A GIANT PLANET. 95 



with phenomena resembling those presented by our 

 own earth. 



We are too apt in studying the celestial objects to 

 forget that where all seems at nearly perfect rest, there 

 may be processes of the utmost activity, nay, rather 

 of the utmost violence, taking place as it were under 

 our very eyes, and yet not perceptible save to the eye 

 of reason. Looking at Jupiter, under his ordinary 

 aspect, even in the finest telescope, one would feel 

 certain that a general calm prevailed over his mighty 

 globe. The steadfast equatorial ring, and the straight 

 and sharply defined bands over either hemisphere, 

 suggest certainly no idea of violent action. And when 

 some feature in a belt is seen to change slowly in 

 figure, or rather, when at the end of a certain time 

 it is found to have so changed, for no eye can follow 

 such changes as they proceed, we are not prepared to 

 recognise in the process the evidence of disturbances 

 compared with which the fiercest hurricanes that have 

 ever raged on earth are as mere summer zephyrs. 



Indeed the planet Jupiter has been selected even by 

 astronomers of repute as an abode of pleasantness, a 

 sort of paradise among the planet-worlds. There 

 exists, we are told, in that distant world, a perennial 

 spring, * A striking display of the beneficence of the 

 Creator,' says Admiral Smith ; c for the Jovian year 

 contains twelve mundane years ; and if there were a 

 proportionate length of winter, that cold season would 

 be three of the earthly years in length and tend to the 

 destruction of vegetable life.' 



