“The letters when joined together as they ought to be, say this, ‘Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi,’ ‘I have observed the most distant of the planets to have a triple form.’ “For in truth I have found out with the most intense surprise that the planet Saturn is not merely one single star, but three stars very close together, so much so that they are all but in contact one with another. They are quite immovable with regard to each other, and are arranged in this manner, o◯o. The middle star of the three is by far greater than the two on either side. They are situated one towards the east, the other towards the west, in one straight line to a hair’s-breadth; not, however, exactly in the direction of the Zodiac, for the star furthest to the west rises somewhat towards the north; perhaps they are parallel to the equator. If you look at them through a glass that does not multiply much, the stars will not appear clearly separate from one another, but Saturn’s orb will appear somewhat elongated, of the shape of an olive, thus, ☾☽. But if you should use a glass which multiplies a surface more than a thousand times, there will appear very distinctly three orbs, almost touching one another; and they will be thought to be not farther apart than the breadth of a very fine and scarcely visible thread. So you see a guard of satellites has been found for Jupiter, and for the decrepit little old man two servants to help his steps and never leave his side. Concerning the rest of the planets I have found nothing new.” So says Galileo; but if I may do so, I will not make an old dotard out of Saturn, and two servants for him out of his companion orbs, but rather out of those three united bodies I will make a triple Geryon, out of Galileo Hercules, and out of the telescope his club, armed with which, Galileo has conquered that most distant of the planets, drawn it out of the furthest recesses of nature, dragged it down to earth, and exposed it to the gaze of us all. It pleases me too, now that the nest has been found, to consider with curiosity what kind of brood must be in it, what kind of life, if there be any life there, between orbs which all but touch each other two and two, where not even “a space Of sky extends not more than three ells wide,”[24] but where there is scarcely a chink of a nail’s-breadth all round. [24] Virgil, _Eclog._ iii. 105.