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A NEW WONDER.

At the last total eclipse of the sun, many astronomers busied themselves
chiefly with observing the corona which had excited so much interest and
speculation at previous eclipses. This is the name given to the bright
light seen outside of the moon's disk when the body of the sun is
completely hidden by it.

Opinions were divided as to its cause; some observers thinking it
proceeded from the sun's atmosphere, or from luminous gases which shot
far above its surface; while others imagined it separated from the sun
altogether, and due to other causes in the depths of space.

From the observations made, and from photographs taken, it is now
believed to be simply the reflected light of the sun. This reflection is
supposed to be due to immense numbers of meteorites, or possibly,
systems of meteorites, like the rings of Saturn, revolving about the
sun. The existence of such meteorites has long been suspected, and
observations now seem to justify a belief in their existence. Their
constant falling into the sun is thought to be one of the methods by
which its heat is maintained without loss.

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STEALING FROM MILTON'S COFFIN.

Mr. A. T. Stewart is not the only distinguished man whose remains have
not been suffered to lie undisturbed in the tomb. John Wickliffe's bones
were exhumed and burned, and Oliver Cromwell's body was taken up and
beheaded. That the remains of the great Milton were subjected to such
barbarous sacrilege is not so generally known. From an ancient London
magazine, the Portland _Transcript_ extracts an account of this outrage.
When the old church of St. Giles, Cripplegate (the place of Milton's
grave), was repaired about a hundred years ago, the great poet's coffin
was brought to light and officially identified, with a view to placing a
monument over the remains. In the night a party of men entered and
forcibly opened it, plundering the hair and several of the bones to sell
for relics.

All this seems to have been done without any attempt at concealment, as
to public exhibitions of portions of the body would indicate. The
oft-quoted inscription over Shakespeare's tomb at Stratford-on-Avon
would have been especially appropriate over both that of Milton and of
Stewart:

"Blesse be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones."

The crime of robbing the de