﻿Copernicus left to turn round the Earth as before. The Earth, then, we 

 must bear in mind, has been a heavenly body ever since Copernicus was 

 "seized" with the "frenzy," and so nobly undertook the management of 

 these affairs. We, being on the surface of this heavenly body, of course, 

 are carried along with it in its journey round the Sun— a journey which 

 takes us twelve months to complete. As Copernicus himself placed us at 

 the moderate distance of little more than 3,000,000 of miles from the Sun, 

 he gave us a pleasant little turn round the Heavens. But these things 

 alter. The poor old astronomer, Copernicus, is dead and gone ; and the 

 conduct of these affairs has fallen into other hands. As the times advance 

 so we go ahead. Printing, done by steam, can hardly keep pace -with the 

 " frenzy " of the astronomers. Our children are now learning, with all 

 possible diligence, that we are travelling in an orbit 95,000,000 of miles 

 from the Sun ; and that the other Planets are at proportionate distances, 

 all of which are easily committed to memory. Astronomers have lately 

 made a "trifling'' alteration in the distances, velocities, dimensions, and 

 circumference of the orbits of all the Planets ; and as soon as new sets of 

 school-books can be printed they no doubt will be. It may just be 

 mentioned, so as to convey some idea of this alteration, that we are now 

 only about 91,000,000 of miles from the Sun — four millions of miles 

 nearer than we have imagined for some years past, — and Neptune, one of our 

 fellow-travellers round the Sun (that Sun which, by the bye, our poor 

 forefathers used to think came round to them every morning), instead of 

 being 2,860,000,000, of miles from the Sun, is nearer to it by about 

 122,000,000 of miles. But we must take our books as we find them, of 

 course, and believe them till we (or the next generation) get better ones. 

 Moreover, if other " corrections " should be deemed necessary, and still 

 others, there is every chance of astronomers being right, in the end, at 

 some time or other. Well, round the Sun, then we go. We must not 

 consider the speed as at all extraordinary in such times as these. It 

 is simply, as we are told, 68,000 miles in an hour ! We have other 

 motions which are, however, comparatively insignificant; such, for example, 

 as that of rotation, which is only at the rate of 1000 miles an hour at the 

 Equator. So that, leaving these out of the question, we find that, while 

 our forefathers imagined that they only travelled just where they had a 

 mind to go, and at their own pace, the fact is, (according to the astronomers) 

 we travel, in the course of one year, more than 599,000,000 of miles ! 

 But alas ! so far as the great bulk of the people is concerned, even in these 

 enlightened days, these "Curiosities of Science" might all find a place in 

 some new volume of " Things not generally known," if such were in 

 contemplation. The volumes already issued by Mr. Timbs, F.R.S., are not, 

 in any manner of speaking, generally read. Who, at the present day, 

 knows that we travel round the Sun at the rate of 68,000 miles an hour % 

 Where is the man (except he be an astronomer) who has the smallest idea 

 that the Earth weighs 6000,000000,000000,000000, of tons? Is there 

 one in a thousand who knows that the diameter of the Earth is said to be 

 just 26 miles less in one direction than it is in another 1 or who ever thinks 

 of the amazing skill of the astronomers who hold in their puny hands the 

 weights and measures for the Universe ? Who, even now, with all his 

 familiarity with the price of cotton and tallow, is aware of what has been 

 told us by Dr. Vaughan, that the rays of the Sun have an illuminating 

 power of 3500,000000,000000,000000,000000 of candles] Talk of the 

 " dark ages !" We are just as much in the dark now. Astronomers know very 

 well (for they tell us) that we cannot see the stars at all ; that what we see 



