THE NAMES OF THE PLANETS. 201 



more refined creed afterwards separated the intangible 

 deity from the actual globe, which thus came to be re- 

 garded merely as a symbol. The name, however, by which 

 the planet was designated was borne both by the material 

 body and by the deity of which that body was an emblem. 

 In modern days the naming of planets is quite a familiar 

 operation. Every now and then a new planet is dis- 

 covered, and it is the privilege of the discoverer to assign 

 to the new object a name which other astronomers shall 

 recognise. At least this is generally the case, but not 

 invariably ; for when William Herschel immortalized 

 himself by discovering the planet now called TJranus, he 

 proposed to name it the Georgium Sidus in honour of 

 King George the Third. As this was the first planet ever 

 found in addition to the five bodies of this kind which 

 had been known from all antiquity, a wonderful interest 

 was aroused among astronomers all over the world ; but 

 the old planets had borne the old classical names, and it 

 was thought, especially by Continental astronomers, that 

 it would be a little incongruous to bring the name of 

 George the Third into the same category as the heathen 

 divinities. Accordingly they set aside the wishes of the 

 discoverer, and established the precedent which has since 

 been generally followed, of choosing names for the newly 

 discovered planets from classical mythology. Though the 

 number of the planets is now more than 300, the re- 

 sources of ancient literature seem not yet to give signs 

 of exhaustion. Let Hebe and Hecuba, Diana and Sappho, 

 which I select at random from the list of minor planets, 

 serve as modern examples of how the heavenly bodies are 

 named 



