Planetary aspect

“ Yet, take all these planets and all their satellites, wonderful and great as they are, and consider them melted down into one great sphere, and still our sun alone, the center of this planetary system, is upwards of 750 times as large as all these planets combined would be! ”

“ The consideration of the planetary movements leads us then to think that, on account of excessive heat, the atmosphere of the sun originally extended beyond the orbits of all the planets, and that it was successively contracted to its present limits. ”

“ Then, going away from the earth, we could interrogate the planetary atmospheres, and seek in them the vapor of water, and with it one of the first conditions of the development of terrestrial life. We could also, comparing the composition of the planetary atmospheres with the astronomical facts which permit us to judge of the geological conditions of the surfaces of the planets, follow in them the atmospheric evolutions which on the earth belong to the domain of the past or of the future. ”

“ We have traversed a distance which even on [Pg 135] the wings of light we could only accomplish in many thousands of years, and now stand on the outskirts of our great star cluster, in the same way, and I hope with the same aspirations, as when we paused the last time on the confines of our Solar System. Behind us are myriads of shining orbs, in such countless numbers that human thought cannot even suggest a limit, and yet each of these is a mighty globe like our Sun, the centre of a planetary system, dispensing light and heat under conditions similar to what we are accustomed to here. ”

“ In the case of the system formed by the sun, earth, and moon, the characteristic feature is the great distance of the sun, which is the disturbing body, from the other two bodies; in the case of the sun and two planets, the enormous mass of the sun as compared with the disturbing planet is the important factor. Hence the methods of treatment suitable for the two cases differ, and two substantially distinct branches of the subject, lunar theory and planetary theory, have developed. ”

“ It is customary for us to consider other planets only as they present themselves to the earth. Quite as interesting, and infinitely more novel, is it to consider the earth as it presents itself to other planets, and particularly to Venus, its nearest planetary neighbor, and its closest counterpart. ”

“ Of course their relative positions to, and their distances from central Suns, occasion differences in the bodies of Planets, particularly as to their density; then, too, in accordance with conditions, atmospheres vary as to being rarefied or dense, humid or dry and so on, but life germs of fauna and flora ever are the same, and given like or similar Planetary conditions their expressions will present more or less close resemblances. Yes, environments occasion differences, but environments are the results of Planetary conditions. ”

“ The earth being taken as the centre of the planetary system, the planets are arranged in the order of the radii of their orbits. The nearest planet is the Moon, then Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. ”

“ The planetary system in its relations of absolute magnitude, relative position of the axes, density, time of rotation, and different degrees of eccentricity of the orbits, has to our apprehension nothing more of natural necessity than the relative distribution of land and water on the surface of our globe, the configuration of continents, or the elevation of mountain-chains. ”

“ When, however, we bring thousands of years into consideration, then the displacements of the planetary orbits attain considerable dimensions, and have, in fact, produced a profound effect on the system. ”

“ Our favored planet, not like the airless moon, is folded in the kindly bosom of an atmosphere which, while ministering nourishment to man and accommodating itself to all his movements and vicissitudes, interposes as his shield against the fiery influences of the solar system, even to arresting and consuming those countless meteoric stones, showered upon us from stellar space, before they can penetrate to the lower aerial strata. ”

“ If the earth were brought down in size to an ordinary large school globe, a piece of rough brown paper covering it might well represent the thickness of this earth-crust, with which the science of geology has to do. And the whole of the globe, this earth of ours, is but one tiny planet in the great Solar System. And the centre of that Solar System, the blazing sun, though equal in size to more than a million earths, is yet himself but one star amid millions of twinkling stars, scattered broadcast through the universe. ”

“ In such a case, to us on the Earth the planet is lost in the Sun’s rays, whilst to a spectator on the planet the Earth would appear similarly lost in the Sun’s rays, as the Earth would be at that stage of her orbit which we, speaking of our inferior planets, call superior conjunction. ”

“ If there were no sympathetic radiation from the great celestial centre, space would be void of suspended, or floating, earthy and gaseous matter; consequently, planetary worlds would never have had their birth and growth. ”

“ That very splendour which makes the evening star so lustrous an object decks the planet in such a shining robe that we are unable to make out the details on its surface. We can, no doubt, sometimes see that her form is an exquisite crescent which passes through a succession of phases. We can occasionally detect, under rare favourable circumstances of climate and instrumental equipment, slight indications or marks on the surface of the planet which, with some help from the imagination, we can suppose to be indications of continents. ”

“ Another shift in our course rapidly carried us out of the shadow of the earth and into the all pervading sunshine. Then the great planet beneath us hung unspeakable in its beauty. The outlines of several of the continents were clearly discernible on its surface, streaked and spotted with delicate shades of varying color, and the sunlight flashed and glowed in long lanes across the convex surface of the oceans. Parallel with the Equator and along the regions of the ever blowing trade winds, were vast belts of clouds, gorgeous with crimson and purple as the sunlight fell upon them. ”

“ Admitting, however, the hypothesis that these planetary bodies, are the remains of a larger body, which circulated round the sun, nearly in the orbit of the greatest fragment, the system resumes its order, and we discover a regular procession in the distances of the planets, and a general harmony in the form and position of their orbits. But, independently of analogical reasoning, the elements of the new planets furnish several direct arguments, drawn from the eccentricity and inclination of their orbits, and from the position of their perihelia and nodes ”

“ Venus, Mars, Mercury and other visible planets are all fourth-plane globes of distinct planetary masses and for that reason are visible to us, their companion six centres of energy and consciousness being invisible. All diagrams on plane surfaces will only becloud the theory because a diagram necessitates linear divisions.
The stream or mass of Egos which evolves on the seven globes of our chain is limited in number, yet the actual quantity is enormous. ”

“ Lifting our searching gaze into the measureless space beyond our earth, we find planet bound to planet, and system chained to system, all impelled by a universal force to roll in regularity and order around a common centre. The pendulations of the remotest star are communicated through the unseen bond; and our rocking world obeys the mysterious impulse throughout all those forces which regulate the inorganic combinations of this earth, and unto which its organic creation is irresistibly compelled to bow. ”

“ In the form of its orbit, in its movements round the sun and on its own axis, in the succession of days and seasons, and in all the phenomena governed by the great law of attraction, the earth becomes the representative of all the other planets; in studying it, we study all the heavenly bodies.
Our planet is a spheroid; that is, a sphere flattened at the two poles and enlarged at the equator, so that all the circles passing through the extremity of the polar axis form ellipses. ”

“ Here again it is well to remember the small size of the planet, from which we may infer that it has progressed through its physical evolution at a rate more rapid than would be possible with a larger globe like the earth. The sea is constantly wearing down the land, but by upheavals arising from the intensely heated condition of the interior of our globe the land is still able to maintain itself above water. ”

“ These planetary globes themselves, as they coalesced and contracted, left behind or threw off rings of their outer matter, which, in turn, became moons, and finally our solar system with its central sun was evolved as we now see it; development continued, the planets cooled and condensed, life appeared when the conditions became suitable, and the original progressive condensation of the central mass—the sun—still continuing, the evolution of light and heat continues, and will continue in a correlative degree. ”

“ But no matter what technique of world building obtains, gravity always produces the solar system type of creation; that is, a central sun or dark island with planets, satellites, subsatellites, and meteors.
The physical aspects of the individual worlds are largely determined by mode of origin, astronomical situation, and physical environment. Age, size, rate of revolution, and velocity through space are also determining factors. Both the gas-contraction and the solid-accretion worlds are characterized by mountains and, during their earlier life, when not too small, by water and air. ”

“ Under all circumstances they lie practically parallel, or nearly so, to the planet’s equator. It is generally thought that the planet, whatever may be its actual structure or constitution, is surrounded by a dense cloudy envelope, and that the shaded streaks which we call belts are rifts in this atmosphere, which expose to view the solid body of the planet underneath. ”

“ It almost exactly supplies what I have been conjuring up as my idea of a perfect planet. Its compensations of high land near the equator, and low with effective internal heat at the poles, are ideal. The gradual slope of its continental elevations, on account of their extent, will ease the work of operating railways, and the atmosphere's density will be just the thing for our flying machines, while Nature has supplied all sources of power so lavishly that no undertaking will be too great. ”

“ Few people without a training in science can realise the huge isolation of the solar system. The sun with its specks of planets, its dust of planetoids, and its impalpable comets, swims in a vacant immensity that almost defeats the imagination. Beyond the orbit of Neptune there is space, vacant so far as human observation has penetrated, without warmth or light or sound, blank emptiness, for twenty million times a million miles. ”

“ A single moment's reflection upon the solar system will fully demonstrate the difficulties that have attended this subject; the principal planets are attracted by the sun, and the sun by the planets; the satellites are also attracted by their principal planets, and each planet attracts all the rest, and is attracted by them. All these actions and reactions vary according to the quantities of matter and the distances, and produce great inequalities and irregularities. ”

“ The globe turns upon its axis in twenty-four hours, and thus one can perceive, without any mental effort, the rotation of our planet, and the portions of the globe which come under the influence of the sun in rotation, just as they do actually on the earth. Not the least interesting attribute of this ingenious arrangement is the fact that during breakfast or dinner one can see the displacement and revolution of the earth with reference to the sun to all people in the world. ”

“ The earth, the mother mote of my being, I could no longer see.
So, with a stately swiftness, in the profoundest silence, the solar system fell from me, as it had been a garment, until the sun was a mere star amid the multitude of stars, with its eddy of planet-specks, lost in the confused glittering of the remoter light. I was no longer a denizen of the solar system: I had come to the Outer Universe, I seemed to grasp and comprehend the whole world of matter. ”

“ The great planet, being in fact himself a "semi-sun," may be regarded as an originator, no less than a recipient, of agitating influences, the combined effects of which may well appear insubordinate to any obvious law. ”

“ Each planet may, in truth, have a certain following of its own. Within the limited sphere of the earth's predominant attraction, for instance, extending some way beyond the moon, we may have a number of satellites that we never see, all revolving regularly in elliptic orbits round the earth. ”

“ The changing shape of the earth's orbit, the gradual shifting of the poles of rotation, changes in the shapes of the continents, probably even fluctuations in the warmth of the sun, now conspired to plunge great areas of the earth's surface into long periods of cold and ice and now again for millions of years spread a warm or equable climate over this planet. ”

“ In obedience to this law, each planet must be attracted, not only by the sun, but by innumerable bodies, and the movement of the planet must be the joint effect of all such attractions. As for the influence of the stars on our solar system, it may be at once set aside as inappreciable. ”

“ Why should not the Solar System be the chief and most complete system in the universe, and the Earth the principal planet in that System? So far as we yet know, the Sun is the largest Sun among the stars; and we shall attempt to show, that the Earth is the largest solid opaque globe in the solar system. Some System must be the largest and most finished of all ”