We are not driven to this world-shattering hypothesis by the absence of others, for we may admit these to be fragments of a larger body without necessarily concluding that it was a world like ours, or, even if it were, that the world which sent them to us is destroyed. In view of what we have been learning of the tremendous explosive forces we see in action on the sun and probably on other planets, and even in terrestrial volcanoes to-day, it is certainly conceivable that some of these stones may have been ejected by some such process from any sun, or star, or world we see. The reader is already prepared for the suggestion that part of them may be the product of terrestrial volcanoes in early epochs, when our planet was yet glowing sunlike with its proper heat, and the forces of Nature were more active; and that these errant children of mother earth’s youth, after circulating in lengthened orbits, are coming back to her in her age. Do not let us, however, forget that these are mostly speculations only, and perhaps the part of wisdom is not to speculate at all till we learn more facts; but are not the facts themselves as extraordinary as any invention of fancy? Although it is true that the existence of the connection between shooting stars and meteorites lacks some links in the chain of proof, we may very safely consider them together; and if we wish to know what the New Astronomy has done for us in this field, we should take up some treatise on astronomy of the last century. We turn in one to the subject of falling stars, and find that “this species of Star is only a light Exhalation, almost wholly sulphurous, which is inflamed in the free Air much after the same manner as Thunder in a Cloud by the blowing of the Winds.” That the present opinion is different, we shall shortly notice. All of us have seen shooting stars, and they are indeed something probably as old as this world, and have left their record in mythology as well as in history. According to Moslem tradition, the evil genii are accustomed to fly at night up to the confines of heaven in order to overhear the conversation of the angels, and the shooting stars are the fiery arrows hurled by the latter at their lurking foes, with so good an aim that we are told that for every falling star we may be sure that there is one spirit of evil the less in the world. The scientific view of them, however, if not so consolatory, is perhaps more instructive, and we shall here give most attention to the latter.