ably brighter than usual; at any rate, all
the evidence we have tends to show that when the sun is most spotted,
his energies are most active. It is then that the coloured flames leap
to their greatest height and show their greatest brilliancy, then also
that they show the most rapid and remarkable changes of shape.

Supposing there really is, I will not say danger, but a possibility,
that our sun may one day, through the arrival of some very large comet
travelling directly towards him, share the fate of the suns whose
outbursts I have described above, we might be destroyed unawares, or we
might be aware for several weeks of the approach of the destroying
comet. Suppose, for example, the comet, which might arrive from any part
of the heavens, came from out that part of the star-depths which is
occupied by the constellation Taurus--then, if the arrival were so timed
that the comet, which might reach the sun at any time, fell upon him in
May or June, we should know nothing of that comet's approach: for it
would approach in that part of the heavens which was occupied by the
sun, and his splendour would hide as with a veil the destroying enemy.
On the other hand, if the comet, arriving from the same region of the
heavens, so approached as to fall upon the sun in November or December,
we should see it for several weeks. For it would then approach from the
part of the heavens high above the southern horizon at midnight.
Astronomers would be able in a few days after it was discovered to
determine its path and predict its downfall upon the sun, precisely as
Newton calculated the path of _his_ comet and predicted its near
approach to the sun. It would be known for weeks then that the event
which Newton contemplated as likely to cause a tremendous outburst of
solar heat, competent to destroy all life upon the surface of our earth,
was about to take place; and, doubtless, the minds of many students of
science would be exercised during that interval in determining whether
Newton was right or wrong. For my own part, I have very little doubt
that, though the change in the sun's condition in consequence of the
direct downfall upon his surface of a very large comet would be but
temporary, and in that sense slight--for what are a few weeks in the
history of an orb which has already existed during thousands of millions
of years?--yet the effect upon the inhabitants of the earth would be by
no means slight. I do not think, however, that an