t would be weight were it at the earth's surface; and
far away as Uranus is, the bodies from which such calculations may be
made have been discovered, for he has no less than four satellites, or
moons. Considering now the peculiar position of the planet, we might
expect to find these moons revolving in a very different way from
others, and this is indeed the case. They turn round the planet at
about its Equator--that is to say, if you hold the top representing
Uranus as was suggested just now, these moons would go above and below
the planet in passing round it. Only we must remember there is really no
such thing as above and below absolutely. We who are on one side of the
world point up to the sky and down to the earth, while the people on the
other side of the earth, say at New Zealand, also point up to the sky
and down to the earth, but their pointings are directly the opposite of
ours. So when we speak of moons going above and below that is only
because, for the moment, we are representing Uranus as a top we hold in
our hands, and so we speak of above and below as they are to us.

It was Herschel who discovered these satellites, as well as the planet,
and for these great achievements he occupies one of the grandest places
in the role of names of which England is proud. But he did much more
than this: his improvements in the construction of telescopes, and his
devotion to astronomy in many other ways, would have caused him to be
remembered without anything else.

Of Uranus's satellites one, the nearest, goes round in about two and a
half days, and the one that is furthest away takes about thirteen and a
half days, so both have a shorter period than our moon.

The discovery of Uranus filled the whole civilized world with wonder.
The astronomers who had seen him, but missed finding out that he was a
planet, must have felt bitterly mortified, and when he was discovered he
was observed with the utmost accuracy and care. The calculations made to
determine his path in the sky were the easier because he had been noted
as a star in several catalogues previously, so that his position for
some time past was known. Everybody who worked at astronomy began to
observe him. From these facts mathematicians set to work, and, by
abstruse calculations, worked out exactly the orbit in which he ought to
move; then his movements were again watched, and behold he followed the
path predicted for him; but there was a small difference here an