Page:The evolution of worlds - Lowell.djvu/89

Rh miles, but so eccentric is his orbit, the most so of any of the principal planets, that he is at times half as far off again as at others. Even his orbital behavior is the least understood of any in the solar system. His orbit swings round at a rate which so far has defied analysis. It may be a case of reflected perturbation, one, that is, of which the indirect effect from another body becomes more perceptible than would be the direct effect on the body itself. As yet it baffles geometers.

As to his person, our ignorance until lately was profound. It is only recently that such fundamental facts about him as his size, his mass, and his density have been reached with any approach to precision. This was because he so closely hugs the Sun that observations upon his full, or nearly full, disk had never been attempted. When I say that his volume was not known to within a third of its amount, his mass not closer than one-half, while his received density was nearly double what we now have reason to suppose the fact, some idea of the depth of our nescience may be imagined. This, of course, did not prevent text-books from confidently misinstructing youth, or Nautical Almanacs from misguiding computers with figures that thus almost achieved immortality, so long had they passed current in spite of lacking that perfection which is usually assigned as its warrant.