casional
murmur is all that is heard. Great rocks of ice reflect the light of
the grey moons, and never a leaf falls or a bird sings. With the
exception of the mournful ripples, the planet is silent as the grave.
The animal and plant kingdoms do not exist; only the mineral and
spiritual worlds. I say spiritual, because there are souls upon it;
but it is the home of the condemned in hell. Here dwell the
transgressors who died unrepentant, and those who were not saved by
faith. This is the one instance in which I do not enjoy my developed
sight, for I sometimes glance in their direction, and the vision that
meets me, as my eyes focus, distresses my soul. Their senses are like
an imperfect mirror, magnifying all that is bad in one another, and
distorting anything still partially good when that exists. All those
things that might at least distract them are hollow, their misery being
the inevitable result of the condition of mind to which they became
accustomed on earth and which brought them to Cassandra. But let us
turn to something brighter.

"Though the solar system may seem complex, the sun is but a star among
the millions in the Milky Way, and, compared with the planetary systems
of Sirius, the stars of the Southern Cross, and the motions of the
nebula, it is simplicity itself. Compared with the splendour of
Sirius, with its diameter of twelve million miles, the sun, measuring
but eight hundred and forty thousand, becomes insignificant; and this
giant's system includes groups and clusters of planets, many with three
times the mass of Jupiter, five and six together, each a different
colour, revolving about a common centre, while they swing about their
primary. Their numerous moons have satellites encircling them, with
orbits in some cases at right angles to the plane of the ecliptic, so
that they shine perpendicularly on what correspond to the arctic and
antarctic regions, while their axes are so inclined that the satellites
turn a complete somersault at each revolution, producing glistening
effects of ice and snow at the poles. Some of the moons are at a red
or white heat, and so prevent the chill of night on the planets, while
they shine with more than reflected light. In addition to the five or
six large planets in each group, which, however, are many millions of
miles apart, there is in some clusters a small planet that swings
backward and forward across the common centre, like a pendulum, but in
nearly