Indeed, Dr. Dick found room for more
inhabitants on Saturn's rings than on Saturn itself, for, excluding the
gauze ring, undiscovered in his day, the two surfaces of the rings are
greater in area than the surface of the globe of the planet. He did not
attack the problem of the weight of bodies on worlds in the form of
broad, flat, thin, surfaces like Saturn's rings, or indulge in any
reflections on the interrelations of the inhabitants of the opposite
sides, although he described the wonderful appearance of Saturn and
other celestial objects as viewed from the rings.
But all these speculations fall to the ground in face of the simple fact
that if we could reach Saturn's rings we should find nothing to stand
upon, except a cloud of swiftly flying dust or a swarm of meteors,
swayed by contending attractions. And, indeed, it is likely that upon
arriving in the immediate neighborhood of the rings they would virtually
disappear! Seen close at hand their component particles might be so
widely separated that all appearance of connection between them would
vanish, and it has been estimated that from Saturn's surface the rings,
instead of presenting a gorgeous arch spanning the heavens, may be
visible only as a faintly gleaming band, like the Milky Way or the
zodiacal light. In this respect the mystic Swedenborg appears to have
had a clearer conception of the true nature of Saturn's rings than did
Dr. Dick, for in his book on The Earths in the Universe he says--using
the word "belt" to describe the phenomenon of the rings:
"Being questioned concerning that great belt which appears from our
earth to rise above the horizon of that planet, and to vary its
situations, they [the inhabitants of Saturn] said that it does not
appear to them as a belt, but only as somewhat whitish, like snow in the
heaven, in various directions.
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