^34 COSMOS. 



In this general consideration of the planetary revolutions 

 in the universe, we have descended from the higher — though 

 probably not the highest* system — from that of the Sun to 

 the subordinate partial systems of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, 

 and Neptune. In the same way that, from the striving to- 

 ward generalization of views, which is innate in thoughtful, 

 and, at the same time, imaginative men, the unsatisfied cos- 

 mical presentiment of a translatory motionf of our solar sys- 

 tem through space appears to suggest the idea of a higher 

 relation and subordination, so the possibility has been con- 

 ceived that the satellites of Jupiter may be again central 

 bodies to other secondary ones, which, on account of their 

 smallness, are unseen. In that case, the individual mem 

 bers of the partial systems, which are chiefly situated among 

 the group of exterior principal planets, would have other and 

 similar partial systems subordinate to them. Repetitions of 

 form in recurring organizations, as well as the self-created 

 images of the fancy, are certainly pleasing to a systematic 

 mind ; but in every serious investigation, it is imperatively 

 necessary to distinguish between the ideal and the actual 

 Cosmos — between the possible, and that which has been dis- 

 covered by actual observation. 



SPECIAL ENUMERATION OF THE PLANETS AND THEIR MOONS, AS 

 PARTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. 



It is, as I have already often remarked, the especial object 

 of a physical description of the ivorld to bring together all 

 the important and well-established numerical results which 

 have been obtained in the domain either of sidereal or ter 

 restrial phenomena up to the middle of the nineteenth cen 

 tury. All that has form and motion should here be repre 

 sented as something already created, existing, and definite 

 The grounds upon which the obtained numerical results ai 

 founded ; the cosmological conjectures respecting genetic de 

 velopment, which during thousands of years have been called 

 into existence by the ever-changing conditions of mechanical 

 and physical knowledge — these do not, in the strictest sense 

 of the word, come within the range of empirical investiga- 

 tion. {Cosmos, vol. i., p. 47-49, 71, and 83.) 



* Compare Cosmos, vol. iii., p. 196. 



t I have fully treated of the translatory motion of the Sun in the de- 

 lineation of nature. {Cosmos, vol. i., p. 145-149. Compare also voL 

 iii., p. 184.) 



