148 ASTRONOMY. 
especially upon the alternation of the seasons; it may, therefore, be assumed 
for Venus, that when the given circumstances take place, the torrid zone, 
whose inhabitants have the sun in their zenith, must cover a space of 144 
degrees in breadth, while the breadth of this zone on our earth is but 47°. 
The frigid zone will lie at the two poles, extending 18 degrees towards. the 
equator. The inhabitants of this zone will never see the sun in their zenith. 
In the temperate zone, occupying a space of 54 degrees from the frigid zone 
towards the equator, the inhabitants will not see the sun at all during one 
part of the year, and during another will have him in their zenith, thus 
resembling the inhabitants of both frigid and torrid zones on our earth. 
Hence it happens that the dwellers on Venus must experience such sudden 
alternations of season and climate as our imagination can hardly compre- 
hend. 
68. With respect to our moon, the curious arrangement of day and night, 
the want of an atmosphere similar to ours, of great bodies of water, and of 
seasons, as also the universal sterility and drought which seem to reign 
upon its surface, must undoubtedly exert an influence upon vegetable 
as well as animal life, of which we can have no adequate idea. The 
inhabitants of the moon, therefore, should such exist, must be very different 
from those of the earth. Even the view of the starry firmament from the 
moon must be very peculiar, since to its inhabitants the earth never sets. 
They who live in the centre of her visible disk always have the earth in the 
zenith, while those living on the border see us in their horizon. Sun, 
planets, and all other celestial objects, complete their paths in 293 days, and 
thus rise and set, to the moon, every 14-15 days. The difference of sea- 
sons vanishes almost entirely on the moon, on account of the slight inclina- 
tion of the equator to its orbit ; and while the inhabitants of her equator have 
the sun always in the zenith, those of the poles see him always in the horizon. 
In the former part, therefore, there reigns an eternal summer ; in the latter, 
an eternal winter; while intermediate between the two, a perpetual spring 
prevails. Days and nights are ever almost equal in length. 
69. The physical condition of Mars most nearly resembles that of the 
earth; it is impossible, however, to offer any plausible hypothesis with 
regard to the asteroids, Vesta, Iris, Astrea, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, as 
their distance and diminutive size conceal from us the peculiarities of their 
surface. 
70. Since the various alternations of Jupiter follow each other with 
great rapidity, his hypothetical inhabitants must possess great quickness of 
mind and body. If their size bears any proportion to that of the planet, 
their height must be about 70 feet. 
The inhabitants of Saturn, if any, must be entirely different from our- 
selves, and we have no cause to envy them. The nights of Saturn, as also 
the winters, last 15 years; there are total eclipses of the sun which last 
whole years; the sun appears ninety times less to them than to us; and, 
for years, total darkness and general torpidity, in all probability, reign 
supreme. 
Whether the ring and the seven moons of Saturn, and whether Uranus 
148 
