THE SUN AND SOLAR PHENOMENA.* 
BY JAMES BEEEN, E.E.A.S. 
D UPING the past year the Sun has been in an extraordi- 
nary state of perturbation, and it need scarcely be added 
that those observers who take an interest in solar phenomena 
have been in a corresponding degree of excitement. The sur- 
face of the great central luminary has broken out into an erup- 
tion of dark spots, and the telescope can scarcely be pointed 
towards it for a moment without our perceiving several clusters 
of those irregular and strange-looking blotches which dim its 
otherwise glowing orb. No alarm, however, is created among 
astronomers by the unusual number of those specks ; their 
return in such plenty is purely periodical, and it is not in the 
least expected that they will go on increasing indefinitely, but 
rather that they will gradually diminish in dimensions as well 
as in numbers during the next five years ; again, however, at 
the lapse of this interval, to recommence the cycle of their 
wonted appearance in more considerable groups. It is not in 
the least feared that the sun’s light will be obscured or its heat 
lessened by those motes which are commingled with its beams; 
it will still germinate, nourish, and ripen fruit and flower, — - 
still produce rain and whirlwind, — still purify and revivify 
our atmosphere by lighting, — still go on effecting those 
mighty changes on land and water which render our globe 
habitable. Lagrange has proved and foretold the invariability 
of the seasons on the earth. Equally satisfied are observers 
that, notwithstanding the continual changes on its surface, they 
shall see for ages yet to come the sun’s light reflected from 
planet and satellite during the night in the same degree as 
they see its fiery glow from hill and dale during the day. Its 
light, passing through showers of ice-crystals in the distant 
summer atmosphere, will continue to produce those white circles 
(or halos, as they are termed) visible at times round its luminous 
disc ; by means of the sprinkled water-drops it will still paint 
in colours of unequalled splendour the brilliant rainbow, which, 
like hope, may rest upon the darkest and most sombre cloud 
in the heavens. The rosy lingers of Morn shall still open the 
* With an account of the Eclipse of the Sun in 1860, as seen by the 
author in Spain. 
