(Vol. vii., p. 211.; Vol. viii., p. 601.)
QUÆSTOR has asked me a question to which I will not refuse a reply. If he
thinks that the breaking up of a planetary world is a mere fancy, he may
consult Sir John Herschel's _Astronomy_, § 434., in Lardner's series, ed.
1833, in which the supposition was treated as doubtful, and farther
discoveries were declared requisite for its confirmation; and Professor
Mitchell's _Discoveries of Modern Astronomy_, Lond. 1850, pp. 163-171.,
where such discoveries are detailed, and the progress of the proof is
narrated and explained. It may be briefly stated as follows:--In the last
century, Professor Bode discovered the construction of a regular series of
numbers, in coincidence with which the distances of all the known planets
from the sun had been arranged by their Creator, saving one exception.
Calling the earth's solar distance 10, the next numbers in the series are
16, 28, 52. The distances answering to 16 and 52, on this scale, are
respectively occupied by the planets Mars and Jupiter; but the position of
28 seemed unoccupied. It was not likely that the Creator should have left
the methodical order of his work incomplete. A few patient observers
agreed, therefore, to divide amongst themselves that part of the heavens
which a planet revolving at the vacant distance might be expected to
traverse; and that each should keep up a continuous examination of the
portion assigned to him. And the result was the discovery by Piazzi, in
1801, of a planet revolving at the expected solar distance, but so minute
that the elder Herschel computed its diameter to be no more than 163 miles.
The discovery of a second by Olbers, in the {37} following year, led him to
conjecture and suggest that these were fragments of a whole, which, at its
first creation, had occupied the vacant position, with a magnitude not
disproportionate to that assigned to the other planets. Since then there
have been, and continue to be, discoveries of more and more such fragmental
planets, all moving at solar distances so close upon that numbered 28, as
to pass each other almost, as has been said, within peril; but in orbits
which seem capriciously elevated and depressed, when referred to the planes
assigned for the course of the regular planets; so that, to most minds
capable of appreciating these facts, it will seem that Olber's conjecture
has been marvellously confirmed.
As to the theological conjecture appended to it in my previous
communication, about which QUÆSTOR particularly questions me, I can only
say, that if he deems it rash or wrong, I have no right to throw the blame
of it on any other man's shoulders, as I am not aware of its having been
hazarded by any one else. But I hope he will agree with me, that if there
has been a disruption of a planetary world, it cannot have arisen from any
mistake or deficiency in the Creator's work or foresight, but should be
respectfully regarded as the result of some moral cause.