tain region on either side of the sun's equator; these regions are like broad bands parallel with the equator. (See Figure 10, page 65.)

(A photographic picture of the planet Jupiter is thrown on the screen. See illustration, Figure 11, below.) Jupiter, which has only recently passed out of the condition which the sun is now in, shows bands in its cloudy envelope, which cover regions similar to those on the sun where spots appear, and foreshadows what will be the fate of the sun when it shall lose its brilliancy and become dark and dead. Jupiter being smaller than the sun, cooled sooner; but the

sun, astronomers tell us, will follow in the same path. The end of all will be that the sun will become a great planet, like Jupiter, but differing from the other planets, as we see them, in that it will have no light to reflect. What a theme for another Milton! This great and generous sun, which has shed his light without stint on all around him, gilding even the dust of space, shall be robbed and stript of his splendor, and go wandering blindly through the heavens, dragging after him the dead worlds that once basked in his beams.

The earth, as we know it, illustrates the next step in de

velopment beyond the condition of Jupiter. Millions of years ago the earth was like Jupiter, and before that, it was a sun, shining by its own light. Ages earlier still, it was in the condition of a nebula. Now, we dwell on the hardened surface of an extinguished star. The earth has passed through all the stages of growth; mountains, plains and ocean-beds have been formed by gradual and entirely natural processes; and at last it has reached the stage in which geological changes are so slow that the tiny coral animals may be ranked among world-builders, as they lay the foundations of future continents. Even in its present. condition, the earth is still radiating heat into space. According to Guyot, the earth at the time of the deposition of the lower strata might be likened to a galvanic pile, which radiated streams of electricity into surrounding space. The earth retains the faint reflection of one of its solar features in the auroral lights. These phenomena are of an electrical character. The earth is a great magnet, having its positive and negative poles, and it is near these poles. that the auroral lights shine the most brightly. There is an intimate connection between the spots and outbursts which we observe on the sun, and the magnetic condition of the earth.

When we contemplate this fair earth, with its manifold beauties and teeming life, we naturally wish that this was the last stage in its evolution; but science will not let us pause. The earth, astronomy tells us, must die, and become like that dead world, the moon, which forever accompanies it, and shows what this world will sometime be. The most bitter disappointment connected with the improvement of modern telescopes, is the discovery that the moon is a dead world. (A magnified photograph of the moon was shown. See Fig. 12, page 68.) It has vast oceanbeds, but no water; volcanoes, but no fire. There is no grass, no clouds, no atmosphere. In all that dead world there can be no sound; for, without an atmosphere to convey the waves of sound to the ear, though the beetling crags of mountains should topple and fall there would be no noise from the concussion. The moon as seen through the telescope has a certain beauty, but it is the beauty of icicles, not that of a living world.

Light may be thrown upon the question of the formation of the universe, by contemplating its shape or form. Her

schel, viewing the Milky-Way as it appears to us in the heavens, conceived of the universe as a flat disk. The con

ception of the late Mr. R. A. Proctor, however, which may be regarded as his greatest scientific achievement, presents a more probable idea of the form of the universe. (A pic

Fig. 12. A portion of the Moon's surface, showing lunar volcano, "Copernicus." ture illustrative of Mr. Proctor's conception is thrown upon the screen.) Mr. Proctor dissented from Herschel's theory, and regarded the Milky-Way as manifesting a spiral form, similar to that exhibited by some of the nebulæ.

Various speculations have been made regarding the ex

tent of the universe. Are there an infinite number of worlds, extending beyond our utmost vision? We cannot know. All the objects within the reach of the most powerful telescopes belong to our universe. It is possible that other universes exist beyond, which we are unable to perceive because of the absence of a luminiferous ether, connecting them with our range of vision. It is an interesting question whether our universe is still young and growing, or whether it is now on its downward course, tending to decay and death. Respecting this question it may be said that we find within the range of vision very few dead

stars, while the number of nebulæ in process of forming into stars is very great. We may therefore assume that the universe is still in a youthful condition and has not passed the noon of its existence. The spectroscope assures us that those stars which shine with a red light are the oldest, and the nearest extinction. Of these there are comparatively few.

We have brought the history of a planet from the period of its primal evolution out of the fiery mist, to its extinction. Is this all? Will there be no resurrection of dead worlds? When a planet like the moon has parted with its heat it will still continue to rotate on its axis and to re

volve around its gravitational centre. In this continued motion resides the potency of renewed life. Motion is transferable into heat; and heat calls gravitation into action. If the earth, moving through space at the rate of nearly twenty miles a second, should meet another body of like size and velocity, its mountains would dissolve in fiery mist, its oceans would be turned into vapor, its continents would dissolve in smoke, and the solid earth would melt like wax and disappear in a nebulous cloud. The same would be true of an encounter between the sun and another sun possessing equal mass and equal or greater velocity; out of the nebula thus formed, through the process of evolution, a new sun might be formed, and new life ultimately dawn on other worlds. The stars are shooting in every direction in erratic courses, and such collisions are not impossible. It is reasonably certain, indeed, that they have occurred. New stars have suddenly appeared, and stars of lesser magnitude have blazed up into more magnificent suns.

The charm of the study of creation, where we behold the gleam of millions of suns, and systems on systems, is not in thinking of our own insignificance in the presence of this wonderful universe; for we are small only as we identify ourselves with our little earth. We should regard ourselves not merely as citizens of the world, but, with a true cosmopolitan spirit, as citizens of the universe. Matter changes form, but it is not created and it does not die. When the sun is dead and the earth is in darkness, the wheels of life will still run in the light of other suns; and even our ashes may yet thrill with new life, on a new earth, in the beams of a new sun.