1787-8. These satellites are from 132,400 to 2,514,000 miles distant, and perform their revolutions in 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 15, and 79 days respectively. Georgium Sidus, Herschel, or Uranus, is the most distant of the planets. It was discovered by Dr. Herschel at Bath, on 13th March, 1781. It is called Uranus, because, in the heathen mythology, this name denoted the father of Saturn, as Saturn was the father of Jupiter. Being at so great a distance, 1,820,958,808 miles, it appears no bigger than a star of the sixth magnitude. The length of its day is unknown, but its year is 84 of our years and 26 days. Its velocity in its orbit is 15,600 miles per hour. Its diameter is 36,000 miles, and its surface 3,800,000,000 square miles, and solidity 24,000,000,000,000 cubic miles. Its light and heat are 1-330th of what we receive. The temperature of any body cannot be lower than that of space, which is 58 deg. below the zero point of Fahrenheit. If the projectile force were destroyed, it would fall to the sun in 3 years 212 days. Herschel is attended by six satellites, also discovered by Dr. Herschel; they are remarkable from moving in a plane nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic, and also from their motion being retrograde, that is from east to west; their distances vary from 225,000 to 1,560,400 miles, and the periods of their revolutions are 6, 8, 11, 13, 38, and 1073 days. Having now treated of the planets, we will return to the consideration of our Earth, with reference to its seasons, tides, and eclipses. The Seasons. If the earth's axis were perpendicular to its orbit, or if the earth remained motionless in the heavens, every portion of its surface would experience a sameness of temperature; it would be con stant summer to one place, and constant winter to another; one part would be frozen, while another would be parched up. This is obviated by the earth's axis being declined a few degrees (234) from a perpendicular to its orbit, so that all the inhabitants of the earth are proportionally favoured with light and heat. Though the earth is nearer the sun in winter than in summer, yet this difference, 2,754,000 miles, bears but little proportion to the mean distance, being as 34 to 1000; besides which the sun's rays fall then much more obliquely on the earth's surface where we live; but principally there is a much greater degree of cold in the long winter nights, than can return of heat in the short days. The Tides. If the earth were stationary, the waters would rush to the poles, and deluge them; if the earth were truly spherical, the waters would rush to the equator. But as the equatorial diameter is greater than the polar, and the earth does revolve, the effect of the centrifugal force counteracts the effects of the greater distance of the equator from the centre. Thus we find that the waters are not kept at any particular portion of the earth, but indiscriminately at the poles and equator. (To be continued.) TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN 'A something shining in the dark, And knew the glow-worm by his spark.'-COWPER. MADAM, 'Tis said that joys anticipated far transcend the realization. Such may be the experience of some, but I am not prepared to subscribe, without reservation, to the doctrine. I admit most willingly that there exists not an earthly sweet without its accompanying bitter; but if we expect the bitter for the time to come that we have invariably found in the creature in time past, I apprehend that sometimes it will prove less than anticipated, and short of those we have felt before. If we close our eyes and expect too much, it is but just that we should feel disappointment. And who is there that reads and believes the bible, that ought so to act? Does not that blessed volume teem with the news that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards; and yet the same is not less true, that the real believer is as one sorrowful yet alway rejoicing." On one fine day in the summer of last year, as I strolled through the flower-garden and demesne of a friend, in a most enchanting part of the kingdom, I was enabled to enjoy (and the reflection brings not torment) objects such as follow: High in the blue heavens, without a cloud to obscure his beams of brightness, shone the flaming sun himself, worthy the contemplation and admiration of the greatest minds and finest tastes that have ever adorned the literary or religious world. All the animal and vegetable creation appear to rejoice in his benign influence, and claim him as their secondary benefactor next of creation to the great Creator himself. He is not only the instrument of light, but life itself, to most terrestrial things. His presence beautifies and gladdens the universe, and his absence saddens and deforms nature in all its glories. At the distance of the height on which I stood rolled the mighty deep, its wavy surface reflecting the blue of æther as a mirror, with its hundred vessels in sight, bound for the different shores of the globe. What an object for contemplation the ocean and its depths! Then for miles, on the opposite side, appeared the green hills, some clothed with trees of many variegated shades and tints, from the silvery aspen to the dark pine; while others were speckled with white sheep or the larger cattle, all happy looking, as they roamed or rested in the verdant pastures. Nearer me was visible the meadow with its yellow flowers and waving grass; while all around me I could inspect the flowers, not only the natural offspring of the fields, but the carefully cultivated children of the garden. On the margin of a crystal pond, fringed with green moss, was to be seen the rose, the queen of flowers, in beauty's brightest dyes, with the blush of youthful beauty on its petals, and the array of many a bristling spear, to guard its fair face from rude assaults. At some distance, and refreshed by the long shadow of the neighbouring trees, the graceful lily raised its fair head, the flower next in pedigree to the sweet queen herself; and by the lily's side grew the bright tulip in all its delicate and fine colours; there were the pinks and carnations, with odoriferous incense perfuming all around, and the heart's-ease, primrose, polyanthus, narcissus, and the bordering daisy, with all the fair assemblage, whose names are too numerous to recount, from the great sunflower and holyhock, down to the blue-eyed forget-me-not and the wild daisy, to all and each of which the sun had lent his brightest colours. Revelling among these sweet inhabitants of the garden, roamed the bee and the butterfly, some on profit, some on pleasure bent, while thousands of different insects played on the wing, and basked in the sun's warm rays. Evergreens and flowering shrubs, tastefully dispersed over the smooth lawn, and protected from every rude blast of the north or east. The lark, out of the ken of the eye, aloft in air chanted his sweetest carol, and the thrush, in the deep shade of the neighbouring wood, made the valley and rocks to re-echo to his vocal throat. A breeze set in from the sea, just enough to bring refreshing coolness, and diffuse sweetness on its wings from the flowers, or shake the green trees' leaves. With a book to relieve the mind from the contemplation of these earthly enjoyments in my hand, I passed most of this day, long and happy as it was. After dining with the hospitable lord and lady of the seat and their numerous family of young and gay spirits, it was proposed that we should take an evening stroll through a most romantic wood, greatly beautified by walks cut along the top of a steeply inclining plain, with a rustic seat here and there to |