And lastly, turning from our sun to the other suns which shine in uncounted myriads throughout space, we see the same processes at work upon them all. Each star-sun has its coronal and its zodiacal disks, formed by meteoric and cometic systems; for otherwise each would quickly cease to be a sun. Each star-sun emits, no doubt, the same magnetic influences which give to the Zodiacal Light and to the solar corona their peculiar characteristics. And thus the worlds which circle round those orbs may resemble our own in all those relations which we refer to terrestrial magnetism, as well as in the circumstance that on them also there must be, as on our own earth, a continual downfall of minute meteors. In those worlds, perchance, the magnetic compass directs the traveler over desert wastes or trackless oceans; in their skies, the aurora displays its brilliant streamers; while, amid the constellations which deck their heavens, meteors sweep suddenly into view, and comets extend their vast length athwart the celestial vault, a terror to millions, but a subject of study and research to the thoughtful. FOOTNOTES: [23] Professor Kirkwood has published a most interesting series of inquiries, going far to prove that the real secret or the planetary influences lies in the fact that the sun’s surface is not uniform, and that on a certain solar longitude the planetary influences are more effective than elsewhere. [24] To these may be added the following law: 4. Light reflected from any opaque body gives the same spectrum as it would have given before reflection. 5. But if the opaque body be surrounded by vapors, the dark lines corresponding to these vapors make their appearance in the spectrum with a distinctness proportioned to the extent to which the light has penetrated those vapors before being reflected to us. 6. If the reflecting body be itself luminous, the spectrum belonging to it is superadded to the spectrum belonging to the reflected light. 7. Glowing vapors surrounding an incandescent source of light may cause bright lines or dark lines to appear in the spectrum, according as they are more or less heated; or, they may emit just so much light as to make up for what they absorb, in which case there will remain no trace of their presence. 8. The electric spark presents a bright-line spectrum, compounded of the spectra belonging to the vapors of those substances between which, and of those through which, the discharge takes place. According to the nature of these vapors and of the discharge itself, the relative intensity of the component parts of the spectrum will be variable. Lastly, the appearance of the spectrum belonging to any element will vary according to the circumstances of pressure and temperature under which the element may emit light.