starting-point,
therefore all these fragments would in due course return to the point in
the heavens where the original planet had exploded. Hence the search might
be most profitably conducted in the neighbourhood of the spot where the
two first fragments (which had been named Ceres and Pallas) had already
been found. We now have good reason to believe that this view is a
mistaken one, but nevertheless it was apparently confirmed by the
discovery of two more bodies of the same kind, which were called Juno and
Vesta; the second of these being found by Olbers himself after three
years' patient work in 1807. Hence, although the idea of searching for a
more or less definitely imagined planet was not new, although Bode had
conceived it as early as 1785, and organised a search on this plan, three
planets were actually found before the first success attending a definite
search. Ceres, as already remarked, was found by a pure accident; and the
same may be said of Pallas and Juno, though it may fairly be added that
Pallas was actually contrary to expectation.

MINOR PLANETS, 1801 TO 1850.

+---------------------------------------+
|Number| Name. | Discoverer. | Date.|
|---------------------------------------|
| 1 | Ceres | Piazzi | 1801 |
| 2 | Pallas | Olbers | 1802 |
| 3 | Juno | Harding | 1804 |
| 4 | Vesta | Olbers | 1807 |
|------|-----------|-------------|------|
| 5 | Astraea | Hencke | 1845 |
| 6 | Hebe | Hencke | 1847 |
| 7 | Iris | Hind | 1847 |
| 8 | Flora | Hind | 1847 |
| 9 | Metis | Graham | 1848 |
| 10 | Hygeia | De Gasparis | 1849 |
| 11 | Parthenope| De Gasparis | 1850 |
| 12 | Victoria | Hind | 1850 |
| 13 | Egeria | De Gasparis | 1850 |
+---------------------------------------+

[Sidenote: Hencke's long search.]

Here now is a table showing how other bodies were gradually added to this
first list of four, but you will see that no addition was made for a long
time. Not that the search was immediately abandoned; but being rewarded by
no success for some years, it was gradually dropped, and the belief gained
ground that the number of the planets was at last complete. The
discoverers of Uranus and of these first four minor planets all died
before any further addition was made; and it was not until the end of 1845
that Astraea was fo