He's of a fiery hue or dusky red;
His size five thousand miles diameter. And though his motion in his orbit makes Full five-and-fifty thousand miles an hour, His year is not far short of twice our own. Mars sometimes is seen gibbous, but not horn'd,
As Venus was before described to be.
He makes his own diurnal course in less
Than five-and-twenty hours;-hence his day
Is not an hour longer than our own.
Between the orbs of Mars and Jupiter,
Four Asteroids, or smaller planets, move;
Discern'd of late by telescopic eye,
Though unobservant to the common gaze.
First, beyond Mars, moves Vesta,-Ceres next ;-
Pallas still more remote, and Juno last.
Next Jupiter appears :-For magnitude
And light peculiarly distinguished.
Almost as large as Venus to the eye,
And nearly, too, as bright: though Jupiter
In bulk exceeds the other planets far,
Yet his amazing distance lessens much
(As viewed by us) his brightness and his bulk.
He is a thousand times as large as Earth;
Full ninety thousand miles diameter.
And then his orbit's distance from the Sun,
Almost five hundred millions of miles,
Or more than five times farther off than we.
Then, to complete his vast and annual course,
By moving twenty-nine thousand miles an hour,
Takes little less than twelve of our brief years.
Jupiter's daily or diurnal course,
Upon his axis, is amazing swift,
His day being scarcely ten of our hours.
Surrounding Jupiter are seen streak'd lines,
Or parallel faint substances, call'd Belts,
Thought from their frequent shiftings to be clouds.
Saturn, still more remote, with leaden hue,
Emits to us his pale and fainter light.
Though Jupiter, with distance so immense,
Draws but the fainter beams of solar fire,
Saturn is almost twice as far remote;
Being nine hundred millions of miles.
In bulk he yields to Jupiter alone,
Near eighty thousand miles diameter.
His year or annual period round the Sun,
Moving but twenty-two thousand miles an hour,
Is more by far than twice great Jupiter's;
'Tis twenty-nine and half of our years.
But the rotation which he daily makes
Upon his axis was by Herschel found
To be about ten hours and a quarter.
This planet has till lately been supposed
The most remote in all our solar system,
Till the year seventeen hundred eighty-one
Another planet was by Herschel seen,
Now call'd Uranus, or the Georgian.
Note-Saturn has a broad, thin, luminous ring,
Set edgewise round him,-yet so distant plac'd,
That, through the opening, stars are sometimes seen
To pass between the planet and the ring.
URANUS, OR HERSCHEL'S PLANET.
The Herschel planet, or Uranus, is
Thirty-four thousand miles diameter.
Near eighty times as large as is our globe;
But does not equal half of Saturn's bulk,
Though twice as far his distance from the Sun,
And nineteen times more distant than the Earth.
To pass through his vast orbit, and complete
His solar year, requires a space of time
That nearly equals eighty-four of ours.
A kind of bluish whiteness marks his way,
Though rarely seen without the telescope.
Comets revolve around our Sun, and bear
A long and fiery train or tail behind.
They do not in a circular orbit move,
But in extremely long elliptic curves.
Comets, compact and solid bodies are,
And, like the planets, various in their size.
Comets in flying from the Sun, rush off
In all directions through the planets' orbs,
Quite to our solar system's distant bounds;
And then, returning with rapidity,
Approach the Sun, and, heated by his rays,
To an amazing and intense degree,
Repell'd, rush off again their destin'd course,
Through distant regions, into empty space.
Besides these primary planets, thus describ'd,
There are eighteen attendants on their course,
Call'd secondaries, satellites, or moons;
All which revolve around their primaries,
As do these primaries around the Sun.
The Moon, the most conspicuous of these,
In a month's space revolves around our Earth;
Yet makes, with us, her progress round the Sun.
The Moon's mean distance from the Earth appears
About two hundred forty thousand miles;
And her diameter is found to be
Above two thousand and one hundred miles;
But that is small compar'd with ours; our globe
Is fifty times her bulk in solid earth;
And yet her disc but thirteen times more large.
Our Earth is to the Moon a larger moon;
And, viewed by the Moon's inhabitants,
Appears to wax and wane and shine as ours.
His shining by reflection on the Moon
Is evident soon after the Moon's change,
When a faint light o'erspreads the Moon's whole disc, Caus'd by the light reflected from the Earth,
There answering to our moonshine evenings here.
Four moons has Jupiter, and Saturn seven ;
And six upon the Herschel planet wait.
In his far distant solitary way.
They are term'd moons, because they near agree,
In purpose, course, and office, with our own.
And, from their phases' constant change, 'tis clear
They're all opaque, or dark, alike our Earth,
And shine by light received from the Sun.
CONCLUSION. THE FIXED STARS.
Our Solar System, thus describ'd, though great,
This earth on which we live, these planets, too,
Are but as a mere speck, compared unto
Th' immensity of the whole universe.
See yon fix'd stars, that spread heaven's concave o'er,
By thousands blazing! all these stars are suns!
Amazing thought!—thousands and thousands suns,
At distances immense, bestowing light
And heat, and fructifying influence,
Upon ten thousand times ten thousand worlds;
In rapid motion all, yet regular
And calm, and in profoundest harmony,
Invariably preserving each his course;
With myriads of beings peopled o'er,
Intelligent, and form'd for endless life,
Increas'd perfection, and felicity.
But human faculties are overpower'd!
And lost in the unfathomable abyss
Of this unbounded and stupendous scene!
Who can, alas! those distant limits see,
Where the Creator stays his rapid wheels,
Or where he fix'd his golden compasses!
Well might the Psalmist rapturously exclaim,
"How manifold, O Lord, appear thy works,
In perfect wisdom hast thou made them all!"
EXPLANATION OF A FEW ASTRONOMICAL
Ap-helion. The place of a planet's orbit which is farthest from the sun.
Apogee. The greatest distance of a planet from the earth spoken generally of the moon.
Apses, or Apsides. Two points in the orbits of the planets, at their greatest and least distance from the sun; and of the moon's orbit, when at its greatest and least distance from the earth.
Appulse. Near approach to any thing; as of the moon to the fixed stars.
Aspects are the respective situations of the moon and planets with the sun; such as trine, opposition, quartile.
Armillary. Resembling a bracelet (as the armillary sphere), composed of circles.
Acronical Stars. Stars which rise when the sun sets; and set when the sun rises.
Cardinal Points. The east, west, north, and south points of the compass.
Cosmical. The rising or setting of a planet or star with the sun.
Cusp. The horns of the moon.
Culminating. When a star is passing the meridian of any place.
Day, natural or civil. The time in which the earth completes a revolution on its axis.
Day, artifi'cial or solar. The time the sun is above the horizon of any place.
Day, astronomical, begins when the sun is on the
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