318 SPECIAL RESULTS IN THE URANOLOGICAL 



system according to the properties of his five regular solids j 

 it was only necessary to do a little violence to the distances 

 of the old planets. ("Non reperies novos et incognitos 

 Planetas, ut paulo antea, interpositos, non ea mini probatur 

 audacia; sed illos veteres parum admodum luxatos" 

 Myst. Cosinogr. p. 10), The intellectual tendencies of 

 Kepler had so great an analogy with those of the Pythago- 

 reans, and still more with those manifested in the Tiinreus 

 of Plato, that as Plato (Cratyl. p. 409) found in the seven 

 planetary spheres the differences of colours, as well as those 

 of musical notes, so Kepler (Astron. opt. cap. 6, p. 261) 

 made experiments, in which he attempted to imitate, on a 

 variously illuminated table, the colours of the planets. Even 

 the great Newton, ever so faithful to Eeasou, and so severe 

 in all his inductions, was yet, as Prevost has already re- 

 marked, inclined to refer the dimensions of the seven colours 

 of the spectrum to the diatonic scale ( 52 ) . 



The hypothesis of the existence of still unknown members 

 of the planetary series of the solar system reminds us of the 

 ancient Greek opinion of there being far more than five 

 planets, that being only the number of those which had 

 been observed, while many others remained hidden by 

 their position, and the feebleness of their light. Such a 

 statement has been ascribed in particular to Artemidorus of 

 Ephesus ( 521 ). Another ancient Hellenic, and perhaps 

 even Egyptian belief, appears to have been " that the celes- 

 tial bodies which we now behold have not all been always 

 seen by man." Such a physical, or rather historical, myth 

 is connected with the particular form of vain-gloriousness 

 which leads some nations and races to attribute to them- 

 selves an extraordinary degree of antiquity. Thus the pre- 



