■ RcyfleSlions on the new Vianet. yy 



^Tanv no doubt will confider the tail which, according to 

 jSIelfier's exprefs obfervalion *, attended the comet of 1770, 

 as a proof that it could not be a planet. But, is it proved 

 that planets cannot have a tail ? We have planets with fa- 

 tellitts, and others without thefe attendants ; why therefore 

 fliould there not be planets with tails, to prove, in a vlfible 

 manner, that thev are nothing elfe than planets ? This dif- 

 ference in the appellation originated in the periods of igno- 

 rance, and muft now be admitted into our language to di- 

 ilinguifli thofe bodies, the appearance of which is of fhorter 

 duration, and which do not remain viiible throughout their 

 whole orbit t, from thofe which are always viiible, except 

 when they approach too near to the fun. The circumftance 

 which feems to be peculiar onlv to comets, that fome of them 

 move retrograde, while all the planets move direct, is only 

 apparent. The reader is referred to the explanation which 

 Laplace and Lalande have given of this point in regard to 

 the retrograde fatellites of Uranus %• Lalande fays the word 

 retrograde inipofes by itsexpreffion, but in reality is nothing. 

 Kant, in his Allg. Nat. und Theor'ic dcs Himmels, original 

 edition, publKhed in 1755, conjeftared that the retrograde 

 motion of fome comets might be only an optical illufion, 

 like that of the geocentric motion of the planets. 



£verv newly difcovered objeft mull have a new appella- 

 tion. Though a name in itfelf is of no great importance, we 

 have fecn in regard to Uranus how difficult it is for all man- 

 kind, from the Thames to the Neva, to be unanimous in 

 this rei'ped. If the liar lately difcovered by Piazzi be reallv 

 the fuppofed planet between Mars and Jupiter, a great and 

 auguft patron of aftronomy, the founder ot the obfervatory of 

 Seeberg, gave it, in my opinion, a very appropriate name 

 fifteen years ago. Uranus has afforded us a ftrong right, on 

 the fcore of uniformity, to aflign to this new planet, as has 

 been the cafe with the old ones, a name borrowed from the 

 heathen mythology. The duke of Gotha propofed, therefore, 

 that of Hera, "H^a, or of the deity Ityled by the Romans 

 Juno, the daughter of Saturn, and the filler and wife of 

 Jupiter § : Jupiter therefijre would have his father and grand- 

 father above him, and his wife and children below him. 



• Mom. dc Paris J776. p. 597- 



t The new jjlanet, perhaps, li not vifiblt in apogeuni, as already ob- 

 ftrvttl. 



♦ Allgem. Gcograph. Fphemerid. vol. ii. p. 170 and 259. Sec ahl> 

 Liplacc's Hxp'ijit. du ^)Jlimf du Monde, p. -^4.2. 



§ Called alio Suluruiu. The dake at firll propofed Rhea, the wife of 

 Saturn i but thn name \vni already been applied to the Earth. 



The 



