shing bodies that we may get a
little confused: when they are seen in the sky they are meteors, or
fire-balls; when they reach the earth they are called meteorites, and
also aerolites. Then there is another class of the same bodies called
shooting stars, and these are in reality only meteors on a smaller
scale; but there ought to be no confusion in our thoughts, for all these
objects are small bodies travelling round the sun, and caught by the
earth's influence.

When you watch the sky for some time on a clear night, you will seldom
fail to see at least one star flash out suddenly in a path of thrilling
light and disappear, and you cannot be certain whether that star had
been shining in the sky a minute before, or if it had appeared suddenly
only in order to go out. The last idea is right. We must get rid at once
of the notion that it would be possible for any fixed star to behave in
this manner. To begin with, the fixed stars are many of them actually
travelling at a great velocity at present, yet so immeasurably distant
are they that their movement makes no perceptible difference to us. For
one of them to appear to dash across the heavens as a meteor does would
mean a velocity entirely unknown to us, even comparing it with the speed
of light. No, these shooting stars are not stars at all, though they
were so named, long before the real motions of the fixed stars were even
dimly guessed at. As we have seen, they belong to the same class as
meteors.

I remember being told by a clergyman, years ago, that one night in
November he had gone up to bed very late, and as he pulled up his blind
to look at the sky, to his amazement he saw a perfect hail of shooting
stars, some appearing every minute, and all darting in vivid trails of
light, longer or shorter, though all seemed to come from one point. So
marvellous was the sight that he dashed across the village street,
unlocked the church door, and himself pulled the bell with all his
might. The people in that quiet country village had long been in bed,
but they huddled on their clothes and ran out of their pretty thatched
cottages, thinking there must be a great fire, and when they saw the
wonder in the sky they were amazed and cried out that the world must be
coming to an end. The clergyman knew better than that, and was able to
reassure them, and tell them he had only taken the most effectual means
of waking them so that they might not miss the display, for he was sure
as