THE TRANSIT OF VENUS. 721 



eye could see, would confirm all the deductions of the great German 

 and Danish astronomers. 



Often at night, as the boy Horrox stood before moonrise, gazing 

 at the stars, and saw Venus the Lucifer and Hesperus of the old 

 classic poets burning with a clear, steady flame, and casting a dim 

 shadow over the vernal and midsummer fields, the thought would 

 come to him that perhaps he, first among all the dwellers on the face 

 of the earth, might see the planet, like a celestial messenger, darken- 

 ing the solar centre. 



The thought grew upon him, and haunted his waking dreams. In 

 the hours that others spent in relaxation from toil, he studied and 

 ciphered to see if the problems by which Kepler had fixed the date of 

 the event had been accurately solved. The marvellous boy found an 

 inaccuracy in the tables. Again and again he recast the figures of the 

 great astronomer, with the same result. He calculated and recalcu- 

 lated the problems, until he himself wrought out a table by which it 

 appeared that the next transit would take place on December 4, 1639. 



We read of student-heroes, but what a proposition was this for a 

 boy to demonstrate ! Would the calculation indeed be verified by 

 the event itself? Would the vision withheld from philosophers and 

 sages, from the gray dawn of time, be first revealed to the eye of a 

 boy an humble boy ? 



Gassendi had noted the transit of Mercury a few years previously, 

 the first that had ever been seen, and men of learning were discussing 

 the discovery. Horrox aspired to follow up the triumph of Gassen- 

 di. He had proved the deductions of Kepler to be inaccurate, and he 

 knew that he alone possessed the true knowledge of the phenomenon. 



The imaginative years of youth flew by ; his college-days passed, 

 bringing him to the verge of manhood, and the looked-for time drew 

 near. 



Horrox met his young companions in science at times, and com- 

 pared his astronomical observations with theirs, but to only one of 

 them, his chosen friend Crabtree, did he confide the discovery that he 

 had made of the near approach of the transit. 



The memorable year arrived at length, and the memorable day 

 came round. It was the Sabbath, a bright, shining day, clear and 

 cool. In a room nearly dark sat the young astronomer, now twenty 

 years of age. Engaged in devout thoughts, he awaited the fulfilment 

 of his sublime dream. On a table before him lay a white sheet of 

 paper on which to receive the sun's reflected image, over which the 

 shadow of the planet would move like a dark spot, if indeed the boy's 

 calculation were correct. 



The sun mounted the deep-blue sky. The paper lay spotless before 

 the expectant youth ; no shadow broke the rim of its circle, and the 

 hour for religious worship came. 



The youth hears the call of the church-bells. Shall he heed it ? 

 46 



