high position and the patronage it put into his hands, he amassed immense wealth, until his income became greater than that of the king. He now lived in royal splendour. He kept 500 servants, among whom were nine or ten lords, fifteen knights, and forty esquires. But the promotions and wealth of England were too little for his avaricious grasp, and he aimed at the throne of the Pope. Charles V. of Germany paid him 24,000 crowns a year, and was his client, and a great part of the cardinals were his pensioners. But Pope Adrian VI. being elected, he was disappointed and chagrined. For fifteen years he was the great man of England; all eyes were turned towards him. But having displeased Henry VIII. he fell into disgrace, and as you see in the picture his king deserted and degraded him; and being arrested for high treason, his spirits became sadly dejected; and while at Leicester, on his way to London, he fell ill, and died in 1531, uttering the lamentation we have stated: "If I had served my God as faithfully as I have served my king, He would not have forsaken me in my grey hairs." Here, my young friends, is a beacon to warn us against making the world our God, and seeking our portion in this life. Wolsey's sad example proclaims to us aloud the solemn words of our Lord, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Dear reader, see to it, that you do not make this fatal bargain. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." W. C.

M

SCIENCE FOR CHILDREN.

CHAPTER XV.--ASTRONOMY.

ETEORS have received more attention from our astronomers during the last few years than had been bestowed upon them for many years previous. As a result, mcre exact observations have been taken, and remarkable discoveries made, which greatly alter the opinions formerly held by men of science as to their importance. We know more about their movements, their speed, and their orbits than we knew formerly; and though the question of their number remains altogether beyond our reach, there is now a general belief that they exceed by millions of times any estimate we could form of them ten years ago.

HERBERT. "What are meteors? Are they the falling stars which seem sometimes to dart right across the sky?"

"Yes, those are meteors, though different kinds are called by different names: such as shooting-stars, fire-balls, bolides, and falling stars."

ANNIE. "Of what do they consist ?"

"They are solid bodies, consisting of stone and various metals; mainly iron."

BERTHA. "Are they scattered about all over space? "

"No; groups of them travel round the sun in orbits similar to the orbits of comets; indeed, they are found to be in some strange way connected with comets."

BERTHA. "How is it that meteors are not generally seen for longer than about one second each ?”

"Because they are small, dark bodies, and give no light until they come in contact with our atmosphere, which soon scatters them."

HERBERT. "Are there not some nights in the year when many meteors may be seen?"

"Yes; there are certain nights every year when large numbers are visible; one of these nights occur in November, and we know more about the November meteors than we do about any

others."

HERBERT. "How is it that we always see them in November ?" "Because the earth then passes through the orbit along which the meteors are travelling, and so meets them, for they travel in the opposite direction from that in which the earth is moving."

ANNIE. "At what speed are they travelling before the earth meets them?"

"At a speed equal to that of the earth, which is a thousand miles in a minute; but as they get near to us their speed is increased by the earth's attraction, and they are said to enter our atmosphere at the rate of about thirty miles per second."

HERBERT. "What results follow their contact with our atmosphere ? "

66 They at once become heated by friction against it, and the heat increases until they give out light, and then increases further until they are burnt up or vapourised; they descend to the ground afterwards in the form of very fine dust."

BERTHA. "How heavy are the meteors ?"

66

They vary in weight; but those seen in November are believed

to be very small, some of them weighing as little as two or three grains, and the largest not more than a few ounces."

BERTHA. "What is their height above the earth when first seen?"

"About seventy miles, and they are burnt up by the time they get twenty miles nearer to the earth's surface."

ANNIE. ". Can you tell us, please, what is the extent of the orbit in which the November meteors move?"

"It reaches from the earth's orbit on one side of the sun to a point beyond the orbit of Uranus on the other side, so that you see the meteors are only about ninety-one millions of miles from the sun at one time, and at another they are not less than eighteen hundred millions of miles away. Of course we encounter them when at the point nearest to the sun, and when they are travelling at their greatest speed."

ANNIE. "How long does it take them to travel round their orbit ? "

"A period of thirty-three and a quarter years."

HERBERT. “When did the group last pass through the earth's orbit ? "

"It is supposed to have been passing through during the whole of the five years extending from 1865 to 1870, for in the November of each of those five years' meteor showers' were visible.”

HERBERT." Then shall we be unable to see a November starshower for twenty-four years yet to come ?"

"No display to which the name shower' may be applied can be expected in the month of November until the year 1898. But many meteors may be seen in November before that time. For though the greatest number of the November meteors travel in one large group, there are also many millions of them scattered over the entire orbit so as to form a complete oval ring; and when the earth reaches that part of its orbit which passes through the orbit of the meteors, some of these small bodies generally become visible to us."

BERTHA. "Does the earth come in contact with any other system of meteors beside the November one of which you have spoken ?"

"Oh, yes; with more than a hundred systems. But we do not pass through them so directly as we pass through the November group. August and April are months in which the earth encounters some of these strange little bodies."

BERTHA. "Are all meteors as small as those belonging to the November system?"

"They are not. Some of them are large enough to penetrate the earth's atmosphere without being burnt up, and then explode with a

terriffic noise very near to the earth's surface. Others plunge right into the earth, and have been found several tons in weight. At two

THE SPIRAL NEBULA

o'clock one morning, in the month of April, 1303, a bright meteor was seen in the air by some people in Normandy; a few minutes afterwards a loud explosion was heard, and as many as two thousand stones fell, one of them wounding a person's arm. The stones were too hot to be held in the naked hand. In the year 1866 Marshal Bazaine found in Mexico a meteoric stone weighing nearly a ton. In June of the same year nearly a thousand meteoric stones fell in Hungary, one of them weighing more than a quarter of a ton. In this instance also a luminous meteor was seen, which exploded with a great noise. The British Museum contains a large and valuable collection of meteoric fragments."

ANNIE. "You have spoken of a connection between meteors and comets. Can you tell us, please, what the connection is ? "

"I cannot; for it is not known. This much is known: that the November meteors travel in the same orbit as a small comet, and that the large group of meteors accompany the comet, some of them going before it, but the greater number following after. The August meteors are also associated with a very fine comet, the one called Donati's Comet, which appeared in 1858. Most astronomers now believe that every system of meteors is, or has been, attached in some way to a comet, and that every comet has a system of meteors attached to it; but what is the nature of that attachment they do not know."

HERBERT. "Then if the earth should come in contact with a comet, though it might not be injured by the gaseous comet itself, would it not be likely to suffer from the solid meteors which seem to accompany comets?"

"If the meteors were small ones, the only result would be a magnificent display like the November shower; but if they were large ones, it would perhaps be somewhat unpleasant for a thickly-populated country like England to be on that side of the earth which would be exposed to such a 'baptism of fire.'”

BERTHA. "Is it known whether the meteors are of any use or not ?"

"Doubtless they have a use; but what that use is, whence they come, and whither they go, we know not; yet many men of thought believe them to be the means by which the sun is sustained-that he attracts them to feed his own fires. Whatever their use is, their immense numbers and orderly movements fill us with admiration and wonder at the mighty power and unsearchable wisdom of God."