HOW THEY LIVE IN JUPITER.

Auckland Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2241, 12 May 1877, Page 3

HOW THEY LIVE IN JUPITER.

FLAMMARIOUB SPECULATIONS ABOUT ONI

OF OUR NEIGHBORING PLANETS. THE world of Jupiter is the most voluminous of all the globes of our system : it is only 1,000 times smaller than the sun, and by itself alone is equal to 1,400 terrestrial globes. So, although it revolves in a circuit,

that i-< almost 200,000,000 leagues distant, and receives a light very much fainter than that received by the earth, its bulkincss is manifested through the brilliancy Avith which it shines during our starlight nights; a brilliancy equal, and often very superior, to that Avith which Venus sparkles. His is a ravishing world, at least, so far as one can judge from a distance, without having been there. In the first place, a perpetual springtime radiates over his surface. If lie is bedecked Avith flowers, a circumstance of which Aye entertain no doubt, saving as to knOAving of Avhat such flowers may consist •—-they do net live o:jiy l'espace d'uu matin (the soace of a nuniing,) as your roses, but enjoy an existence infinitely more^ lengthened. Scarcely do the older ones begin to show a few wrinkles .and wax wan, ere replaced by charming buds putting forth their bloom before the first have withered. Not only does every year on the Jovian planet equal twelve of our years, but we furthur hardly know when the annual period begins or ends. The;c are no summers, no winters, but always the spring. Then, the Avorld of Jupiter presents a surface one hundred and twenty-six times more extensive than the earth's. I say surface, and not volume. Noav, one hundred and twentysix earths, one placed alongside another, and over which mankind might spread at will, Avould constitute an exceedingly fine country, would it not ? We ought not, then to doubt that such an empire was formed to serve as a, dAvelling-place for some human family worthy of all our respect. Because we fkid, through observation of the Jovian planet, excellent reasons for believing its inhabitants greatly favoured, it does not follow that the said inhabitants should make the same reflections respecting us. A food reason confronts the supposition of their bothering themselves thereabout—the fact that thcA: do not so much as suspect our existence. And, indeed, should it ever, in a future more or less distant, happen to you to dwell on Jupiter, you Avould have no little trouble to find your former home. You would have to get up a bit before sunrise (and take note that there are but five hours between the rising and setting of that orb on Jupiter), and, five or six minutes before the sun's appearance, seek in the east for a very tiny Avhite star. With very sharp eyes you might chance, perhaps, to perceive it. In such a case you would know that our earth is in the world* So again, six months later, you might make the same search in the Avcst a feAv moments after the day king's retiring. Such arc the conditions iii Avhieh the dwellers of Jupiter find themselves as regards us. l&artfe is never seen from there during the Wight, while it is precisely in the calm night-fee that avc, from here", can best observe that magnificent planet. As for the planets which follow—Saturn, Uranus and NtrpftWne —they cannot have, respecting thereto, any conception Avhatevcr. Jupiter is in sooth j a world, a splendid Avorld, besides which ours is verily a moon, and Avere Aye 'to observe it close at hand, to grow accustomed to its nature, to live awhile amid it-si surroundings, and appreciate its; importance, Aye should regard oar globe a« very modest Avhen coming forth from such a place of sojourn. We should belike those' good village folk, avlio came once in their, lifetime to Paris, and avlio, if they have the ill-luck t" remain there a month only, no longer knoAV what to make of their village' —if,'is eclipsed by the mere recollection'of the splendiior caught sight of. Miss Ph(ebe7~Brown7"aged <>S, loved her eats. For eighteen years she lived in a first-floor back room in London, and systematically fed a dozen cats. When site grcAV feeble and was no longer able to work, 'she starved herself, and pawned everything she had in order to keep her poor pets 1' iViieix ahc V>\.o a+cl; ; a-ic S'UU'YCU ii-I'SCU 111