196 BOOK OF THE DAMNED 



objects of July 29, 1878, stand out and proclaim themselves so that 

 nothing but disregard of the intensity of mono-mania can account 

 for their reception by the system: 



Or the total eclipse of July 29, 1878, and the reports by Prof. 

 Watson, from Rawlins, Wyoming, and by Prof. Swift, from Denver, 

 Colorado: that they had seen two shining objects at a considerable 

 distance from the sun. 



It's quite in accord with our general expression: not that there is 

 an Intra-Mercurial plapet, but that there are different bodies, many 

 vast things; near this earth sometimes, near the sun sometimes; 

 orbitless worlds, which, because of scarcely any data of collisions, 

 we think of as under navigable control or dirigible super-construc- 

 tions. 



Prof. Watson and Prof. Swift published their observations. 



Then the disregard that we can not think of in terms of ordinary, 

 sane exclusions. 



The text-book systematists begin by telling us that the trouble 

 with these observations is that they disagree widely: there is con- 

 siderable respectfulness, especially for Prof. Swift, but we are told 

 that by coincidence these two astronomers, hundreds of miles apart, 

 were illuded: their observations were so different 



Prof. Swift (Nature, Sept. 19, 1878): 



That his own observation was "in close approximation to that 

 given by Prof. Watson." 



In the Observatory, 2-161, Swift says that his observations and 

 Watson's were "confirmatory of each other." 



The faithful try again: 



That Watson and Swift mistook stars for other bodies. 



In the Observatory, 2-193, Prof. Watson says that he had pre- 

 viously committed to memory all stars near the sun, down to the 

 seventh magnitude " 



And he's damned anyway. 



How such exclusions work out is shown by Lockyer (Nature, 

 Aug. 20, 1878). He says: "There is little doubt that an Intra- 

 Mercurial planet has been discovered by Prof. Watson." 



That was before excommunication was pronounced. 



He says: 



"If it will fit one of Leverrier's orbits" 



It didn't fit. 



In Nature, 21-301, Prof. Swift says: 



