ig. 30.--Relative Size of Sun as seen from Different
Planets.]

We sometimes speak of the sun as having a diameter of 860,000 miles.
We mean that that is the extent of the body as soon by the eye.
But that is a small part of its real diameter. So we say the earth
has an equatorial diameter of 7925-1/2 miles, and a polar one of
7899. But the air is as much a part of the earth as the rocks are.
The electric currents are as much a part of the [Page 79] earth as
the ores and mountains they traverse. What the diameter of the earth
is, including these, no man can tell. We used to say the air
extended forty-five miles, but we now know that it reaches vastly
farther. So of the sun, we might almost say that its diameter is
infinite, for its light and heat reach beyond our measurement. Its
living, throbbing heart sends out pulsations, keeping all space full
of its tides of living light.

[Page 80]
[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Zodiacal Light.]

We might say with evident truth that the far-off planets are a
part of the sun, since the space they traverse is filled with the
power of that controlling king; not only with light, but also with
gravitating power.

But come to more ponderable matters. If we look [Page 81] into our
western sky soon after sunset, on a clear, moonless night in March
or April, we shall see a dim, soft light, somewhat like the
milky-way, often reaching, well defined, to the Pleiades. It is
wedge-shaped, inclined to the south, and the smallest star can
easily be seen through it. Mairan and Cassini affirm that they have
seen sudden sparkles and movements of light in it. All our best
tests show the spectrum of this light to be continuous, and
therefore reflected; which indicates that it is a ring of small
masses of meteoric matter surrounding the sun, revolving with it and
reflecting its light. One bit of stone as large as the end of one's
thumb, in a cubic mile, would be enough to reflect what light we see
looking through millions of miles of it. Perhaps an eye sufficiently
keen and far away would see the sun surrounded by a luminous disk,
as Saturn is with his rings. As it extends beyond the earth's orbit,
if this be measured as a part of the sun, its diameter would be
about 200,000,000 miles.

Come closer. When the sun is covered by the disk of the moon at
the instant of total eclipse, observers are startled by strange
swaying luminous banners, ghostly and weird, shooting in changeful
play about the centra