Are they _worlds_? Why not? Is not a drop of water shown in the microscope peopled with a multitude of various beings? Does not a stone in a meadow hide a world of swarming insects? Is not the leaf of a plant a world for the species which inhabit and prey upon it? Doubtless among the multitude of small planets there are those which must remain desert and sterile because the conditions of life (of any kind) are not found united. But we can not doubt that on the majority the ever-active forces of nature have produced, as in our world, creations appropriate to these minute planets. Let us repeat, moreover, that for nature there is neither great nor little. And there is no necessity to flatter ourselves with a supreme disdain for these little worlds, for in reality the inhabitants of Jupiter would have more right to despise us than we have to despise Vesta, Ceres, Pallas, or Juno: the disparity is greater between Jupiter and the earth than between the earth and these planets. FOOTNOTES: [27] Goldschmidt passionately loved astronomy, and I have found among his papers, which his family left me, numerous observations and remarks which show how he loved the study of the sky. His greatest ambition had been, at first, to possess a small telescope, in order to make some observations, and the best day of his life was that on which he found one in the possession of a dealer in old stores. He hastened to direct it to the sky from his modest studio, situated in one of the most frequented streets of Paris (Rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie), above the Café Procope, formerly used as a rendezvous by the stars of literature. There, _from his window_, he discovered, in 1852, the 21st small planet, which received from Arago the name of Lutetia; then, in 1854, the 32d (Pomona); then, in 1855, the 36th (Atlanta); and afterward eleven others, all from his window. Having often removed in search of a pure atmosphere, he finally retired to Fontainebleau, where the forest offered him on all sides admirable subjects for painting; and here he died in 1866. JUPITER.—AGNES M. CLERKE Jupiter is by far the most important member of the solar family. The aggregate mass of all the other planets is only two-fifths of his, which 316 earths would be needed to counterbalance. His size is on a still more colossal scale than his weight, since in volume he exceeds our globe 1,380 times. His polar and equatorial diameters measure respectively 84,570 and 90,190 miles, giving a mean diameter of 88,250 miles, and a polar compression of 1/16th. The corresponding equatorial protuberance rises to 2,000 miles, so that the elliptical figure of the planet strikes an observer at the first glance. This at once indicates rapid axial movement; and Jupiter’s rotation is accordingly performed in nine hours and fifty-five minutes, with an uncertainty of a couple of minutes.