Consider first the way in which the several planets, as respects size,
stand ordered in distance from the sun. Nearest to him is Mercury, the
smallest of all the principal ones. Venus and the Earth follow, each
larger than the last; then comes Mars, of distinctly less bulk, and
so to the asteroids, of almost none. After this the mass rises again
to its maximum in Jupiter, and then subsequently falls through Saturn
to Uranus and Neptune. Here we mark a more or less regular gradation
between mass and position, a curve in which there are two ups and
downs, the outer swell being much the larger, though the inner, too, is
sufficiently pronounced.
Now turn to Saturn and his family, which is the most numerous of the
secondary systems and that having the greatest span. Under Saturn’s
wing, as it were, is the ring, itself a congeries of tiny satellites.
Then comes Mimas, the smallest of the principal ones; then Enceladus,
a little larger; then Tethys, the biggest of the three. Next stands
Dione, smaller than Tethys. Then the mass increases with Rhea, reaching
its culmination in Titan, after which it declines once more. Strangely
reproductive this of the curve we marked in the arrangement of the
planets themselves, even to the little inner rise and fall.
[Illustration: MASSES OF PLANETS AND SATELLITES.]
Striking as such analogous ordering is, it is not all. For, scanning
the Jovian system, we find the main curve here again; Ganymede, the
Jupiter or Titan of the system, standing in the same medial position
as they. Lastly, taking up Uranus and his family of satellites, the
same order is observable there. Titania, the largest, is posted in the
centre.
Thus the order in which the little and the big are placed with
reference to their controlling orb is the same in the solar system
and in that of every one of its satellite families. Method here is
unmistakable. Nor is it easy to explain unless the cause in all was
like. That the rule in the placing of the planets should be faithfully
observed by them in the ordering of their own domestic retinues, is
not the least strange feature of the arrangement. It argues a common
principle for both. Not less significant is the secondary hump in
their distribution, denoting recrudescence farther in of the primary
procedure shown without.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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