very considerably flattened at its poles, and the immense centrifugal force resulting from this movement (26,554 miles per hour), would, undoubtedly, have long since caused him to fly asunder were it not for a wise provision of Nature, which has caused enormous belts or hoops to encircle his entire surface.

These hoops, usually termed belts, are plainly visible through the telescope. They are eight in number, and are supposed to be made of gutta-percha, with an outer edge of No. 1 boiler iron. Owing to the great distance of Jupiter from the Sun, he receives but one twenty-seventh part of the light and heat that we do from that body. To preserve the great balance of Nature, it is therefore probable that the whales of Jupiter are twenty-seven times larger than ours, and that twenty-seven times as much cordwood is cut on that planet as on the Earth.

The axis of Jupiter is perpendicular to the plane of its orbit; hence its climate has no variation of seasons in the same latitude. It has four moons, three of which may be readily discerned with an ordinary spy-glass. By observation on the eclipses of these satellites, the velocity of light has been measured, and we find that light is precisely eight minutes and thirteen seconds in coming to us from the Sun. According to the poet, "the light of other days" has a considerably slow motion. Jupiter, in the Heathen

Mythology, was the King of the Gods. As there can be no doubt that, with the progress of time, advancement in liberal ideas, and a knowledge of the immortal principles of democracy has obtained among these divinities, it is probable that he has long since been deposed, and his kingdom converted into a republic, over whose destinies, according to the wellknown principles of availability, some one-eyed Cyclops, unknown to fame, has probably been elected to preside. His representative will, however, always remain King of the Planets while such things as kings exist; after which he will become their undisputed president. Jupiter is the patron of Monarchs, Presidents, and Senators. It is doubtful, however, whether he pays much attention to State Senators, or even continues his patronage to him of the Congressional body who fails to be reelected, although bent on being notorious he may continue to vociferate that he "knows a hawk from a hand-saw," and was "not educated at West Pint."

SATURN

Whoever, during the present year, has had his attention attracted by that beautiful group, the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, may have noticed near them, in the constellation Taurus, a star apparently of the first magnitude, shining with a peculiarly

white light, and beaming down with a gentle, steady radiance upon the Earth. This is the beautiful planet Saturn, which, moving slowly at the rate of two minutes daily among the stars, may be readily traced from one constellation to another. Saturn is nearly nine hundred millions of miles from the Sun. His volume is eleven hundred times that of the Earth; and while his year is equivalent to twentynine and a half of ours, his day is shorter by more than one-half. Receiving but one-nineteenth part of the light from the Sun that we do, it follows that the inhabitants of Saturn are not equally enlightened with us; and supposing them to be physically constituted as we are, stoves and cooking-ranges undoubtedly go off at a ready sale and pretty high figure among them. Saturn differs from all the other planets, in being surrounded by three rings, consecutive to each other, which shine by reflection from the Sun, with superior brilliancy to the planet itself. It is also attended by eight satellites. Many theories have been started to account for the rings of Saturn, but none of them is satisfactory. Our own opinion is that this planet was originally diversified, like the Earth, with continents of land and vast oceans of water. By the rapid motion of the planet upon its axis, the oceans were collected near the equatorial regions, whence, by the immense centrifugal force,

they were subsequently thrown clear from the surface, and remained revolving about the denser body, at that distance where the centrifugal force and the attraction of gravitation from the other planets were in equilibrio.

The ships floating on the surface of the waters at the time of this great convulsion, of course, went with them, and it is a most painful reflection to the humane mind that their crews have undoubtedly long since perished, after maintaining for a while their miserably isolated existence on a precarious supply of fish.

It is a curious and interesting fact, much dwelt on in popular treatises on Astronomy, that were a cannon-ball fired from the Earth to Saturn it would be one hundred and eighty years in getting there. The only useful deduction that we are able to make from this fact, however, is, that the inhabitants of Saturn, if warned of their danger by the sight of the flash or the sound of the explosion, would have ample opportunity in the course of one hundred and eighty years to dodge the shot!

Saturn was the father of all the Heathen Divinities, and, we regret to say, was a most disreputable character. It will hardly be credited that he had a revolting habit of devouring his children shortly after their birth, and it was only by a pious deception

of his wife, who furnished him with dogs, sheep, buffalo, and the like, on these occasions, with assurances that they were his offspring, that Jupiter and his brothers were preserved from their impending fate. A person of such a disposition could never be tolerated in a civilized community, and there is little doubt that if Saturn were a resident of the Earth at the present time, and should persist in his unpleasant practises, he would speedily be arrested and held to bail in a large amount.

HERSCHEL

We know little of this planet, except that, with its six moons, it was discovered by Dr. Herschel, a native of the island of England (situated on the northwest coast of Europe), in 1781. It was named by him the "Georgium Sidus," as a tribute of respect to a miserable, blind, old lunatic, who at that time happened to be king of the Island. Overlooking the sycophancy of the man, in their admiration. for the services of the Astronomer, his philosophical contemporaries renamed the planet Herschel, by which title it is still known. An attempt made by the courtiers of the English king to call it Uranus (a Latin expression, meaning " You reign over us "), happily failed to succeed. Herschel is supposed to be about eighty times larger than the Earth, and to