Perchance, through the effects of some unforeseen perturbation, the earth might encounter that swarm.

Thus only could I ever return to the bosom of my mother planet.

I took a positive pleasure in imagining that one of my calcined bones might eventually flash for a moment, a falling star, in the atmosphere of the earth, leaving its atoms to slowly settle through the air, until finally they rested in the soil from which they had sprung.
From such reflections I was aroused by the approach of the crisis.

The head of the comet had become an exceedingly uncomfortable place.

The collisions among the meteors were constantly increasing in number and violence.