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PREFACE.

"Show me a man who makes no mistakes, and I will show you a
man who has done nothing."--LIEBIG.

In this little volume the author gives but his own personal opinions
upon the subjects discussed, and although the sentiments are expressed
with an assurance born of conviction, yet he claims not infallibility.

He has ever been unable to accept the usual explanations of the great
physical forces; and the inadequacies of mooted theories have impelled
him to efforts for more philosophical interpretations. If in his
investigations he has been forced to strange and unusual conclusions, he
has been actuated only by an honest desire to promote the advancement of
science.

He is not insensible to the responsibility of the position which he thus
voluntarily assumes, in asserting his opinions upon problems so vast and
momentous.

It is no enviable position to occupy, that of antagonism to so large a
proportion of the scientific world and, too, upon subjects of strictly
scientific import. That he does thus find himself placed in such
relations at the present time, has not been a matter of his own seeking.
No other consideration than the profoundest sense of duty and
responsibility could have influenced him in the course pursued. Perhaps
some apology is yet due for so boldly trespassing upon hypotheses which
were very generally thought to be well established, and certainly secure
from such treatment.

The attempt, in a measure, to develop so extended a field of research,
in so few pages, has led to much crudeness in the presentation. For this
a reasonable indulgence may be claimed.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE SUN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

CHAPTER II.

WHAT IS PROPOSED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The great problem.

CHAPTER III.

INTIMATE NATURE OF THE FORCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Sunlight and sun-heat--The great law of conservation--How the spheres
are constructed--The great earth-core and its functions--The grand
magnetic circuit.

CHAPTER IV.

SUNLIGHT, ITS SOURCE AND NATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Its limits