April to the fifteenth magnitude. So short was the star's day of glory. We commenced our observations of its spectrum on February 2. The spectrum showed a brilliant array of bright lines, conspicuous among which were the wellknown lines of hydrogen, and three lines in the green. A remarkable phenomenon was seen; each bright line seemed to cast a shadow, for on the blue side of each was a narrow space of intense blackness. When the light from a hydrogen vacuum tube was thrown into the spectroscope, the bydrogen line at F did not fall upon the middle of the bright stellar line, but towards the blue edge. The secret was revealed; we had a magnificent example, on a great scale, of motions in the line of sight. Two mighty masses of hydrogen fleeing from each other, the hotter one which emitted the bright lines going from us, while the cooler one, producing the dark shadows by absorption, approached us, with a relative velocity as great as five hundred and fifty miles a second. It would be out of place here to describe the spectrum in any detail; it may suffice to say that we were sure that the spectrum of the star showed no relationship to that of the bright-lined nebulæ, nor to the usual hydro-carbon spectrum of comets. Its general features suggested rather a state of things similar to the erupted solar surface. This view was confirmed by a photograph of its spectrum which we took with a mirror of speculum metal and a spectroscope with a prism of Iceland spar and lenses of quartz, so that the extreme violet part of the star's light was not cut off by passing through glass. The fainter continuous spectrum and the brilliant lines were found to extend upon the plate nearly as far as does the light of Sirius, and not far short of the place where our atmosphere stops all celestial light. The whole range of the hydrogen lines, including the ultra-violet series present in the white stars and H and K, were bright as they show themselves occasionally reversed in photographs of the solar prominences, and each accompanied by a line of absorption. A remarkable feature of great significance in the character of the hydrogen lines, bright and dark, must be noticed. They appeared to be sometimes double and sometimes triple- the dark ones as if by fine bright threads superposed upon themand, indeed, to be subject to continual change. Now when on the sun's surface, or in the laboratory, portions of the same gas at different temperatures come in before each other, the cooler gas may cause a narrow absorption line to form upon a broader bright line, and thus impart to it the appearance of a double line; or in the case of hotter gas, a narrow bright line upon a dark line. Professors Liveing and Dewar, whose researches with the electric arc-crucible have made them specially familiar with the ever-changing guises and disguises of this Protean phenomenon of reversal, as it is called, have recorded cases not only of double reversals giving apparent triplicity to a single line, but even of threefold reversals. The unsymmetrical division of bright and dark lines, which was occasionally seen in the spectrum of the nova, frequently presents itself in the laboratory, in consequence of the unequal expansion on the two sides of the line on which the reversed line falls. Unless we accept this obvious interpretation of the multiple character of the stellar lines, we should have to assume a system of at least six bodies all moving with different velocities. It is important to state that the waning of the star appeared to produce no material alteration of its spectrum, but only such apparent changes as necessarily come in when parts of an object differ greatly in brightness. On March 24th, when the star's light had fallen so low as to about the eleventh magnitude, we could still glimpse the faint continuous spectrum, upon which the remarkable quartet of bright lines still shone out without any change of relative intensity. Professor Pickering informs me that in his photographs the principal lines in that part of the spectrum "faded in the order, K, H, a, F, h, and G, the latter becoming brighter as star was faint." Omitting the calcium lines H and K, which varied, the order of disappearance agrees with that of the sensitiveness of the plate for these parts of the spectrum, and supports the view that the star's spectrum remained without material change through this great range of magnitude. How are we to account for the appearance and doings of this new star, or rather stars? For, as we have seen, the great shifts of the bright and dark lines, the bright to the red, the dark to the blue, clearly indicate two bodies having a relative motion in the line of sight of about five hundred and fifty miles a second. Now, during the whole time, some seven weeks, that the spectrum was under observation, this relative velocity was maintained materially unaltered, though small changes beyond the reach of our instru on 价 In such a state of things we should have, in the existence of portions of the same gas at different levels and temperatures, conditions so favorable for the production of reversed lines undergoing continual change, similar to those exhib. ited by the lines of the nova, that we could not suppose them to be absent. The integration of light from all parts of the disturbed surfaces of the bodies might give breadth to the lines, and might account for the varying irregularities of intensity of different parts of the lines. ments may have taken place. A reason- | interior of the bodies to give rise to enorable explanation may perhaps be found, mous eruptions of the hotter matter from thes if we venture to assume, though with some within, immensely greater but similar in hesitation, as the subject is very obscure, kind to solar eruptions. two gaseous bodies, or bodies with gaseous atmospheres, moving away from each other after a near approach in parabolic or hyperbolic orbits. If our sun were nearly in the line of axis of the orbits, the components of the motions of the two bodies in the line of sight after the bodies had swung round, might well be as rapid and remain relatively as unchanged as those observed in the new star. Unfortunately, decisive information from the motions of the two bodies at the critical time of the outburst is wanting, for the event through which the star became bright had been The source of the light of the continuover for some forty days before observa- ous spectrum, upon which were seen the tions were made with the spectroscope. dark lines of absorption shifted towards Analogy from the variable stars of long the blue, must have remained behind the period would suggest the view that the cooler absorbing gas; indeed must have near approach of the two bodies may have formed with it the body which was apbeen of the nature of a periodical disturb-proaching us, unless we assume that ance arising at long intervals in a complex system of bodies. Chandler has recently shown in the case of Algol that the minor irregularities in the variation of The difference of state between the its light are probably caused by the pres- two bodies, as shown by the receding one ence of one or more bodies in the system emitting bright lines, while the approachbesides the bright star and the dusky one ing body behaved similarly to a white star which partially eclipses it. To a similar in giving a continuous spectrum with cause are probably due the minor irregu- broad absorption lines, may perhaps be larities which form so prominent a feature accounted for by the two bodies being in in the waxing and waning of the variable different evolutionary stages, and differing stars as a class. We know, too, that the consequently in diffuseness and in temstellar orbits are usually very eccentric.perature. We appear, indeed, to have a In the case of y Virginis, the eccentricity is as great as o'9, and Auwers has recently found Sirius to have the considerable eccentricity of 0.63. A But a casual near approach of two bodies of great size would be a greatly less improbable event than an actual collision. The phenomena of the new star scarcely permit us to suppose even a partial collision, though if the bodies were diffused enough, or the approach close enough, there may have been possibly some mutual interpenetration and mingling of the rare gases near their boundaries. An explanation which would better accord with what we know of the behavior of the nova may, perhaps, be found in a view put forward many years ago by Klinkerfues and recently developed by Wilsing, that under such circumstances of near approach enormous tidal disturb ances would be set up, amounting, it may be, to partial deformation in the case of a gaseous body, and producing sufficiently great changes of pressure in the both bodies were moving exactly in the line of sight, or that the absorbing gas was of very enormous extent. similar state of things in the variable star ß Lyræ, of which one component star gives bright lines, and the other a spectrum with dark lines of absorption. In the case of the nova, we must assume a similar chemical nature for both bodies, and that they existed under conditions sufficiently similar for equivalent dark and bright lines to appear in their respective spectra. We know nothing of the distance of the nova from our system, but the assumption is not an improbable one, that it was as far away from us as the nova of 1876, for which Sir Robert Ball failed to find any parallax. If this be so, the emission of light suddenly set up in the very faint stars, certainly within two days, and possibly, as in the case of the nova of 1866, within a few hours, was much greater than the light emitted by our sun. Yet within some fifty days after its discovery at the end of January, its light fell to about the one-three-hundredth part, and in some three months to the one-ten-thousandth part. So long as its spectrum could be observed, the chief features remained un- | fact, covering the dust of the Poet; the changed. Under what conditions could Figure itself standing at the head of the we suppose the sun to cool down suffi- grave, against the wall. - And so enough ciently for its light to decrease to a similar of it; and may the poor little Package extent in so short a time, and without the arrive safe, and kindly bring me before incurring of material changes in the solar you again! spectrum? It is, therefore, scarcely conceivable that we have to do with the conversion of gravitational energy into light and heat. On the view we have ventured to suggest, the rapid calming down, after some swayings to and fro of the tidal disturbances, and the closing in again of the outer and cooler gases, together with the want of transparency which often comes in under such circumstances, might account reasonably for the very rapid, and at first curiously fluctuating, waning of the nova, as well as for the want of change in its spectrum. I have been silent this long while, only hearing of you from third parties; the more is the pity for me. In fact, I have not been well; travelling, too, in Scotland, in Ireland; much tumbled about by mani fold confusions outward and inward; and have, on the whole, been silent to all the world; silent till clearer days should come. I have still no fixed work; noth ing in the dark chaos that it could seem beautiful to conquer and do; - no work to write at; and as for reading, alas that has become, and is ever more becoming, a most sorry business for me; and often enough I feel as if Caliph Omar, long ago, was pretty much in the right after all; as if there might be worse feats than burning whole continents of rhetorical, logical historical, philosophical jangle, and insin cere obsolete rubbish, out of one's way; and leaving some living God's-message, real Koran or" Thing worth reading" in its stead! These are my heterodoxies, my paradoxes of which too I try to know the limits. But in very deed I do expect from the region of Silence some salvation for myself and others; not from the region of Speech, of written or Oral Babblement, unless that latter very much alter soon! Cant has filled the whole universe,- - from LETTERS OF CARLYLE TO VARNHAGEN Nadir up to Zenith, — God deliver us! The writer may be permitted to state that the view suggested by Dr. Allen Miller and himself in the case of the nova of 1866, was so far similar that they ascribed its outbursts to erupted gases, but with our present knowledge of the light-changes of stars, the writer would now hesitate to make the further suggestion that chemical action may have contributed to its sudden and transient splendor. WILLIAM HUGGINS. From The New Review. VON ENSE. Chelsea, London: Decr. 16, 1846. T. CARLYLE. Preuss's "Friedrich " has not yet reached hither, except through private MY DEAR SIR, Yesterday there went channels; but I mean to make an effort from Mr. Nutt's shop, imbedded, I sup- for sight of it by and by. I have the old pose, in a soft mass of English Litera-"Euvres de Frédéric " beside me here; ture, a small box bearing your address; but without chronology and perpetual which I hope may reach you safely, in commentary they are entirely illegible.time for a New-year's remembrance of me." Zinzendorf" received long since, and It is a model of the Tomb of Shakespeare, read: thanks! - Yours ever truly, done by an ingenious little artist here; which may perhaps interest you or some of your friends, for a moment. I under. stand the likeness in all respects to be nearly perfect, which indeed is the sole merit of such a thing; a perfect copy of the old monument, as it stands within Stratford Church for these two centuries and more-only with regard to that part of the Inscription, "Sweet friends, for Jesus' sake," &c. to these lines, which in the model have found room for themselves directly under the Figure of Shakespeare, you are to understand that, in the original, they lay on the floor of the Church, some three feet in advance of the Figure; in Chelsea, London: March 3, 1847. MY DEAR SIR, Some ten days ago your new volume of "Denkwürdigkeiten" was safely handed in to me; I fancy it must have been delayed among the ice of the Elbe, for the note accompanying it bears date a good while back. Thanks for this new kindness ; a valued Gift, to be counted with very many other which I now owe to you. Some time before, there had arrived your announcement that the little Tomb of Shakespeare had made its way across the impediments and, what was very welcome to me, that you meant et to show it to Herr Tiek. Surely, there is | be excited and ever anew excited, till it also do no man in all the world that deserves bet- had to kindle and flame along with him. eter to see it! Will you say to him, if he "Kerle, Ihr sehet aus wie Schweine!" Pa knows my name at all, that I send him my and then these scenes, as at Katztadt, baffectionate respects and salutations; that," Napoleon just behind me, say you?" or for the last twenty years and more, he has flourished always in my mind as a true es noble "Singing-Tree" in that German land of Phantasus and Poesis, that I, and very many here, still listen to him with the friendliest regards, with true love and revdaerence, and bid him live long as a veteran alt very precious to us. Your king did no act sh that got him more votes from the instructed x;part of this Community, than that of his recalling Tiek in the way he did, to a wcountry where he was indeed unique, and that which had good reason to be proud of ig him. to the enthusiastic Public on the streets of Halberstadt, "So mögt Ihr denn alle -!"—I have laughed aloud at such naivetes, every time they have come into my mind since. Thanks again and again for painting us such pictures, a real possession for all men. Of my own affairs I can report no alteration hitherto. I remain contentedly idle; shall doubtless feel a call to work again by and by, but wait unbeschreiblich ruhig (as Attila Schmelze has it) for that ques tionable consummation! I am very seri. ous in my ever deepening regard for the quite unheeded in these poor days; and Chelsea, London: Nov. 5, 1847. d I have read the new volume of "Denk-" Silences" that are in our Existence, würdigkeiten;" and am veritably called to thank you, not in my private capacity alone, but as a speaker for the Public log withal. If the Public thought as I do on disuch matters, that is to say, if the Public were not more or less a blockhead - the Public would say to itself, "This is the kind of thing that before all others is good dt for me at present! This, to give me an account of memorable actions and events, MY DEAR SIR, -It is a long time since in more and more compact, intelligent, I heard from you; a long time since I illuminative form, evolving for me more wrote to you, a still longer indeed; so and more the real essence of said ac- that, however I may regret, there is no tions and events,- this is Literature, Art, room for complaining: it is my own blame! Poetry, or what name you like to give it; Your last letter found me in Yorkshire; this is the real problem the writing-man wandering about the country, as I long has to solve for me, at present." Truly if continued to do, in the brightest Autumn I had command over you, I should say, weather; I did not get the Schiller book "Memoirs, and ever new Memoirs!" into actual possession till my return home, There are no books that give me so lively some little while ago; when I found there an impression of modern Facts as these had a second volume also arrived. Many of yours do. Withal I get a view as if kind thanks to you for such a Gift. For into the very heart of Prussia through its own worth, and for sake of the Giver, them; which also is highly valuable to it is right welcome to me. I finished the me. I can only bid you persevere, give second volume last night; my most interus what is possible; and must reflect with esting book for many months past; in regret that one man's capabilities in such great haste, I send you forthwith a word of respect are limited and not unlimited.- hasty acknowledgment:-in great eagerLast week too I have read with the live-ness for the Sequel too! The book does liest interest your book on "Blücher," not say who is Editor; have not You yourwhich I had not sufficiently studied before. A Capital Book; a capital rough old Prussian Mastiff set forth to us there! I seem to see old Blücher face to face; recognize bis supreme and indispensable worth in that vast heterogeneous Combination, which also to him was indispensable; for in a common element, one sees, he might very easily have spent himself, as hundreds like him have done, to comparatively small purpose; but that huge, inert mass was always there to fall back upon, to VOL. LXXIX. 4083 LIVING AGE. self perhaps some hand in it? Whoever the Editor may be, the whole world is bound to thank him. Never before did one see Schiller; the authentic homely Prose Schiller, out of whom the Hero Schiller as seen in Poetry and on the Public Stage hitherto, had to fashion himself and grow! And truly, as you say, they are one and the same. For the veracity, and real unconscious manliness of this poor, hungry Schiller of Prose, fighting his battle with the confusion of were the world, are everywhere admirable. No | ally had some image of you kept lurid cant in him; no weak sentimentalism; he and vivid in our circle here. Forgive my has recognized the rugged fact in all its silence silence is not good altogether, contradictoriness; looks round, with rapid, when there are kind hearts that will listen eager eye, upon his various milk-cows of and reply! The advent of the New Year finance, "This one will yield me so much, admonishes me that I should open my that so much, and I shall get through leaden lips, and speak once more, after all!" and is climbing towards the it but as Odin's Prophetess, from the belly Ideal, all the while, by an impulse as if of the Grave! In the language of the from the Gods. Throughout I recollected season, I wish you a right brave New that portrait you sent me; with its big Year, and as many of them as your heart jaws, loose lips, hasty, eager eyes, - all as can still victoriously port in such a world. in loose onset and advance, "Forward! Courage! En avant! I will start up Forward!" Poor Schiller, there is some- too, some day, and march along with you thing that one loves extremely in that again, I doubt not. ragged, careless aspect of him; true to the very heart: a veritable Brother and Man! Körner too I hear universally recognized as a Tüchtiger; full of sense, of friendly candor and fidelity: it is rarely that one reads such a Correspondence between two modern men. Thanks to you all for giving it to us; thanks to you individually for sending it me at once. I would fain send you some news of myself; but alas, that is a very waste Chapter, not fit for entering upon to-day! I have no work on hand that can be named; I feel only that the whole world of England, of Europe, grows daily full of new meanings, which it well beseems all persons of intelligence to try if they can read and speak. For the rest, I am very solitary; by choice and industry, keep solitary the world here, especially the world of "Literature" so called, is not my world. In fact I begin very greatly to despise the thing they call "Literature," -and to envy the active ages that had none of it. A waste sea of vocables what salvation is there in that? Ranke's failure does not surprise me: If I were a Prussian or even German, I would decidedly try Friedrich. Adieu my dear Sir: be kind and write again soon. Yours ever truly, T. CARLYLE. Some weeks ago your little Pamphlet on the question of German Unity (Schlichte Reden) came to me, a welcome little word, which I read with entire assent. This was your message hitherward; and now, the other day, I despatched for you a little old Book of mine which they have been republishing here; a book of no moment; which probably you already have received: let this be a small memento from me, when you look upon it. Whether I shall ever write another book in this world has often seemed uncertain to me of late; but I believe I shall have to try it again before long, or else do worse! What a year we have had since February last! The universal breaking down of old rotten thrones, and bursting up of street-barricades; enfuriated Sansculot tism everywhere starting up, and glaring like a world-basilisk into the empty WanWan that pretended to be a god to it. "What art thou, accursed contemptibility of a Wan-Wan?" It is to me the most sordid, scandalous, and dismal sight the world ever offered in my time; and if there were not in the dark womb of that "abomination of desolation" a ray of eternal light for me, I should think (like poor Niebuhr) the universe was going out, and pray for my own share, "From Chelsea: Decr. 29, 1848. me hide it!" But withal I discern well, MY DEAR SIR, — It is a long sad time none more loyally. It is a sacred phe since I have written to you, or could ex-nomenon, a fulfilment of the eternal proph pect to hear any word directly from you: ecies, the beginning of a new birth of the for indeed I have been, and still am, in an world. A general "bankruptcy of Imaltogether inarticulate condition; writing posture " (so I define it); Imposture, long to nobody; in the highest degree indis- known by the wise for what it was, is posed to writing or uttering of myself in now known and declared for such to the any kind! You do not doubt but many foolish at the market-cross, and admits kind thoughts and remembrances have openly that it is a bankrupt piece of scancrossed the sea to you, all this while; nor dalism, and requests only time to gather do we want evidence of the like on your up its rags, and walk away unhanged. part; nay, from Miss Wynne and other- How can I lament at this? Dismal, wise, we have pretty accurately known abominable as the sight is, I cannot but how you were going on, and have gener-intrinsically rejoice at it. And yet what |