"Rejlt^ions on the new Vianet. Cx 



Icafc publiclv^ mentioned, about forty years ago by the im- 

 mortal Lambert. In hrs Cofmological Letters on the Uni- 

 verfe, which a^ipeared at Augfburg in 1761 *j the following 

 remarkabk- paflage occurs, tovvards^the end of the firft letter : 

 *' And who knows whether fome planets may not be loft, 

 from the wide fpace between Mars and Jupiter ?" This idea 

 was no doubt fuggeftcd to Lambert by comparing the dif- 

 ferent diltances of fhe planets; and he muft foon have found 

 that the dillance between Mars and Jupiter is too great in 

 proportion to the reft. To fill up this vacancy he pfaced in 

 It a new primary planet ; and as it had not 'been obfer\'ed 

 during the courfe of two centuries, that Is, fince the inven- 

 tion of the tclefcope, he fuppofes it to have been torn from 

 the powerful influence of the fun by a deftruftive comet, 

 round which it revolves in infinite fpace as a fatellite; and 

 concludes with this obfervation: << Is the cafe the fame 

 among the celeftial bodies as on the earth, that the ftronger 

 exterminate the weaker; and, are Jupiter and Saturn deftined 

 merely to prey upon others ?" 



_ What might tend more and more to confirm aftronomers 

 m the idea of the exiftence of fuch a planet, was a certain 

 relation which they had obferved in regard to the diftances of 

 the fix primary planets from the fun, and which was con- 

 firmed, in an unexnefted manner, by a feventh primary 

 planet beyond the orbit of Saturn difcovered by Dr. Herfche'I 

 in 1781. This remarkable relation was fIrft adopted by pro- 

 felTor Bode in the fecond edition of his Introduftion to the 

 Knowledge of the Starry Heavens, publiOied in 1772, from 

 profefTor Tilius's tranflation of Bonnet's Contemplation de la 

 Nature, Amft. 1764. To reprefent this relation by fmall num- 

 bers, which can be eafily compared if the diftance of Saturn 

 from the fun be divided into 100 equal parts, the diftances 

 of the planets from the fun in fuch parts will be as follows : 



1. Mercury - 4 fach parts from the q 



2. Venus - 4-1-3 = 7 



3. Earth - - 4-1-2. 3 = 10 



4. Mars - - 4-f-a.a.3 = i5 



5. Hera or Juno 4 + 2.2.2.3 — ^^ 



6. Jupiter - 4-1-2.2.2.2.3 = 52 



7. Saturn - - 4 + 2.2.2.2.2.3 = 106 

 U.Uranus - 4 4- 2 .2 . 2 . 2 . 2 . 2 .3 = 196, &c. &c. 

 or more generally the «"' planet, reckoning from the fun, is 



*" A French trandafion of thefc Itturs, by Darquier of Touloufc, wa» 

 printed ;.t Atnftwd.im in iKci by IluMl v^n Kciilen, with notes relptfling 

 the Irn-k dilloverics by J. M.'C. Utc-iihove, of Utrecht. This tditioa 

 i*at undtrtaktn in uonfci^ucncc of my rcconuncndation. 



diftant 



