orange shadow, according as the earth cuts off from the moon the light of the orange or blue sun !

And this leads us to consider the strange aspect which must be presented by ordinary objects—mountains, hills, buildings, plants, animals, and so on-when the two suns. are both above the horizon. Where the light of both suns is falling there must be white light, or rather objects must appear, as they do in the white light of our own sun, with their natural colours. But parts which are in the light of but one of the two suns must show the colour of that sun, combined of course with their natural colour. There will only be true shadow where neither sun sheds its light. Or we may say that every object will throw a blue shadow opposite the orange sun, and an orange shadow opposite the blue sun, and that the part where the two shadows cross will alone be in true shadow. It will be manifest that natural scenery must present many beautiful varieties of effect altogether unfamiliar to us terrestrials, who know of no colours in scenery except those inherent in the objects themselves which form the landscape. Living creatures also must present a singular aspect, and to our conceptions an aspect not altogether beautiful, but too much like harlequinade to accord with terrestrial tastes.

The skies, however, must be often exceedingly beautiful. Our clouds have their silver lining, because it is the white light of the sun which illumines them. Our summer sky presents glowing white clouds to our view, and at

other times we see the various shades between perfect whiteness and an almost black hue, corresponding to the various degrees in which the illuminated side of a cloud is turned towards us. But imagine how beautiful the scene must be, when those parts of a cloud which would otherwise appear simply darker, shine with a fuller blue light or (as the case may be) with a fuller orange light. How gorgeous again must be the colouring of the clouds which fleck the sky when one or other sun is setting! At such times on our earth we see the most beautiful tints, owing to the various degrees in which the atmosphere affects the light of our single sun; but how wonderful must be the varieties of colour when, in addition to this cause of varying tints, there is a sun of complementary colour illuminating those parts of each cloud which would be simply dark were there no other sun but the orb which is actually setting!

I have, however, taken but the case of a single world in a particular double sun system, and I have considered but few of the various relations presented by the skies of such a world. The actual varieties of appearance even in one such world must be almost infinite. Then in each double sun system there are several orders of worlds, even as in our solar system there are major and minor planets, asteroids, satellites, and so on, to say nothing of comets and meteor systems. Doubtless the several members of each order are as wonderful in variety of structure and condition as the several members of our solar system.

Again, there are infinite varieties of arrangement depending on the relative dimensions of the suns of a double system, as well as on the shape of the paths they pursue: and in their colours again there are many varieties, as mentioned in my last paper-yellow and purple suns, red and green suns, equal suns of golden yellow, cream white, rose colour, and so on, companion suns of lilac, russet, citron, fawn, buff, and olive hue, in endless numbers.

Let it not be forgotten, in conclusion, that though there may be no world precisely like the one I have imagined, there must be many globes in double star systems where scenes very like those I have described are presented; and that an almost infinite variety of arrangements must prevail among the thousands on thousands of such systems. which astronomers have discovered. I conceive that few thoughts can be more striking and instructive than those. suggested by this infinite wealth of beauty and variety. We see throughout the whole universe the same splendour on a large scale which is bestowed on a small scale upon the flowers of the field, which 'toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'

THE KING OF SUNS.

WHEN we learn how enormously the sun surpasses all the members of the planetary family in bulk and mass, and how vast is the power represented by his light and heat, the idea is naturally suggested that the sun is either the leading orb in the universe or at least co-equal with those other suns the stars which exist in such countless numbers throughout space. It is sufficiently amazing to conceive that that glorious orb which astronomy pictures the sun to be, the scene of processes so stupendous, of outbursts so overwhelming, girt about by the wonderful corona and zodiacal light, attended on by a scheme of worlds among which our earth is but an insignificant body, and so mighty as respects attractive power that matter drawn to his surface from outer space reaches him with a velocity of nearly 400 miles in a second, should be repeated (as it were) hundreds and thousands and millions of times within the sidereal universe. But what is this thought even, amazing though it seems, to the consideration that our sun is not only inferior to a few suns, here and there, but actually belongs to an inferior order of suns; that the class to which he belongs bears to the chief known order of suns a relation as inferior as that of our earth and her

fellow terrestrial planets to the giant orbs, Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which circle outside the zone of asteroids?

Such, however, is the result to which scientific researches tend. I am not about to present the full evidence for the general statement I have just made, reserving the point for another article. What I now propose is to compare, so far as comparison is possible, a number of the leading order of suns-the white stars-with our sun, a member of the second order of suns-the golden yellow stars. I am about to describe what is known about the glorious star Sirius-the blazing Dog Star of the ancients. I speak of this star as the King of Suns, not as assuming that he is indeed the largest sun in the universe, but because he is the brightest star of his order visible to us, and the only sun in the universe of which it has been demonstrated that, taking light as the measure of magnitude, he surpasses our sun at the very least one thousand times in volume.

But how, it may be asked, can we estimate the magnitude of a star from its brightness, or, indeed, form any idea as to the dimensions of a body which even in the most powerful telescope appears as a mere point? For this is indeed the case with Sirius, notwithstanding the fact that in a powerful telescope we seem at a first view to see in this star a bright glare covering a considerable space. Attentive scrutiny soon reveals the fact that the glare is a merely optical phenomenon, and that the true