asurable parallaxes in the two bright stars, Canopus and Rigel,
showing that these stars, though of the first magnitude, are
immeasurably distant. A remarkable fact is that these conclusions
coincide with that which we draw from the minuteness of the proper
motions. Rigel has no motion that has certainly been shown by more than
a century of observation, and it is not certain that Canopus has
either. From this alone we may conclude, with a high degree of
probability, that the distance of each is immeasurably great. We may
say with certainty that the brightness of each is thousands of times
that of the sun, and with a high degree of probability that it is
hundreds of thousands of times. On the other hand, there are stars
comparatively near us of which the light is not the hundredth part of
the sun.

[Illustration with caption: Star Spectra]

The universe may be a unit in two ways. One is that unity of structure
to which our attention has just been directed. This might subsist
forever without one body influencing another. The other form of unity
leads us to view the universe as an organism. It is such by mutual
action going on between its bodies. A few years ago we could hardly
suppose or imagine that any other agents than gravitation and light
could possibly pass through spaces so immense as those which separate
the stars.

The most remarkable and hopeful characteristic of the unity of the
universe is the evidence which is being gathered that there are other
agencies whose exact nature is yet unknown to us, but which do pass
from one heavenly body to another. The best established example of this
yet obtained is afforded in the case of the sun and the earth.

The fact that the frequency of magnetic storms goes through a period of
about eleven years, and is proportional to the frequency of sun-spots,
has been well established. The recent work of Professor Bigelow shows
the coincidence to be of remarkable exactness, the curves of the two
phenomena being practically coincident so far as their general features
are concerned. The conclusion is that spots on the sun and magnetic
storms are due to the same cause. This cause cannot be any change in
the ordinary radiation of the sun, because the best records of
temperature show that, to whatever variations the sun's radiation may
be subjected, they do not change in the period of the sun-spots. To
appreciate the relation, we must recall that the researches of Hale
with the spec