be useless. No features are discernable on the disc, even with the most powerful telescope; and the inclination of its axis to the plane in which it moves can only be guessed by the revolutions of its satellites, on the assumption that they (as is generally the case) move in the plane of his equator. If this be the case, then the axis of this planet is nearly at right angles to the plane of its orbit,

-a strange and wholly different arrangement from any of the other planets, and still more strange by the fact that the satellites are thus moving nearly vertically or at right angles to the plane of the orbit in which he moves; but are retrograde, appearing to move from east to west instead of from west to east, the latter being the invariable direction of all other satellites. That this would produce a climate wholly unsuitable to creatures in any way resembling ourselves, Mr. Proctor shows most fully; while, even if habitable, the strange condition of a year answering to eighty-four of our years, during twenty of which the little star called their sun would in many parts of this planet be out of sight altogether, places a complete barrier to any speculations as to its inhabitability.

As to Neptune, all that has been said of Uranus applies in a stronger degree,—the principal real interest attached to this planet being the extraordinary triumph of science in its discovery. Neptune is a little larger than his arctic companion, being 37,250 miles in diameter. His volume 105 times that of the earth, his seasons (if any) would be impossible to speculate upon in a year equal to 160 of our terrestrial years. The change and duration of climate he would undergo would be such as to separate him entirely from any analogy with the other

members of the system to which we belong; and if there are inhabitants, whose ages are counted by his years, the lives of Methuselah and the antediluvian patriarchs dwindle into a comparative past of a few days.

The circumstances of the discovery of this planet by the undesigned coincidence of the observations of Mr. Adams and M. Le Verrier are so well known now, that for information upon this subject I must refer my readers to other works which treat in detail of this remarkable and most wonderful event; to state which, generally and briefly, two astronomers, each without any communication with the other, were at the same time carrying on the same process of calculation for the same purpose : viz., to account for the disturbances observed by both from different parts of the world at the same time in the SAME PLANET URANUS; to account for which disturbance or perturbation in his course, both astronomers entered upon a mathematical calculation of all the attractive powers possible to act upon the planet, and were both led ultimately almost simultaneously to the same conclusive result, that the disturbance was caused by an exterior and as yet invisible body, and were at length both led to the very spot in the heavens where that body should be found, and was found: viz., to a little telescopic star in the vast concave above; but really to a huge planet 37,000 miles in diameter, and above 900 millions of miles beyond Uranus, the subject of disturbance.

Such in brief are the facts of this discovery,-facts which, more than any other, go to prove not only the power of man's intelligence that is able to calculate and realize such a problem, but the Divine power, which at certain times and periods is put forth for special pur

poses, and which inspires, as it were, at those periods, a coincidence of mental effort to effect some great discovery, -designedly separating the discoverers to prove that it is not of men, nor of chance, but of God, that such things are done; that there is a time and a purpose for everything under the heavens; and when a truth depending on one man might be questioned or despised or forgotten, a second witness at the same moment is raised up to corroborate the wondrous fact, and prove that the inspiration that led to the thought, and the coincidence that set two men working unconsciously together, alike proceeded from the SAME GREAT MIND that rules the Heavens, the Heavenly Creator.

It might be thought that the discovery of Neptune was not after all of such importance to us as to warrant such an interpretation of this coincidence; but setting apart the importance of the additional knowledge of the extent of our solar system we have thus gained, and the fact that another world is added to our catalogue of previous worlds, the very chain of circumstances which led to its discovery is sufficiently evident to impress the mind of the most thoughtless materialist that the universe consists of something more than atomic senseless matter and law; and that there is One above our heads, who, while He is the Creator and Maker of all matter, is the Personal Controller and Ruler and Inspirer of all men's noblest thoughts, and indeed the Eliminator of all scientific knowledge and discovery that we have ever made; and to teach men (as the prophet says was God's object in depriving the haughty Chaldean King of his mind for a time) to know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men,-in the kingdom of mind as well as matter.

THE ASTEROIDS, OR MINOR PLANETS AND METEORS.

HALF-WAY between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, lies a mysterious zone (ie., if it may be truly so called; for its extent has not yet been arrived at, and it is quite as probable that this system of planetary bodies extends to the sun) of planets or planetary bodies of comparatively diminutive size, but probably of great number, the number discovered to the present time (1874) being 120; but suggesting the presence of many more yet undiscovered. Their individual magnitude is so trifling, as almost to separate them in class from the planetary worlds on either side of and around them, and to lead us to classify them almost as large meteors or aerolites rather than worlds; while whatever way we view them, their great number, their recent discovery (all but four being discovered since 1845), their peculiar position, and still more peculiar orbits, are so suggestive of interest and mystery, that though nothing can be said of their physical condition, from their distance and minuteness, or their use in the solar system, they form a subject of continued interest to astronomers,—an interest kept alive by the almost annual appearance of one or more of these miniature worlds, which have nearly exhausted the vocabulary of the heathen gods and goddesses, given to them and their predecessors,* by their number, as they have put to fault the various theories of astronomers to account for them. For myself, I prefer

Why the names of these false deities should be given to the most beautiful and wonderful objects in creation, planets and stars, I do not see.

giving them a place here, with their smaller companions, meteors; because it seems to me that they resemble them more than the larger and probably inhabited planets, companions to the family to which they yet seem to belong, and bear the same relation to them, as the half-grown child does to the parent,-while the meteors represent the infants.

But first let us remark upon this discovery. Twenty years ago but four were known to the inhabitants of the earth,-Juno, Vesta, Ceres, and Pallas,-diminutive objects only seen with the telescope; and yet from the peculiarity of their orbits intersecting each other, combined with their position between Mars and Jupiter, where a whole planet was suspected, and it was calculated should have been, according to Bode's law, which was believed to govern the respective distances of the others. This rendered them four objects of interest and speculalation to astronomers. And in the year 1851 it was actually announced, by the then President of the British Association, Sir David Brewster, that the speculation of Dr. Olbers, the eminent astronomer, that they were four fragments of a broken planet that once had revolved there was the fact; that it was proved by the remarkable intersection of their orbits with each other, each crossing the orbit of the other; together with the fact that a planet was due, so to speak, in the place where they were found; that these fragmentary planets, when put together by calculation, had actually realized to the mind (or would make) one large planet of five thousand miles in diameter, and whose night and days were 51 hours, which once had revolved there, but which had met with a catastrophe, either by explosion from within or by collision from