THE SOLAR REGION. 355 



vividly, by its touching on the confines of the graceful domain 

 of fancy. 



VV e purposely abstain in the following pages from entering 

 on the consideration of the connection existing between our 

 solar system and the systems of other fixed stars, nor siiall we 

 revert to the question of that subordination and annexation 

 of cosmical systems which might almost be said to force 

 itself on our notice from intellectual necessity ; nor yet will 

 we consider whether our central body, the Sun, may not 

 itself stand in some planetary dependence on a higher sys- 

 tem. not even, perhaps, as a main planet, but merely as a 

 planetary satellite, like Jupiter's moons. Limited within the 

 more familiar sphere of our solar region, we, however, enjoy 

 this advantage, that with the exception of what refers to 

 the signification of the surface-appearance or gaseous enve- 

 lopes of the revolving cosmical bodies, the simple or 

 divided tails of comets, the ring of the zodiacal light, or 

 the mysterious appearance of meteoric asteroids, almost all 

 the results of observation admit of being referred to numerical 

 relations, as the deductions of strictly-tested presuppositions. 

 It does not, however, belong to the sketch of a physical 

 description of the universe to test the accuracy of such pre- 

 suppositions, its province being simply to give a methodieul 

 arrangement of numerical results. They constitute the 

 important heritage which, ever augmenting, is bequeathed 

 by one century to another. A table, comprising the nume- 

 rical elements of the planets (that is to say, their mean 

 distances from the Sun, sidereal periods of revolution, 

 the excentricity of their orbits, their inclination towards 

 the ecliptic, their diameter, mass, and density), would 

 now embrace within very narrow limits the record of the 

 great intellectual conquests of the present age. Let us 

 for a moment transport ourselves in imagination to the times 



VOL. iv. x 



