“The trash or leavings of creation,” said I reflectively.

“And the raw material, for nothing is lost,” rejoined Gazen.  “Now, in spite of all its diversity, there is a remarkable symmetry in the solar system.  The planets are all moving round the sun in one direction along circular paths.  As a rule each is nearly as far again from the sun as the next within it.  Thus, if we take Mercury as 3/4 inch from the sun, Venus is about 11/4 inches, the Earth 21/4, Mars 2, the planetoids 51/4, Jupiter 93/4, Saturn 14, Uranus 36, and Neptune 60 inches.  On the same scale, by the way, Enckes’ comet at Aphelion, its farthest distance from the sun, would be about 12 feet; Donatis almost a mile; and Alpha Centauri, a near star in the Milky Way, some ten miles.

“The stately march of the planets in their orbits becomes slower the farther they are from the sun.  The velocity of Mercury in its orbit is thirty, that of Jupiter is eight, and that of Neptune is only three miles a second.  On the other hand, the inner planets, as a rule, take some twenty-four hours, and the outer only ten hours to spin round their axis.  The inner planets are small in comparison with the outer.  If we represent the sun by a gourd, 20 inches in diameter, Mercury will seem a bilberry ({~FRACTION NUMERATOR ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT ONE~}{~SUBSCRIPT SIX~} inch) Venus, a white currant, the Earth a black currant (1/4 inch), Mars a red currant ({~VULGAR FRACTION ONE EIGHTH~} inch), the planetoids as fine seed, Jupiter an orange or peach (2 inches), Saturn a nectarine or greengage (1 inch), Uranus a red cherry (3/4 inch), and Neptune a white cherry (barely 1 inch in diameter).  By putting the sun and planets in a row, and drawing a contour of the whole, we obtain the figure of a dirk, a bodkin, or an Indian club, in which the sun stands for the knob (disproportionately big), the inner planets for the handle, and the outer for the blade or body.  Again, the average density of the inner planets exceeds that of the outer by nearly five to one, but the mass of any planet is greater than the combined masses of all which are smaller than it.  The inner planets derive all their light and heat from the sun, and have few or no satellites; whereas the outer, to all appearance, are secondary suns, and have their own retinue of worlds.  On the similitude of a clan or house we may regard the inner planets as the immediate retainers of the chief, and the outer as the chieftains of their own septs or families.”

“How do you account for the symmetrical arrangement?” I enquired.

“The origin of the solar system is, you know, a mystery,” replied the astronomer.  “According to the nebular hypothesis we may imagine that two or more dark suns, perhaps encircled with planets, have come into collision.  Burst into atoms by the stupendous shock they would fill the surrounding region with a vast nebula of incandescent gases in a state of violent agitation.  Its luminous fringes