When we remember that what is true of a relatively great solar disturbance, such as the one witnessed by Messrs. Carrington and Hodgson, is true also (however different in degree) of the magnetic influences which the sun is at every instant exerting, we see that a new and most important bond of union exists between the members of the solar family. The sun not only sways them by the vast attraction of his gravity, not only illumines them, not only warms them, but he pours forth on all his subtle yet powerful magnetic influences. A new analogy between the members of the Solar System is thus introduced to reinforce those other analogies which have been held so strikingly to indicate that the ends for which our earth has been created are not different from those which the Creator had in view when He planned the other members of the Solar System. The real end and aim of the telescope, as applied by the astronomer to the examination of the celestial objects, is to gather together the light which streams from each luminous point throughout space. We may regard the space which surrounds us on every side as an ocean without bounds or limits, an ocean across which there are ever sweeping waves of light, either emitted directly from the various bodies subsisting throughout space, or else reflected from their surfaces. Other forms of waves also speed across those limitless depths in all directions, but the light-waves are those which at present concern us. Our earth is as a minute island placed within the ocean of space, and to the shores of this tiny isle the light-waves bear their message from the orbs which lie like other isles amid the fathomless depths around us. With the telescope the astronomer gathers together portions of light-waves which else would have traveled in diverging directions. By thus intensifying their action, he enables the eye to become cognizant of their true nature. Precisely as the narrow channels around our shores cause the tidal wave, which sweeps across the open ocean in almost insensible undulations, to rise and fall through a wide range of variation, so the telescope renders sensible the existence of light-waves which would escape the notice of the unaided eye. The telescope, then, is essentially a _light-gatherer_. The spectroscope is used for another purpose. It might be called the _light-sifter_. It is applied by the astronomer to analyze the light which comes to him from beyond the ocean of space, and so to enable him to learn the character of the orbs from which that light proceeds. The principle of the instrument is simple, though the appliances by which its full powers can alone be deduced are somewhat complicated.