How The World May Be Destroyed

Astronomy, in conjunction with optios, bas beon makiug some extraordinary discüveries in tho last few months. Tho spectrcscope, and as the lat ter bringg to view Uistant worlds, Uie formor indioates tlio matorials of which they are made. Tho late eclipso of tho sun demonstrated that immense volumes of hydrogen gaa stroich upward hundreds of miles abovo itssurface, rnaking in reality the oceana offlamo which have ofton figured ia hyporbo'.e. A thought has occurred to us in this connoction, which we venture to comtnend to the attontion of our astronomical and gcological friends. It is a well knownfact in ffeolocy that in Dast ncri. üds a vastly greater heat Las pervded iho earth ihan at tbc present time. The flora and fuuna of a tropical climate flourished at the poles. Scientifio men bave been ingenious in speculationsabout the cause of tbo ehange. Some hare ascribed it to the interr.al heat of tha mrtb, wbioh bas been gradually evolved u successive ages. Others have attributed it to a different relation of tho axis of the earth to the plane of the ecliptic. Possibly otbei s may have guggegted a chango in the inlernal constitution of the sun, though we do not remember to have seen it in our limited reuding. I3ut the phenomenon finds an easy solution on this hypothesis. During the last year a small slar in the conBlellutiou of the Northern Crown suddeuly becarno briglit as a star of the Brst maguitude. Aatronomera at once resorted to the telcsoope to explain the uivbtery, but could fiod oaly a confirmation of the iact, with no hint of iti cause. Upiiciauí applicd the spectro-" scope, and at once the inystery was re1 vealed. A vast ooean of hydrogen waa in flame, and its combustión mehed the f small star, one of the most brüliant ia I tlie firmanent. The mathematiciaus took 1 up tlie data giveu theoi in the lacrease of light, and proved ihat for any warlds, of which this s!ar may ba the central ! sun, tbere must have bceu an increuse of ; keat to .oven huadred aud eigbty times tho normal standard, If worlds are madu oí' similar mit. riáis rilh our earth, they mufct have dissolved uuder tbis intense heat, as in the cat.istrophe of ur globo predicied by Peter. Our thought, theo, ia simply thia : If by internal changos, or combustions ia the cjiitral suu, the-eoudition of all tho planet8 raust be sensibly aííuotcd ; aod if our sui) is liable to auch changes aa this star in the Northern Crown (we know it has untold volumos of hydrogen about its surfaeo,) why may not tbo former extremo heat of the earth have been due siniply to atnicspheric chaDgcs in ibe sun f Aud why ruay they not ocour on a larger scale iu the future, beraldicg the fioal judgmeut. - I'rovtdvíic Journal,