Although we may not be able to explain how the spiritual body is able to rise from the ground, and pass from one star to another (and science does not deny the possibility of such a thing), of this we are sure, it must be accomplished according to law,-that is to say, there must be an expenditure of force, according to the amount of gravitation overcome, when the body ascends, and a production of force, to the same amount, when the body descends. There can be little doubt that, as we ascend in the scale of creation, the capability of storing force is increased; so that, whether it be by means of food, or whether in the higher grades of spiritual organisation, we shall be able to convert light and heat immediately into spirit-force, and store it in such a manner as to give significance to Paul's description, when he says of the spiritual body that "it is raised in power;" in either case, a certain amount will be required, and the source will be no other than that which moves tides, steam-engines, and muscular fibres, it will be nothing else than the fall of meteorolites, and the oxidation of metals. It has been calculated that the combustion of one grain of coal produces as much force as would raise a body 143 pounds in weight, eight feet from the ground; and, therefore, the rising of ten miles from the ground would represent a force equal to that produced by the burning of nearly a pound of coal. In like manner, the descent of a body 143 pounds in weight, ten miles to the ground, would produce an amount of force equal to the combustion of a pound of coal, and this must be developed in its descent, however it may be disposed of. All this science can affirm; but it cannot affirm that the force of gravitation cannot be converted into another force, so that a spiritual

body may be able to rise into the air. that gravitation, though it may be be destroyed.

It can only affirmn converted, cannot

The power of storing latent force is of great importance to spiritual bodies, because if they can store the force that is produced by descent, the same force may be expended in a subsequent ascent; and, when the body has reached a distance so great as to make the influence of gravitation imperceptible, the force expended in producing motion would continue to increase the velocity of the body to any amount; for, like the planetary motions in space, its movement would continue for ever, until it is checked. If the spiritual body be able not only to convert light into momentum, but momentum into light, may not the glorious appearance of the angels be assumed at will, and thus be the result of law and not of miracle? The penetrable power of spiritual bodies is more difficult to be understood than their rising in the air, and yet the true philosopher will never pronounce anything to be impossible, merely because he cannot understand it. For example, the following is the report of a paper read at a meeting of the Meteorological Society last spring:

"PHOTOGRAPHIC EFFECTS OF LIGHTNING.--At the last meeting of the Meteorological Society, there was read a paper on the photographic effects of lightning, by Andrès Poey, director of the observatory of Havanna. The first (though not the earliest) authentic mention of this singular phenomenon, was made by Benjamin Franklin, in 1786; who frequently stated that, about twenty years previous, a man who was standing opposite a tree that had just been struck by a thunderbolt, had on his breast an exact representation of that tree. (After mentioning

six other cases of a similar kind,) Mr Poey concluded this part of his paper by an instance mentioned by him in his 'Memoir on Lightning-storms in Cuba and the United States: On the 24th July 1852, a poplar tree, in a coffee plantation, being struck by lightning, on one of the large dry leaves was found an exact representation of some pine trees, that lay at the distance of 339 metres (367 yards 9 inches). As to the theoretical explanation of lightning impressions, Mr Poey thinks that they are produced in the same manner as the electric images obtained by Moser, Riess, Karsten, Grove, Fox Talbot, and others, either by statical or dynamical electricity of different intensity. The fact that impressions are made through garments, is easily accounted for, when we remember that their rough texture does not prevent the lightning passing through them with the impression it has received. To corroborate this view, Mr Poey mentioned an instance of lightning falling down a chimney, and passing into a trunk, in which was found an inch of soot, which must have passed through the wood itself."

A statement like this is made before a learned society, and whether it be true or not, is heard with respectful attention. It is quite impossible to explain these phenomena, according to our generally received opinions regarding optics on the one hand, and the properties of soot and wood on the other-and yet they are not denied as necessarily false. The present state of science can no more explain the passage of soot through the wood, than it can the passage of the angel into Peter's prison, or Christ's passage into the closed room in Jerusalem: and yet these greater facts are better authenticated than Professor Poey's.

I.

THE SUN'S CLOUDY ENVELOPE.

THE discovery of a cloudy envelope, forming a continuous stratum between the photosphere and the corona, is one of those contributions to our knowledge of solar physics, whose great value consists in the light which they shed on other phenomena presented by the sun. Its existence was first distinctly announced by Mr Swan, of Edinburgh, in 1851,* who describes it as a fourth envelope, distinct from the third mentioned by Arago, in which he supposed the clouds, or red prominences, to float. Arago suggests that these clouds produce the isolated spots of the sun, where there is an umbra without a nucleus. Mr Swan, on the contrary, assigns to them a far more extensive and continuous prevalence, and rather attributes to their unequal density the mottled appearance which characterises the entire disc.

K.-(Page 90.)

THE COLOUR OF THE EARTH AS A STAR.

In consequence of the great variety of colour which the darkened surface of the moon presents, when partially enlightened by the reflection of the sun's light from the earth, some ingenious speculations have been indulged in to account for it. On some occasions it has a reddish look, at other times it has a greenish tint, but in general an ashy grey. This has suggested the idea, that the variety of tints is caused by the different portions of the

* Transactions of Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. xx. part 3.

earth's surface which are presented at different times to the moon. The Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, for example, it is supposed, might reflect one colour on the moon, while the continents, either of sand or savannahs, would reflect others. This is a very unlikely supposition: the difference of tint on the earth's surface is too slight to be observable beneath the bright blue of the atmosphere; but the atmosphere itself must be subject to considerable changes of colour, grey, red, and blue, according to circumstances. One great cause of difference of tint will probably be found in the whiteness of the equatorial regions being presented to the moon when its declination is great; but whether this be so or not, we may safely say that we are to look to the atmosphere, and not to the earth's surface, as the cause.

K. (Page 192.)

TRANSFORMATION OF HEREDITARY TYPES.

THE truthfulness of Scripture has been challenged by some bold savants, on the ground that there is no such thing as a transformation of hereditary types. They admit that crimes, or misfortunes, may transmit their malignant influence downwards through a few generations; but the constant tendency of nature is to recover itself and return to its original type. For this reason they object to the doctrine of the Fall of man as a physiological blunder; and, moreover, they hold that Adam could not be the common father of all mankind, because the Negro and the European could not be descended from the same parent. We fully admit that there is no such thing as a GRADUAL transformation of hereditary types, and, therefore, whatever has been accomplished by gradual cultivation or domestication is not a permanent change. A European