the sun's spots that were observed during forty years, was kept by a very accurate German astronomer. In certain other years there were very few spots, such as 1834, 1843, and 1856. You know very well that the sun heats the earth, but, besides that, the sun sends us other rays that we do not see, and which are prolific in furthering vegetation and chemical changes in plants. We call these the actinic rays. At places near the equator, such as Cairo, we have a great quantity of such rays; at Naples not quite so many; at Manchester still less; while at Melville Island, a place very far north, we have hardly any of these rays. celes'tial, heavenly. enormously, greatly. result. tel'escope, an instru- precisely, exactly. actin'ic, from aktin, aktinos (Greek), a sunbeam. PART III. 1. I MENTIONED that in some years you have hardly any spots in the sun, and in other years a great many; and the question arises: Have we most of the actinic rays when we have fewest spots; or have we fewest of these rays at the time when we have most spots on the sun? For the spots really appear to take away something from the light of the sun, and we might expect that they would take away something from these rays also. Now at the present moment we can hardly distinctly answer this question. At present there is a strong suspicion that it is the case. curious coincidence was noticed by a student at Owen's College, between what may be called the "good wine years" in Germany and the years of minimum sun spots. This leads us to suspect that there is some connection between the effect of the sun upon vegetation and the spots. A It appears 2. And now comes a very curious circumstance. that the behaviour of these sun spots depends upon the position of the planets, and more particularly upon the position of the planets Mercury and Venus. Assume the planet Venus to be between you and the sun. As the sun's surface comes near Venus there will be few spots: but as the surface goes away from Venus the spots will gradually increase, and attain their maximum at that particular part of the sun which is farthest away from Venus. And as that part of the sun's surface comes back again to Venus, the spots will get less: so that, in fact, the spots would be least at that part of the sun which was close to Venus, and greatest at that part farthest away. The same thing holds with regard to the planet Mercury. 3. All these things taken together, and especially when Mercury shows the same kind of influence upon the spots as Venus, lead us to consider that it is extremely probable that there is some connection between the positions of planets and the behaviour of the sun spots. Now, where we have action we have always reaction. If the planets influence the sun spots, no doubt the sun spots must influence the planets. 4. And now let us see whether the spots on the sun influence the earth in any other ways than those already mentioned. First of all, during those years when we have most sun spots we have most of what is called " magnetic disturbance." The earth is a gigantic magnet, and this magnet is very much disturbed on certain occasions, and consequently the needle vibrates and oscillates very quickly through small spaces. A record has been kept, at different observatories, of these disturbances of the earth's magnetism. Now it so happens that in those years when we have most sun spots we have most of these disturbances. Last year there were a great many sun spots, and last year there were also a great many magnetic disturbances. So that you see the earth is disturbed as a magnet at those times when most changes are going on in the sun. 5. Another curious fact is this: whenever the earth is greatly disturbed as a magnet you have great outbreaks of the aurora borealis. I told you that last year we had a great many sun spots and a great many disturbances of the magnet, and you will bear me out when I say that we had a great many appearances of the aurora borealis. 6. Thus we see that when we have most sun spots we have most magnetic disturbances, and most appearances of the aurora borealis. But besides this there is something more. We find that during the time of maximum sun spots you have most cyclones in the Indian Ocean. And the same law holds with regard to the West Indian hurricanes, 7. Thus you see that the earth is very seriously affected by what takes place in the sun,--that both the earth and the sun engines work together; or you may say that they are companions in their irregularities; that whenever the sun engine is irregular the earth engine appears to follow it and become irregular too. Here we have an extraordinary action and reaction taking place. And there is still one thing behind-and that is the suspected connection between epidemics and the appearance of the sun's surface. One of the best known vegetable epidemics is that of the potato disease. The years 1846, 1860, and 1872 were bad years for the potato disease. Now those years are not far from the years of maximum sun spots. This year or last year some of you may even have seen sun spots through the mists with the naked eye. Here, then, we have at any rate a suspicion of some curious connection between these diseases affecting plants and the state of the sun. And, indeed, of late we have come to think that these diseases take place by means of germs; and consequently if anything is wrong with the atmosphere we may well suppose there will be some particular change of this kind, because these germs are carried by the atmosphere and live in the atmosphere. 8. There is still another curious point of interest in connection with the disease that took place about three centuries since, of a periodical and very violent character, called the “sweating sickness." That disease took place about the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. It took place in the following years-1485, 1506, 1517, 1528, and 1551, about a period of eleven years intervening between the outbreaks. 9. Now this is exactly the sun spot period. Can we tell what the state of the sun was during the outbreaks of this sweating sickness? We cannot with any certainty, because there were no observers of the sun spots in those days. But I told you that there was another phenomenon that accompanied sun spots, namely, when there were most spots in the sun you have most outbreaks of the aurora borealis. If there were unusual and frequent appearances of the aurora in those days they would probably be chronicled not as the aurora borealis, but as fires in the air and fighting armies. Turning to our old records, we find certain displays of the aurora mentioned, and they give a good idea of what must have been the years of maximum sun spots in those times, and curiously enough these are by no means far from the years of the outbreak of the sweating sickness. There is only a difference of about a year and a half on the whole, and the difference always seems to lie in the same direction. Consequently we are pretty certain that, at any rate, the outbreaks of this sweating sickness took place much nearer the time of maximum than the time of minimum sun spots. This, however, is still conjecture, and all these things require to be verified by further research. THE BATTLE OF NASEBY.-MACAULAY. THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, historian, essayist, and poet, was born in 1800. His essays are of the highest order, and his "History of England," though never finished, is deservedly famous. He died in 1859, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Before his death he was raised to the peerage as Lord Macaulay. This ballad, written in 1824, while he was at Cambridge, is supposed to be the triumph of a Puritan over the rout of the King's army, at Naseby, by Cromwell, 14th June, 1645. BY OBADIAH BIND-THEIR-KINGS-IN-CHAINS-AND-THEIR-NOBLES-WITH LINKS-OF-IRON, Sergeant in Ireton's* Regiment. 1 OH! wherefore come ye forth, in triumph from the North, 2 Oh, evil was the root, and bitter was the fruit, And crimson was the juice of the vintage that we trod; 3 It was about the noon of a glorious day of June, That we saw their banners dance, and their cuirasses shine, *Ireton, Cromwell's Commissary-General. He married Cromwell's daughter Bridget, in January, 1646-six months after the battle. 4 Like a servant of the Lord, with his Bible and his sword, The General rode along us, to form us to the fight, When a murmuring sound broke out, and swell'd into a shout, Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant's right. 5 And hark! like the roar of the billow on the shore, For God! For the Cause! for the Church! for the Laws A PARLIAMENTARY CAVALRY SOLDIER.-(One of the Ironsides.) 6 The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums, His bravoes of Alsatia, and pages of Whitehall; They are bursting on our flanks!-Grasp your pikes, close your ranks; For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall. 7 They are here! They rush on! We are broken! We are gone! O Lord, put forth thy might! O Lord, defend the right! |