"Mercury. The inclination and eccentricity of orbit are greater than those of any of the planets. In obedience to Kepler's law the orbit is an ellipse, one of whose foci is at the sun... Venus. The eccentricity of the orbit is so small that in the plot its centre is scarcely distinguishable from the sun. As a consequence the planet revolves at a nearly uniform velocity. ... Mars. While the eccentricity of Mars' orbit is less than that of Mercury's, its linear eccentricity or actual distance from its center... to the sun, is greater."