as to whose planet it really was; everybody blamed somebody else, except Adams, who never blamed any one but himself for being too shy and easily discouraged. We need not follow the story further now than to say that it was at last honourably agreed to share the merit of the discovery equally between Adams and Leverrier.
But I scarcely think we English have done enough public honour to the part played by Adams; there is indeed a plaque of his head in Westminster Abbey; but in the centre of the courtyard of the Paris Observatory there is a fine big statue of Leverrier, with head erect, pointing with his finger at a globe representing Neptune. "They order this matter better in France."
We must now turn from the planets to their satellites. In one of the books which I mentioned at the outset, Mr. Griffith's Honeymoon in Space, it is suggested that instead of landing on Jupiter, which may still be so hot as to burn our feet, we should land on one of his satellites. We are not yet sure how many he has, but we know that he has at least eight.[1]
- ↑ A ninth satellite to Jupiter was discovered by Mr. Seth B. Nicholson in July 1914.
