one or two have done so within a recent period.
What will be the effect? That depends on circumstances. There is
good reason to suppose we passed through the tail of a comet in
1861, and the only [Page 134] observable effect was a peculiar
phosphorescent mist. If the comet were composed of small meteoric
masses a brilliant shower would be the result. But if we fairly
encountered a nucleus of any considerable mass and solidity, the
result would be far more serious. The mass of Donati's comet has
been estimated by M. Faye to be 1/20000 of that of the earth. If
this amount of matter were dense as water, it would make a globe
five hundred miles in diameter; and if as dense as Professor Peirce
proved the nucleus of this comet to be, its impact with the earth
would develop heat enough to melt and vaporize the hardest rocks.
Happily there is little fear of this: as Professor Newcomb says, "So
small is the earth in comparison with celestial space, that if one
were to shut his eyes and fire at random in the air, the chance of
bringing down a bird would be better than that of a comet of any
kind striking the earth." Besides, we are not living under a
government of chance, but under that of an Almighty Father, who
upholdeth all things by the word of his power; and no world can come
to ruin till he sees that it is best.

[Page 135]
VIII.

THE PLANETS AS INDIVIDUALS.

"Through faith we understand that the worlds [plural] were framed
by the word of God, so that things which were seen were not made
of things which do appear."--_Heb._ xi. 3.

[Page 136]
"O rich and various man! Thou palace of sight and sound, carrying
in thy senses the morning, and the night, and the unfathomable
galaxy; in thy brain the geometry of the city of God; in thy heart
the power of love, and the realms of right and wrong. An individual
man is a fruit which it costs all the foregoing ages to form and
ripen. He is strong, not to do but to live; not in his arms, but
in his heart; not as an agent, but as a fact."--EMERSON.

[Page 137]
VII.

_THE PLANETS AS INDIVIDUALS._

How many bodies there may be revolving about the sun we have no
means to determine or arithmetic to express. When the new star
of the American Republic appeared, there were but six planets
discovered. Since then three regions of the solar system have been
explored with wonderful success. The outlying realms beyond Saturn
yielded the planet Uranus in 1781, and Neptune in 1