rnace, in whose
fires the most stubborn elements are not merely melted but vaporised.
The material of the sun has been analysed, the motions and changes
taking place on his surface examined, the laws of his being determined.
How, it might be asked, is the question of life in other worlds involved
in these researches? The faith of Sir David Brewster in the sun as the
abode of life being dispelled, how could discoveries respecting the sun
interest those who care about the subject of the plurality of worlds?
The answer to these questions is easily found. The real interest which
solar researches have possessed for those who are not astronomers has
resided in the evidence afforded respecting the sun's position as the
fire, light, and life of the system of worlds whereof our world is one.
The mere facts discovered respecting the sun would be regarded as so
much dry detail were they not brought directly into relation with our
earth and its wants, and therefore with the wants of the other earths
which circle round the sun; but when thus dealt with they immediately
excite attention and interest. I do not speak at random in asserting
this, but describe the result of widely ranging observation. I have
addressed hundreds of audiences in Great Britain and America on the
subject of recent solar discoveries, and I have conversed with many
hundreds of persons of various capacity and education, from men almost
uncultured to men of the highest intellectual power; and my invariable
experience has been that solar research derives its chief interest when
viewed in relation to the sun's position as the mighty ruler, the
steadfast sustainer, the beneficent almoner of the system of worlds to
which our earth belongs. It is the same with other astronomical
subjects. Few care for the record of lunar observations, save in
relation to the question whether the moon is or has been the abode of
living creatures. The movements of comets and meteors, and the
discoveries recently made respecting their condition, have no interest
except in relation to the position of these bodies in the economy of
solar systems, or to the possible part which they may at one time have
performed in building up worlds and suns. None save astronomers, and few
only of these, care for researches into the star-depths, except in
connection with the thought that every star is a sun and therefore
probably the light and fire of a system of worlds like those which
circle around our ow