Whether this planet, with a year a thousand of our years in length, will
ever be seen with a telescope, or whether its existence will ever, in
some other manner, be fully demonstrated, can not yet be told. It will
be remembered that Neptune was discovered by means of computations based
upon its disturbing attraction on Uranus before it had ever been
recognized with the telescope. But when the astronomers in the
observatories were told by their mathematical brethren where to look
they found the planet within half an hour after the search began. So it
is possible the suspected great planet beyond Neptune may be within the
range of telescopic vision, but may not be detected until elaborate
calculations have deduced its place in the heavens. As a populous city
is said to furnish the best hiding-place for a man who would escape the
attention of his fellow beings, so the star-sprinkled sky is able to
conceal among its multitudes worlds both great and small until the most
painstaking detective methods bring them to recognition.
CHAPTER VIII
THE MOON, CHILD OF THE EARTH AND THE SUN
Very naturally the moon has always been a great favorite with those who,
either in a scientific or in a literary spirit, have speculated about
the plurality of inhabited worlds. The reasons for the preference
accorded to the moon in this regard are evident. Unless a comet should
brush us--as a comet is suspected of having done already--no celestial
body, of any pretensions to size, can ever approach as near to the earth
as the moon is, at least while the solar system continues to obey the
organic laws that now control it.
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