MAES PLANETOIDS JUPITER SATURN URANUS NEPTUNE. 103 



at less than sixty thousand millions of square miles, which is about three hundred times 

 the surface of the globe. The niind can only imperfectly embrace this vastness of 

 territory; yet it is but as a province to an empire when compared with a single object 

 in the system the Sun. The solar surface comprises an area of nearly 2^ billions 

 of square miles, the planetary surface being in proportion to it as -fa, and the terrestrial 

 surface as TITSTT- Situated in a forest containing 12,350 trees, a single tree would be 

 lost in the aggregate; but we must imagine a tree placed by the side of another 12,350 

 times larger, in order to form a proximate idea of the comparative extent of the terrestrial 

 and solar surfaces. Regarding the earth as a very small pea, a circle would be required 

 of 1 1 inches diameter to represent the relative size of the sun. In its solid bulk, the 

 solar globe is equal to five hundred times the volume of the planets, and to nearly 1^ mil 

 lion such worlds as ours. 



The extent of space occupied by the orbits of the planets is no less astonishing than the 

 stateliness of some of their dimensions. At the railroad speed of fifty miles an hour, an 

 individual would accomplish the journey over the longest tract of land in the old world, 

 from the coast of Senegal to that of Kamschatka, in ten days. But it would require a 

 period of 430 years to proceed in a direct line from one extremity of the earth's 

 orbit to another, at the same rate of motion ; and this is but a trifling span when 

 compared with the diameters of some of the other planetary orbits. If a vehicle had been 

 set in motion at the commencement of the Christian era, and had incessantly kept up the 

 velocity mentioned, it would not yet have performed half its passage across the orbit of 

 Saturn ; or if one had begun a similar pilgrimage at the same rate across the orbit of 

 Uranus when Adam was in paradise, it would yet be far away from its goal. Suppose 

 an inch employed to represent the earth's distance of 95 millions of miles from the centre 

 of the system, 19 inches will be required to express the proportionate distance of Uranus, 

 and 30 inches that of Neptune, its visible boundary. Views of extensiveness thus break in 

 upon us which are perfectly inappreciable and confounding. Of a mile, or ten miles, or a 

 hundred miles, we can form a distinct conception, because these are spaces which we 

 often travel over ; and a person who has sailed across the Atlantic will be able to enter 

 tain a commensurate idea of one, two, or three thousand miles. But when millions are 

 brought before us, we have an extent to grapple with, which so far transcends that of the 

 scenes of terrestrial locomotion as to defy our mental grasp to embrace the distance. 

 We can only approximate to an adequate notion of the real range of the planetary uni 

 verse by calculation upon a reduced scale. Thus, if the metropolis be taken to represent 

 the site of the sun, and one mile a million, the orbit of Mercury will be a circle passing 

 within the neighbourhood of Rochester and Bedford, while that of Neptune will embrace 

 the whole of Europe, and pass northwards beyond the pole, southward below the equator, 

 westward to North America, and eastward into Asia. The area occupied by the system to 

 which we belong is thus stupendous. To form a conception of its amplitude, worthy of it, 

 is at present beyond the scope of our faculties. Yet our further inquiries will show this 

 area to be but a small department of the creation, as small, when compared with the visible 

 regions of the universe, as a few yards of rock peeping up above the surface of the waves 

 to the broad expanse of the Pacific ! 



Some general considerations suggested by the aspect of the planetary system will now 

 be appropriate. 



It is impossible to contemplate physical nature without perceiving identical features in 

 its home and foreign regions. In the arrangements of our own globe the evidences of 

 uniform plan are emphatic, indicating the presence and operation of one Intelligence and 

 Will in its construction. Passing from the bounds of our own island, we discover in 

 every region through the length and breadth of the earth's surface, similar classes of 



