Revieio of Recent Geological Literature. 247 
general and sweeping ad caplandum presentation of the case. Thus : 
"If all the heat from an infinite number of .stellar suns has been pour- 
ing into this universal ether for indefinite, if not for infinite ages, if it 
has all been conserved and is still in existence, if tliere is no other 
universal ether into which this heat can make its escape, if neither 
this universal ether nor its included spheres are becoming hotter by 
the reception of this heat, then it seems to me that I am justified in 
saying that this heat must change into other forms and disguises. 
The forces of nature masquerade grandly ; sometimes in the ineffable 
light and heat of the sun, sometimes in the darkness and silence of 
night, but none the less real in the latter case than in the former." 
On the acceptance of the idea that the sun's radiations are con- 
verted into other forms of energy on passing outward to the surround- 
ing spaces, several necessary conditions result, which require plausi- 
ble further illustration and explanation. 1st. The method and cause 
of such change, and likewise the method and cause of the reverse 
change to "despecialized heat" again on their return to tbe sun. 2nd. 
The actual and recognized changes which the planetary system has 
undergone, under the principles of the nebular hypothesis of LaPlace, 
(which is accepted by the author) which have brought some portion of 
the energy of the ethereal emanations into specialized conditions and 
stored it up in other forms in the planets. 
In regard to the first change in the nature of the sun's emanations, 
Mr. Kedzie satisfies himself, and reasonably supposes the reader to 
be satisfied, with showing the possibilities and need of the change 
assumed, without any demonstration of the actual cause and method. 
The cause and method are the secrets of nature which she but scantily 
reveals. They are the same, however, as the causes and methods of 
conversion of one force into another which are feebly employed and 
exemplified in the physical or chemical laboratory ; though instead of 
being cramped and forced by conventional appliances and confined in 
narrow and unnatural limits, with exceptional environment, these 
changes, where they take place under nature's hand, operate so 
spontaneously, and smoothly, that their effects are invisible, and are 
taken up by the harmonious, ineffable sympathies that pervade the 
forces of the universe in their sway over matter, and are diflused 
through space by media that the human senses do not apprehend. 
In this manner the author would suppose the wave which started 
from the distant Sirius as a wave of heat and light becomes converted 
to light only, to our senses, before it reaches the earth, while that 
from our sun, not having so far to travel, reaches us in the form of 
light and heat, gravitation and actinism, and before it reaches Sirius 
is of the same character as the ray of Sirius to us. Some portion of the 
sun's energy, when sent into space as waves of ether, is converted 
also into gravitation, the impact of the waves from all portions of 
celestial concave on any planet, resulting in that motion which we 
attribute to gravitation. Other change is seen in the promotion of 
chemical combinations, electricity, magnetism, and even vital energy, 
