"For that reason, Johnson, I was going to give you two comparisons which you could remember. Don't forget that it would take seventy-five moons to make the sun,[*] and three hundred and fifty thousand earths to make up the weight of the sun."
"That is tremendous!" said Altamont.
"Tremendous is the word," answered the doctor; "but, to return to the Pole, no lesson on cosmography on this part of the globe could be more opportune, if it doesn't weary you."
"Go on, Doctor, go on!"
"I told you," resumed the doctor, who took as much pleasure in giving as the others did in receiving instruction,—"I told you that the Pole was motionless in comparison with the rest of the globe. Well, that is not quite true!"
"What!" said Bell, "has that got to be taken back?"
"Yes, Bell, the Pole is not always exactly in the same place; formerly the North Star was farther from the celestial pole than it is now. So our Pole has a certain motion; it describes a circle in about twenty-six years.[*] That comes from the precession of the equinoxes, of which I shall speak soon."
"But," asked Altamont, "might it not happen that some day the Pole should get farther from its place?"
"Ah, my dear Altamont," answered the doctor, "you bring up there a great question, which scientific men investigated for a long time in consequence of a singular discovery."