312 
POPULAE SCIENCE EEYIEW. 
We look up into tke skies on a clear nigiit, and obsei’\^e tlie 
tkousand discs which shine down upon us. We mark, it may 
be, those planets of our own system which are visible, and 
meditate upon their positions in space, relatively to the Sun, as 
the centre around which they move, and their relations to 
our Earth, as one of their fellows. A little thought convinces 
us of a striking fact. Xo two of the planets are alike : size, 
density, time of rotation, and aiTangement of orbit differ in 
each. Our Earth has one moon, Jupiter four, Saturn seven, 
Uranus six, Xeptune two ; and then Saturn moves with 
splendid girdles of light around him. Each one of those 
bright worlds receives from the Sun the same radiant forces 
which flow to our Earth. We have learnt that where there is 
solar light, there is organization ; consequently we hiow that 
every planet is a world, upon which organized creations exist. 
The year of Mercury may be but equal to three of our months, 
while that of Xeptune extends to 164 of our years. The 
seasons may — certainly do — greatly vary; Jupiter, probably, 
has but little vicissitude ; but may not Saturn, in the shadow 
of his rings, have a winter of many years^ duration ? Not- 
withstanding this, we are compelled to beheve that the solar 
rays are shot forth into space to do the work of Life ; and the 
very fact that the planets receive those solar energies and 
reflect them, as terrestrial bodies do, is sufficient to prove 
that they are covered with organizations, vastly different, it 
may be, from those on Earth, unless we can believe in the 
creation of a huge machine equal to the generation of enormous 
powers, which are wasted in merely hghting up of empty 
worlds. 
The observer of the heavens passes beyond the planets, and 
he notes those stars of the flrst magnitude ghttering with 
fulness of light, and then such as are less glorious, until the 
power of unaided vision fails to recognize a point of light, 
and is conscious only of, what we may call, a luminous haze. 
He takes, to aid him in his survey, the best telescope ; a new 
sidereal system bm’sts upon him ; and he finds that the num- 
ber of the stars may be really infinite, in the only sense in 
which we can assign a meaning to the word.'’"’ Here, too, he 
now discovers a vast variety ; not only does he see that one 
star differeth from another star in glory,^"’ but he is surprised 
to find stars as varied in colour as are the flowers of the earth 
— purple and orange, blue and yellow, red and green suns 
shining forth in space. He becomes aware of astral systems 
which, as Herschel says, convey the complete idea of a 
globular space filled full of stars, insulated in the heavens, 
and constituting in itself a family or society apart from the 
rest, and subject only to its own internal laws."’"’ He also 
