sandth part of its present amount, the quantity of heat that would be available in consequence of this contraction would suffice to provide the entire radiation for a period of 2,000 years. Such a diminution of the sun's bulk would be altogether too small to be perceptible by the most refined measurements that we can make in the observatory. Hence we are able to understand how the prodigious radiation of the sun during all the centuries of history can be accounted for without any alteration in the dimensions of the great luminary having yet become appreciable.
But there is a boundary to the prospect of the continuance of the sun's radiation. Of course, as the loss of heat goes on, the gaseous parts will turn into liquids, and as the process is still further protracted, the liquids will transform into solids. Thus we look forward to a time when the radiation of the sun can be no longer carried on in conformity with the laws which dictate the loss of heat from a gaseous body. When this state is reached the sun may, no doubt, be an incandescent solid with a brilliance as great as is compatible with that condition, but the further loss of heat will then involve loss of temperature.
At the present time the body may be so far gaseous that the temperature of the sun remains absolutely constant. It may even be the case that the temperature of the sun, notwithstanding the undoubted loss of heat, is absolutely rising. It is, however, incontrovertible that a certain maximum temperature having been reached (whether we have yet reached it or not we do not know), temperature will then necessarily decline. There is certainly no doubt whatever that the sun, which is now losing heat, even if not actually falling in temperature, must at some
