Page:The evolution of worlds - Lowell.djvu/278

236 descries it down the far vista of unrecorded time. Ghostlike it will travel through space, unknown, unheralded, till another collision shall cause it to take a place again among the bright company of heaven. Thus, in our account of the career of a solar system, we began by seeing with the mind's eye a dark body travelling incognito in space, and a dark body we find ourselves again contemplating at the end.

In this kaleidoscopic biograph of the solar system's life, each picture dissolves into its successor by the falling together of its parts to fresh adjustments of stability, as in that instrument of pleasure which so witched our childish wonder in early youth. Just as when a combination had proved so pretty, once gone, to our sorrow no turning of the handle could ever bring it back, so in the march of worlds no retrace is possible of steps that once are past. Inexorable permutations lead from one state to the next, till the last of all be reached.

Yet, unlike our childhood's toy, reasoning can conjure up beside the present picture far vistas of what preceded it and of what is yet to come. Hidden from thought only by the distraction of the day, as the universe to sight lies hid by the day's overpowering glare, both come out on its withdrawal till we wonder we never gazed before. Our own surroundings shut out the glories that lie beyond. Our veil of atmosphere cloaks them from our view. But wait, as an astronomer, till