t
by the waters, the terrestrial globe is fairly regular, and in relation
to its volume its surface is smoother than that of an orange. The
highest summits of the Himalaya, the profoundest depths of the somber
ocean, do not attain to the millionth part of its diameter.

In weight, the Earth is five and a half times heavier than would be a
globe of water of the same dimensions. That is to say:

6,957,930,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms
(6,833,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons).

The atmospheric atmosphere with which it is surrounded represents.

6,263,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms
(6,151,000,000,000,000 tons).

Each of us carries an average weight of some 17,000 kilograms (16 tons)
upon his shoulders. Perhaps some one will ask how it is that we are not
crushed by this weight, which is out of all proportion with our
strength, but to which, nevertheless, we appear insensible. It is
because the aerial fluid enclosed within our bodies exerts a pressure
equal and opposite to the external atmospheric pressure, and these
pressures are at equilibrium.

The Earth is characterized by no essential or particular differences
relatively to the other worlds of our system. Like Venus of the limpid
rays, like the dazzling Jupiter, like all the planets, she courses
through space, carrying into Infinitude our hopes and destinies. Bigger
than Mercury, Venus, and Mars, she presents a very modest figure in
comparison with the enormous Jupiter, the strange system of Saturn, of
Uranus, and even of Neptune. For us her greatest interest is that she
serves as our residence, and if she were not our habitation we should
scarcely notice her. Dark in herself, she burns at a distance like a
star, returning to space the light she receives from the Sun. At the
distance of our satellite, she shines like an enormous moon, fourteen
times larger and more luminous than our gentle Phoebe. Observed from
Mercury or Venus, she embellishes the midnight sky with her sparkling
purity as Jupiter does for us. Seen from Mars, she is a brilliant
morning and evening star, presenting phases similar to those which Mars
and Venus show from here. From Jupiter, the terrestrial globe is little
more than an insignificant point, nearly always swallowed up in the
solar rays. As to the Saturnians, Uranians, and Neptunians, if such
people exist, they probably ignore our existence altogether. And in all
likelihood it is the same for the re