1.Previous
3.Next

noted in his work Cosmos,

Of the seven cosmical bodies which, by their continually varying relative positions and distances apart, have ever since the remotest antiquity been distinguished from the "unwandering orbs" of the heaven of the "fixed stars", which to all sensible appearance preserve their relative positions and distances unchanged, five only--Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn--wear the appearance of stars--"cinque stellas errantes"--while the Sun and Moon, from the size of their disks, their importance to man, and the place assigned to them in mythological systems, were classed apart.

1.Previous
3.Next