Could we then view our handiwork from the standpoint of another planet, what appearance would our earth present? The several pebbles, though individually so small, would yet, by their countless numbers, reflect the sun’s light so as to produce the appearance of a continuous sheet. Thus we should find a large bright outer ring surrounding the earth, separated by a dark interval from the inner ring, and at the margin of the inner ring the pebbles would be so much more sparsely distributed that we should be able to see through them to some extent. That beautiful system of rings which Saturn displays is undoubtedly of a similar character to the hypothetical system which I have endeavored to describe. No other explanation will account for the facts, especially for the semi-transparency of the crape ring. The separate bodies from which Saturn’s rings are constituted seem, however, so small that we are not able to see them individually. There are some other fine lines running round the rings beside the great division, and these can also be explained by the theory I have stated.
Saturn has other claims on our attention besides those of its rings. It has an elaborate retinue of satellites--no fewer, indeed, than nine; but some of them are very faint objects, and not by any means so interesting as the system by which Jupiter is attended. The ninth of these was discovered quite recently by Professor W. H. Pickering, of Harvard College Observatory. This little moon, for which the name “Phoebe” has been suggested, is further from the planet than any of the others. It is a minute object shining as a star of the 15th or 16th magnitude, and moves around the planet in a period of about sixteen months.
Saturn was the last and outermost of the planets with which the ancients were acquainted. Its path lay on the frontiers of the then known solar system, and the magnificence of the planet itself, with its attendant luminaries and its marvellous rings, rendered it worthy indeed of a position so dignified. These five planets--namely, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn--made up with the sun and the moon the seven “planets” of the ancients. They were supposed to complete the solar system, and, furthermore, the existence of other members was thought to be impossible. In modern times it has been discovered that there are yet two more planets. I do not now refer to those little bodies which run about in scores between Mars and Jupiter. I mean two grand first-class planets, far bigger than our earth. One of them is Uranus, which revolves far outside Saturn, and the other is Neptune, which is much further still, and whose mighty orbit includes the whole planetary system in its circuit. To complete its journey round the sun not less than 165 years is required.