The planet Venus had been shining brilliantly evening after evening.
“Why, father,” said the boy, “does Venus shift her place so rapidly
among the stars?
Because she has to travel round the sun, as the world and other planets
do.
And is the world really a planet, looking like a star to the people of
Venus?
Yes; and not visible at all to those of the distant planets, which are
all so much nearer to us than the nearest of the fixed stars. Some of
the planets you could not see without the telescope, and you see none
of the asteroids.
What are they?
Little planets, over eighty in number, perhaps the shattered parts of
an exploded planet, travelling along the old road, and keeping a circle
between Mars and Jupiter.
Then they are not like the comets, which run everywhere, getting in
everybody’s way?
You are slandering the comets. These shadowy bodies, with tails of
light, travel in longer ovals or ellipses than the planets. We see them
when they turn round the sun, which is near one end of their orbit, but
they disappear afterwards in the great distance of their curve.
Well, I _can_ see some use in the sun to us, but very little in the
planets and other stars, and none in the comets.
You must not selfishly judge of the good of things by the use you can
make of them. The extensive granite ranges were not made merely for
man’s building materials, nor the stars for a gaze through a telescope.
As the world existed many millions of years without man, so have the
stars. In another world we may know more of the why and because of
God’s creation.
May not the planets and other stars be inhabited by folks like
ourselves?
Not quite, my son, replied Mr. Marple, though God can make intelligent
beings to praise Him, who would be adapted to any atmosphere or
condition of the stars.”
In the evening the captain lent James a book, from which he copied the
following table of the Eight Planets--their distance from the sun,
their times of revolution round the sun, and their size:--
Distance. Time. Diameter.
Miles. Miles.
Mercury 37,000,000 2 months 3100
Venus 69,000,000 7-1/2 ” 7900
Earth 93,000,000 1 year 7920
Mars 146,000,000 2 years 4000
Jupiter 494,000,000 12 ” 92,000
Saturn 906,000,000 30 ” 75,000
Herschel 1820,000,000 80 ” 36,000
Neptune 2850,000,000 164 ” 33,600