Chapter I. First Steps. — Astronomy（续 1）

The Moon may be called the mother of the earth, for all life that once existed there, together with its water and atmosphere, has been drawn off by the earth, the Moon being the physical globe in a past chain of worlds connected with our evolution ; she has been best known ^a\ as Luna or Isis. Her symbol is the half-circle or the crescent. JJ

Next to our earth is the planet Mars, who is about 139 million miles from the Sun, has a year of 687 of our days, and his day is about 45 minutes longer than our own. He has been known as the god of war and hunting, and by the names of Ares and Nimrod ; his mission appears to have been 1 to dispel terror and fear. His symbol

is the circle under the cross r\. This planet belongs to our chain

The circles of the Asteroids come next, the principal planets, which are small, being Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas. The swarm of Asteroids are said to be raw material for another planetary system.

Next we come 10 the largest orb next to the Sun in our solar system, Jupiter, who is about 475 million miles from the centre, and

takes twelve years in going round the Sun ; his day consists of about ten hours. Jupiter is the next brightest planet to Venus, and is accompanied by four satellites. It is in course of preparation for its humanity, being at present uninhabited. This planet has been known as Zeus, his symbol is the half circle over the cross.

Saturn, the next planet in order, is 877 million miles from the centre, and he takes nearly thirty years to revolve round the Sun ; the length of his day is over twelve hours, he is surrounded by rings, and nine Moons. Saturn was the son of Uranus, and was known as Chronos. His symbol is the half circle under the cross.

Beyond Saturn is Ui:anus, commonly called Herschel after its re-discoverer. His distance from the Sun is about 1,754 niillion miles', he revolves round the solar orb once in 84 of our years, being accompanied by six satellites. He was known as Ouranus.

Next to Uranus comes Neptune, the most distant planet as yet discovered, who revolves round the Sun at a distance of about 2,747 millions of miles, and his year is equal to 165 of our years.

Beyond Neptune there are two other planets, as yet unknown to physical science.

j-^ Distance from the Name of Planet, g. Sun.

Mercury - Venus The Earth .Mars Jupiter - Saturn Uranus - Neptune -

35,392,000 66.131,500 91,430,200 139,312,200 475»693'ioo 872,134,600 753^8511000 746.271,200

The Earth's mean distance from the Moon ^ 238,000 miles. The variation of distance of the Moon from the Earth is 26,000 miles, whilst that of the Earth from the Sun is 3,500,000 miles.