“What is to be said concerning so strange a metamorphosis? Are the two lesser stars consumed after the manner of the solar spots? Have they vanished or suddenly fled? Has Saturn, perhaps, devoured his own children? Or were the appearances indeed illusion or fraud, with which the glasses have so long deceived me, as well as many others to whom I have shewn them? Now, perhaps, is the time come to revive the well-nigh withered hopes of those who, guided by more profound contemplations, have discovered the fallacy of the new observations, and demonstrated the utter impossibility of their existence. I do not know what to say in a case so surprising, so unlooked for, and so novel. The shortness of the time, the unexpected nature of the event, the weakness of my understanding, and the fear of being mistaken have greatly confounded me.”
[Illustration: Fig. 16.—General view of the Phases of Saturn’s Rings.]
Galileo seems to have become so out of heart in consequence of the difficulty of determining what these changes really meant, that he gave up altogether observing Saturn. In the course of time, but by very gradual steps, astronomers came to realise what the facts were. The next idea that was broached, was that the planet consisted of simply one central ball, and that the excrescences which Galileo had been puzzled by were merely handles as they were called, (_ansæ_) projecting like the handles, say of a soup tureen, though why they should vary in size at stated intervals remained as great a mystery as ever. It was not until about 1656 that the true explanation was arrived at by a Dutchman, named Christopher Huygens. It was the fashion in those days for scientific men to intimate to the world discoveries which they had made by resort to mysterious anagrams, which served in some degree the purpose which in the present day is served by the law regulating copyright or patent rights. Accordingly Huygens published the following singular memorandum:—
aaaaaaa cccc d eeeee g h i iiiiii llll mm nnnnnnnnn oo oo pp q rr s ttttt uuuuu.
These letters arranged in their proper order furnish the following Latin sentence:—
_Annulo cingitur, tenui, plano, nusquam cohaerente, ad eclipticam inclinato_; which Latin sentence becomes in the English tongue:—