one place to another. Let us take for example the body 

 of a man and compare it with the earth and the sun. 



The diameter of the earth is 1719 geographical miles. 

 If we multiply this by 7 that is the number of versts 

 in a mile, we arrive at 12033 versts. The sun's distance 

 from the earth is equal to 140,000,000 versts, which, 

 being divided by 12033, gives us the number of diame- 

 ters included in this distance of the earth's orbit. \Ve 

 find that this number is 11635. Let us admit, now, that 

 an average man is half an arshin in diameter, and mea- 

 sure out for him 11635 diameters, equalling 3 versts 

 439 sazhen and 1 / 2 arshin 1 ); we shall then see that this 

 dizzy distance of 140 million versts is to the earth, com- 

 paring the planet with man, a mere trifle of about 

 4 versts. If however we divide this distance by the 

 sun's diameter the sun being, as we know, of bulk 

 1,280,000 times greater than the earth we have to 

 deal with a distance more than a hundred times greater. 

 By this scale the distance of the orbit is reduced to 17 

 sazhen (119 feet); in other words it becomes utterly 

 insignificant, and earth appears as the handmaid of the 

 sun, remaining ever near her master. Magnificent di- 

 stances become minute in this way measured by the 

 scale of the sun's immensity. The remark is applicable 

 of course to the other planets. Infinitely remote as they 

 seem to us, in relation to the sun they are all handmaids 

 within easy hail. 



That the sun itself moves in cosmic space is an un- 

 toubted fact, proved abundantly by astronomical obser- 

 vations, but, unfortunately, no calculations have establi- 

 shed the direct force of this movement. On the other 

 hand the sun's rotatory motion has been successfully cal- 

 culated and we now know that each complete revolution 

 requires 25*/2 days. 



Though there is no exact calculation of the direct mo- 

 vement of the solar system, not the less this movement 



l ) Approximately 2 miles 1005 yards. 



