NEWS FROM HERSCHEL S PLANET. 133 



eldest of his sons on one side of him, and his second 

 son on the other. Bode at length suggested the name 

 of Uranus, the most ancient of the deities ; and as 

 Saturn, the father of Jupiter, travels on a wider orbit 

 than Jupiter, so it was judged fitting that an even wider 

 orbit than Saturn s should be adjudged to Jupiter s 

 grandfather. In accepting the name of Uranus for the 

 new planet, astronomers seemed to assert a belief that 

 no planet would be found to travel on a yet wider path ; 

 and accordingly when a more distant planet was dis 

 covered, the suggestion of Prosperin had to be recon 

 sidered; but it was too late to change the accepted 

 nomenclature, and accordingly the younger brother of 

 Jupiter has had assigned to him a planet circling out 

 side the paths of the planets assigned to their father and 

 grandfather. It may be noted, also, that a more appro 

 priate name for the new planet would have been Ccelus, 

 since all the other planets have received the Latin 

 names of the deities. 



Herschel himself proposed another name. As Gralileo 

 had called the satellites of Jupiter the Medicean planets, 

 while French astronomers proposed to call the spots on 

 the sun the Bourbonian stars, so Herschel, grateful for 

 the kindness which he had received at the hands of 

 George III., proposed that the new planet should be 

 called Greorgium Sidus. On account of the interest 

 attaching to all Herschel s remarks respecting his dis 

 covery, I quote in full the letter in which he submitted 

 this proposition to Sir Joseph Banks, then the President 

 of the Eoyal Society. By the observations of the most 



