ORIGIN OF THE FALLING STARS.
The London Times, as we learn from a recent Detroit paper, offers the following conjecture as to the origin of the meteoric showers witnessed in 1833 in America, and this year in England. The possibility that the earth may sometime encounter a fiery storm of burning stones, is calculated to give us a vivid idea of the terrible weapons the Lord has in his armory to carry out his purposes. Here may be the treasures of hail, reserved against the great day of battle and war, Job xxxviii, 22, 23, and the fearful stones of a talent's weight which will be hurled upon the wicked under the seventh plague, Rev. xvi, 21; for the words rendered hail in these texts are not confined strictly to frozen rain, but are applicable to any falling body. The London Times says: “Once in a human generation, and thrice in a century—for in this matter man and the material universe seem strangely in accord—this earth has to encounter an immense cloud of stones revolving round the sun, in an orbit of the same size as its own, but in a contrary direction. This cloud of stones is believed to constitute a sort of ring, diffused over the whole orbit, like a great highway of rolling or flying stones, though not in uniform density. However, there is no escaping them, whatever they are, for the breadth of this highway or stream is compared to the moon's orbit, and it takes two or three successive years, or, we should say, successive Novembers, for the earth to enter and clear it. These stones enter our atmosphere with a velocity of forty miles a second, and destroy themselves, as it were, by their own violence; for, when once arrested by our grosser air, they are instantly melted and dissipated in the air. That process, however, is only possible with very small stones, estimated by grains, for an aerolite of only a few pounds could only have its surface affected by such a momentary operation. Is it quite impossible that some day the earth may have to encounter more bulky metal, more comparable to our mundane artillery? Showers of stones there have been; and there evidently is no limit to their size either in history or in science, for the laws which govern the movement of every body in our solar system, apply equally to all sizes and all substances, from this earth to a grain of dust, from a mass of metal to a vapor. Here is a shower of missiles, of unknown weight and inconceivable velocity, always in motion from some unknown battery, and every human generation has to run the gauntlet. Will this atmosphere of ours always prove an absolute protection, and turn off these bolts, as merit is said to do the shafts of envy and detraction? That is a question at least to be thought of.”