60 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



we could not perceive, were of like nature, that the 

 infinitely wonderful scene we had just beheld was thus 

 infinitely multiplied throughout the infinite universe 

 of the Almighty. 



(From the Cornhill Magazine for March 1872). 



A VOYAGE TO THE RINGED PLANET. 



AT midnight on the 9th of July 1872, Saturn being at 

 the time due south and not far above the horizon, we 

 set forth on our voyage across the depths of space which 

 separate this earth from the Einged Planet. The 

 voyage we were now undertaking was of far greater 

 extent than that to the sun which I have already 

 described. Nearly nine times as far we were to travel, 

 and that not towards the glorious centre whence light 

 and heat are dispersed to the members of the planetary 

 scheme, but to regions where his influence is diminished 

 a hundredfold, where for aught that we as yet knew, an 

 unendurable degree of cold may prevail, and where life 

 must exist under conditions altogether different from 

 those with which we were familiar. Yet I must confess 

 that, deeply as I had been interested when we set forth 

 on our journey to the sun, I was yet more interested on 

 this occasion. Wonderful are the mysteries of the sun, 

 stupendous his bulk and might, past conception his 

 glory ; yet the human sympathies are more directly 

 affected by the thought of what may exist in worlds 



