, 1876-11-04

were more comets in space than there
Were fishes in the sen, What are com
cts! Newton supposed they were tlam'
ing messengers that bore supplies OF fuel
to the sun; and We have now some rea-
son to suppose that those shining mcte-
ors that occasionally shoot athwart our
atmosphere are allied to comets. Those
sparkling strangers, whose visits to us
are like those of angels, few and far be-
tween, are supposed to he infinitely more
abundant about the sun.
That large luminous cone called the
zodiucul light, that at this time Of the
year is nearly perpendicular in the heav-
ems, and may be plainly seen on starlight
nights, following in the rear Of the de-
parted sun like the phosphorescent glow
that follows in the wake Of vessels sail
ing in tropical seas, is supposed to con-
sist of fine particles of matter, kind of
star dust, revolving with inconceivablc
rapidity about the sun, and gradually
drawing near that luminary, into which
they are falling in an incessant shower
Their motion being thus checked, 1t
must of necessity Immediately take the
form of light and heat, as do the little
particles of similar matter that every
now and then plunge into our Ntmos-
pherc, and startlc us with their cvanes'
cent glow The matter OF the zodiacal
light, though not cXhaustless, may be
resupplied for an almost infinite dura-
ton by the concentration Of dittused
matter from even beyond our larthest
planet; but still the end must come.
Science as well as religion, protests
against the eternal duration of all things
as they now exist but the time required
to effect important changes in the uni
verse, or of the systems tof which it is
composed, must be immense, and to our
faculties immeasurabe The velocity
with which cosmcal bodies move in
space, and the heat that must therefore
be given out when that motion is check
ed, are almost inconceivably great. On
the foot pound ratio that have already
described, were our earth to be suddenly
stopped in its career around the sun, it
would Immediately give out as much
heat rs fourteen such globes of solid coal,
nd it mE't 'equently flash, all at
lensely heated vapor I;
,.1were it TO fall perpendicularly into
the sun, it would supply that body with
as much heat as it now gives out in one
hundred years The glowing stars that
have been known to burst out all at
once into an increased splendor, prob
ably owed their frightened light to some
such collision. 1.-The amount of unag-
gregated matter rotating within the lin
its of our solar system no doubt immeas-
urably exceeds that which has been aggre
gated into planets, asteroids and moons;
the former may or may not receive
accessions from without; but be this
as it may, the amount OF force reservrdin
this vast, rushing mass of ditfused mat
ter, must be amply sufficient to supply
life and activity to our system of worlds
for millions Of ages to come. AS the
termination of their existence is so ill.,
conceivably remote we may very well
spare ourselves the melancholy satisiac'
ton OF otinduIging in the gloomy contem-
plation of it.
have thus attempted brief sketch
of the career and grand discovery OF
Benjamin Thompson, and of the vast
strides in science that Others have made
since his time by following in his foot
steps. Of the consequences OF this dis
coyery we see but the begirn ng; but
they are amazingly vast already; they
must go on incr easing, and hereafter the
name of the poor and prosecuted New
England school teacher will take an
equal rank with those of Copernicus,
Bacon, Newton and other great men who
have succeeded in giving new phase to
philosophy and science.
1t is q significant fact, and one not at
all to our credit, that this great man
should be less known here, in the land
OF his birth, than it is in other en!ight-
ened nations particularly in France,
Germany and England. Can it be that
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