THE PLANETS URANUS AND NEPTUNE. 423

passage might, year by year, be expected to do so vastlymore.

It is, of course, just possible that Jupiter might, when nearto Perihelion, affect the Sun , and that such an effect transmittedthrough the Sun to the Earth might be much greater than itsdirect action. And we are aware, that it has at times beensuspected that Jupiter ’s position relatively to the Sun actuallyinfluences its spots, or other phenomena, to some slightextent. Nevertheless, no decided proof has yet been obtainedof any influence exerted by Jupiter (huge as is its bulk)upon its much greater ruler, which deserves to be termedimportant.

We may, therefore, say that, up to the present time, noeffect, direct or indirect, of the passage of Jupiter , much less ofany other planet, through its Perihelion, has been proved to actupon the Earth , either for good or evil. On the other hand,we cannot absolutely affirm its impossibility. And we mayfurther allow that Jupiter is so important a body, that itmay be well to watch for any synchronism of other phenomenawith its periodic time, which, if detected, would deserve themost careful attention.

Here we must for the present close our discussion of theSolar System ;—its Sun , its Planets , and its Moons . Not thatwe can pretend that our treatment of either Satellite or Planet has been in any wise exhaustive, or as complete as we couldhave wished to make it; much less were we able to give duespace in our first two short lectures to the description of themarvels of the Sun , or to follow out the many suggestive linesof thought which they involve, and the important issues towhich they lead.

Nor do we forget, not only that there may be many bodiesin the Solar System yet unknown to us—Planets circling be-yond the path of Neptune , or within that of Mercury—Minor Planets, , the succession of whose discovery has hitherto neverceased,—Comets , whose known numbers increase as each yearpasses, and of which many more would probably be seen ifsufficient time could be devoted to a systematic scouring ofthe heavens in order thereto;—but that, even amongst the