BOOK OP NATURE LAID OPEN. 203 



the earth receives; but, to compensate for this, be- 

 sides the rings and moons already mentioned, the 

 disk of this planet has been observed to be crossed 

 by zones or belts, which may b analogous to, and 

 answer the purposes of, those of Jupiter. Saturn is 

 visible to the naked eye, and shines in the heavens 

 with a pale, feeble light. 



The Georgian, or Georgium Sidus, is the remotest 

 of all the planets yet discovered, and was brought 

 to notice so recently as the 13th of March, 1781, by 

 that indefatigable astronomer, Dr Herschel. Six 

 satellites have already been discovered attending on 

 this distant planet Its magnitude is supposed to be 

 upwards of eighty times that of the earth, and its pe- 

 riodical revolution performed in something more than 

 eighty three of our years. Through a telescope of a 

 small magnifying power, the Georgian appears like 

 a star of the sixth or seventh magnitude, and is only 

 visible to the naked eye, in the absence of the moon, 

 in a clear night. 



These planets, with their attendant satellites and 

 other appendages, are carried round the sun in ellip- 

 tical orbits, differing but little from circles; by which 

 means the temperature of their seasons must be wise- 

 ly proportioned, and pretty equally kept up To 

 prevent too frequent eclipses, they move not in the 

 same planes; and that they may not interfere with 

 each other, they revolve all in the same direction, 

 from the east away westerly. The greater part of 

 them are known, and the whole are supposed to turn 

 round on their axis in jthe same manner that our earth 



