A fantastical excursion into the planetsSaunders and Otley, 1839 - 80 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
allowed amongst appalling appear asked Asteroides Astolfo astronomers atmosphere awful awhile beams behold believe bipeds breath bulk Ceres certainly cerulean colours comets conductor conjectures creatures cried Cybele Cybele's Cybelean daring deem delight dwarf planets dwellers earth earthly endeavours ether eyes fame fancy fantastical farther gaze gigantic give glance globe glory glowing goblin grant heaven heroes Hesper's imagine impudent Jovian Jupiter Jupiter's light look lunar lunarians lustre magic Mars Marsian martial megatherium mind moon mountains mystic natives nearer once papilion wings perhaps pericranium planet planetary poor probably prodigious reason regions ring ruddy rush satellites Saturn's Saturnian scorn seemed shapes sight soil solar solar system soul sphere spite sprite stupendous superior surely survey temple terra terrestrial thee thou thousand tion tivate Uranian Uranus various Venerean verily Vesta Vulcan ween whilst wish wonder wondrous
Popular passages
Page 169 - Moon one-sixth, and on the smaller planets probably not more than one-twentieth; giving a scale of which the extremes are in the proportion of sixty to one. Lastly, the density of Saturn hardly exceeds one-eighth of the mean density of the Earth, so that it must consist of materials not much heavier than cork. Now, under the various combinations of elements so important to life as these, what immense diversity must we not admit in the conditions of that great problem, the maintenance of animal and...
Page 45 - ... numerous loose and unconnected fragments, which time seems to have detached from their parent mass ; and when we examine the rents and ravines which accompany the over-hanging cliffs, we expect every moment that they are to be torn from their base, and that the process of destructive separation which we had only contemplated in its effects, is about to be exhibited before us in tremendous reality. The mountains called the Appennines, which traverse a portion of the Moon's disk from north-east...
Page 45 - ... below, seem to bid defiance to the laws of gravitation. Around the base of these frightful eminences, are strewed numerous loose and unconnected fragments, which time seems to have detached from their parent mass ; and when we examine the rents and ravines which accompany the over-hanging cliffs, we expect every moment that they are to be torn from their base, and that the process of destructive separation which we had...
Page 169 - Sea, or as if in a bath of quicksilver, where to sink is impossible. "A man placed on one of them would spring with ease sixty feet high, and sustain no greater shock in his descent than he does on the earth from leaping a yard. On such planets giants might exist, and those enormous animals which on earth require the buoyant power of water to counteract their weight, might there be denizens of the land.
Page 169 - ... of bodies must bear to their weights ; and, thirdly, the difference in the nature of the materials of which, from what we know of their mean density, we have every reason to believe they consist. The intensity of solar radiation is nearly seven times greater on Mercury than on the earth, and on Uranus 330 times less ; the proportion between the two extremes being that of upT 3 wards of 2000 to one.
Page 169 - ... that of upT 3 wards of 2000 to one. Let any one figure to himself the condition of our globe, were the sun to be septupled, to say nothing of the greater ratio ! or were it diminished to a seventh, or to a 300th of its actual power ! Again, the intensity of gravity, or its efficacy in counteracting muscular power and repressing animal activity on Jupiter is nearly three times that on the Earth, on Mars not more than one third, on the Moon one sixth, and on the four smaller planets probably not...
Page 168 - Three features principally strike us as necessarily productive of extraordinary diversity in the provisions by which, if they be, like our earth, inhabited, animal life must be supported. These...
Page 44 - ... projecting crags spring from their rugged flanks, and, threatening the valleys below, seem to bid defiance to the laws of gravitation. Around the base of these frightful eminences...
Page 45 - ... defiance to the laws of gravitation. Around the base of these frightful eminences, are strewed numerous loose and unconnected fragments, which time seems to have detached from their parent mass ; and when we examine the rents and ravines which accompany the over-hanging cliffs, we expect every moment that they are to be torn from their base, and that the process of destructive separation which we had only contemplated in its effects, is about to be exhibited before us in tremendous reality. The...