powerful 

 chemical action, the catalogue became extended to 63. In 

 the Sun, after a still longer and more powerful action, the 

 number of simple elements, judging from the fixed lines, must 

 be several hundreds or several thousands. All the stars have 

 different sets of fixed lines, showing that the modifications of 

 matter which we call chemical elements are infinite in number. 

 The same is seen in the planets. Mercury is nine times more 

 dense than Saturn; and therefore the two are composed mainly 

 of different elements. Greater heat might indeed expand the 

 elements of Saturn more than those in Mercury, but not so 

 much as nine times. This is impossible. All solids and liquids 

 fly off' into vapour long before even a double expansion. 

 Moreover there is no estimating the millions of years which 

 Saturn had to cool before the origin of Mercury. 



