father of life; its first-born was this lower fire (agni) produced from its rays, and its second eternal cooperator is the air in motion which is also called wind or spirit (Vâyu).’

Finally, Nowhere does thought manifest itself without life. Moreover it is only met with in beings. where life is highly developed, such as animals. Now when an animal dies, his limbs yield, and he falls to the ground, becomes motionless, ceases to breathe and loses heat; with life his thought escapes. If it be a man all his senses are annihilated; his mouth, pale and cold, is no longer capable of pronouncing a single word, from his sunken chest issues no sound expressing joy or grief; his hand presses no longer that of his friend, his father, or his child; all signs of intelligence and feeling have vanished. Soon after his body is decomposed, liquefied, evaporated, nothing remains on the earth but a black spot and a few bleached bones. But thought, where is it? If experience has shown it to be indissolubly attached to life, so that when life is extinguished thought is extinguished also, some may think that thought has the same destiny as life, or rather, that the principle which thinks is identical with the living principle, and does not exist in duality with it; but life is heat, and heat originates in the Sun. Hence fire is at once the motor of all things, the agent of light, and the principle of thought.'

F

Doubtless the authors of these speculations on the first principles of things in general did not conceive their ideas with the same clearness which, in the present advanced state of knowledge, is permitted to the analytical grasp of modern reason; but is it not a marvellous thing to witness the circle that was opened thousands of years ago by intuition closed today by the light of science ?*

[In quoting the above passage from M. Burnouf, and referring to Professor Tyndall's idea, both of whom believe that everything on earth is derived from the Sun-that all we are, all we possess, can be directly or indirectly traced to the influence of the central orb of our system, the author has somewhat overlooked the fact that a certain portion of the external influence which affects our tiny globe is derived, not from the Sun, but from other bodies revolving in space. He has actually shown, in a former passage of the present work, that the quantity of heat derived from space by our Earth is equal to about five-sixths of that which we receive from the Sun. We are, therefore, much more intimately connected with the UNIVERSE than some philosophers appear to believe, and there can be no doubt that our Sun is dependent for its various 'powers' or 'forces' upon other distant bodies, as we are, to a great extent, dependent on it.-P.]

CHAPTER III.

THE SUN IN THE PLANETARY WORLD.

§ I.-POSITION AND INFLUENCE OF THE SUN IN THE PLANETARY SYSTEM.

Apparent diurnal Motion of the Sun; Rising, Setting, Passage across the Meridian.- Apparent annual Motion of Translation; Reality of the Earth's Motion.-The Sun is the common Focus of the Orbits of all the Planets.- Enumeration of the three Groups of Planets belonging to the Solar World and of their Satellites.

WE have just seen what the Sun is to the Earth, and to the animated beings which people its surface: its heat, its light, its chemical activity, essential conditions of all motion, of all vegetable and animal life, have been investigated by us before we knew anything of the source from which they all emanate without knowing what the great orb is that thus communicates to us, as it were, a fraction of its own power. We have hitherto interrogated Physics only, and yet, by the aid of that branch of science, we have been able to

lift a portion of the veil which hides from us the cause of the Sun's eminently beneficial and fruitful influence. These effects, before they were rigorously investigated, were very imperfectly known, but now we can connect the more important of them with the different kinds of solar radiations; we know that very different parts are played by the rays of the Sun according as they manifest themselves to us as light, heat, or chemical activity.

Now we must go still farther, and make use of another branch of knowledge. Let us address ourselves to Astronomy, and ask this Science not what function the Sun performs towards the Earth, but what this great orb does in the heavens, at what distance it is placed from our globe and from other planets or stars, what are its dimensions, its form, its various motions, what is, in fact, its physical constitution? Many of these questions are now solved, and others are hanging in suspense between this or that hypothesis, still devoid of sufficient proof to lead us to certain conclusions, whilst others, again, are scarcely expected to be solved for many years to come. tell the truth, the minds of very few men are occupied with such problems. The Sun is seen everyday, or nearly so, seen rising or setting, or going its daily round in the sky, rising higher or lower above the horizon according to the season of the year; it is welcomed joyously, or the heat of its rays is complained

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of; but that is all. An entire life is passed away without once inquiring the why or the wherefore of so many wonderful phenomena returning perpetually at regular intervals, and looked upon with indifference as matters of common occurrence. It is the same thing here, however, as in many other cases where curiosity is only excited after a certain degree of reflection, or, as D'Alembert expresses it in the Encyclopedia,' 'It is not without some reason that the philosopher is astonished that a stone should fall to the ground; people laugh at his astonishment, but after a little reflection they join in it themselves.' Let us reflect a little whilst observing what is going on around us, let us question the phenomena we observe, and we shall soon have as much cause to be astonished as the philosopher.

We may commence by stating accurately the position of the Sun with regard to the Earth and to other similar orbs, that is, with regard to the various planets.

Every day in the year, in our latitudes, we see the Sun rise on our eastern horizon, mount gradually in the sky to a maximum altitude, which varies according to the day of the year, but which, each time, marks noon, or the middle of the day; then, from this point, the summit of its daily course, we see it descend, and finally set below our western horizon. So far the Sun is endowed with the same appearances as the stars and the Moon; and now-a-days no one ignores that this general