Such was the La-Voisin trial, which set so many racks in motion, which swelled so many bodies (that of the Duchesse de la Ferté among them) to bursting with the water-torture and crushed so many legs in the boot, which bound so many culprits to the stake of fire, strung so many bodies on gibbets, cut off not a few heads and a goodly number of hands with the axe, and filled so many of the prisons of France with tenants. It decidedly purified society; yet, according to Madame de Maintenon, writing later, things continued still to be bad enough : "What do we see here but assassinations in cold blood, envy without reason, perfidy and betrayals without cause of anger, insatiable avarice, discontent in the midst of good-fortune, basenesses which pass as greatness of soul ?" "Almost every man here would exterminate relatives and friends for the sake of speaking one word more to the king."

Let those who doubt of the progress of morality look into the LaVoisin affair, and compare it mentally with the late trial. But yet, after all, the turpitude, wickedness, and sacrilege of the criminals of the Chambre Ardente are sufficiently diabolic and tragic to redeem the affair from that vulgarity which Michelet informs us is fast bringing all things to a level (la vulgarité prevaudra), and which was conspicuous enough in the Rachel case; while the chief of the great band of empoisonneuses was at least a grand Locusta of raging impiety and ferocious courage, and both Brinvilliers and she were as great in their lines as the heroines of Corneille in theirs.

W. STIGAND.

SENSATIONALISM IN SCIENCE

Autocracy of the Sun.

ONCE upon a time, when Man was still young, Earth, this world of ours, was thought to be the centre of the universe-the prime part of Creation, to which all the others were subordinate. All the sparkling effulgent orbs circling in the surrounding sky seemed, even to the early Greeks, to rise from the bed of earth's engirdling sea, and, after making their daily circuit of the heavens, to quench their starry fires at eve in the waters of Ocean. Sun, planets, and stars alike were thought to be subsidiary orbs or discs,-mere lamps, in short, for illuminating our world. The Sun was a chariot of light driven by Phoebus across the vault of sky, drawn by fiery coursers; the Moon was his sister, a "palefaced maiden with white fire laden;" and the planets and stars, though endowed with a life and personality which (somewhat rashly?) we deny to them now, were but wandering lights of no account save as accessories of earthly existence.

We have changed all this now. We know better. We recognise the somewhat humbling truth that our world is a mere speck in creation, surrounded by a countless host of orbs immensely larger and more powerful. In truth, Astronomy is the most humbling of all the sciences. Its very essence is humiliation for the proud thoughts of vain man. In other sciences, the more we know, the greater we pride ourselves,the higher seems to rise our place in creation. But in astronomy, advancing knowledge is but an increasing revelation of the vastness of the surrounding universe, and of the mighty Existences for ever circling in shining courses through space, compared with which Earth is but as a tiny pebble among the boulders of the sea-shore. And if this be the case of Earth, then what is Man, her puny denizen, but as a mere dust-grain in the universe, his presence or absence alike unnoted and uncared for by the host of vast worlds ever rolling through space in their shining circling courses? The astronomer of the present day must echo the thought of the inspired Singer of Israel, who had often watched by night on the hills of Judea, as, contrasting our littleness with the greatness of Jehovah's care, he exclaimed: "When I consider the Heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the Stars, which Thou hast ordained,-What is Man, that Thou art mindful of him!”

All this is true. Nevertheless, as regards the Solar System-the tiny circlet of orbs of which earth is a member-have we not gone a little too far in the new and true path? Science now, and ever since Copernicus struck the new light, regards the Sun as an Autocrat, upon

VOL. VII.

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