The story of the sun, moon, and stars . and framed intoshape—which ever may havecome first, and whichever mayhave been the order of Godsworking—still that first wasmade by him; still he through-out was the Master-builder. A few words more about comet-visitors. Many comets,as already stated, belong to our MORE ABOUT COMETS AND METEORITES. 261 Solar System, thoughwhether they have al-ways so belonged is an-other question. It isnot impossible that theymay once upon a timehave wandered hencefrom a vast distance,and, being caught pris-oner by the powerful at-traction of Jupiter orone of his three g
The story of the sun, moon, and stars . and framed intoshape—which ever may havecome first, and whichever mayhave been the order of Godsworking—still that first wasmade by him; still he through-out was the Master-builder. A few words more about comet-visitors. Many comets,as already stated, belong to our MORE ABOUT COMETS AND METEORITES. 261 Solar System, thoughwhether they have al-ways so belonged is an-other question. It isnot impossible that theymay once upon a timehave wandered hencefrom a vast distance,and, being caught pris-oner by the powerful at-traction of Jupiter orone of his three greatbrother-planets, havebeen compelled thence-forth to travel in a closedpathway round the are also manycomets which come onceonly to our system, flash-ing round past the sun,and rushing away inquite another direction,never to return. Wheredo these comets comefrom? And where dothey go? From othersuns—brother suns toours? It may be. Oneis almost disposed tothink that it must be we ever thinkwhat an immense voyage. GREAT COMET OF 1769. 262 STORY OF THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS. they must have made to come from there to here? Dowe imagine for how many years they must have flownthrough the dark immensity to plunge themselves intothe fires of our sun? If we take into account the di-rections from which certain comets come to us, and ifwe assign to the stars situated in that region the leastdistances consistent with known facts, we find thatthese comets certainly left their last star more thantwenty millions of years ago. In thus putting to us from the height of their ce-lestial apparitions so many notes of interrogation onthe grandest problems of creation, comets assume toour eyes an interest incomparably greater than thatwith which superstition blindly surrounded them inpast ages. When we reflect for a moment that a cer-tain comet which shines before us in the sky cameoriginally from the depths of the heavens, that it hastraveled during millions of years to arrive
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