722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Before he shall return from the house of God, a cloud may overcast 

 the sky, and the celestial disclosure may "be lost for a century ! 



He asks his conscience what he must do. The inward voice seems 

 to tell him that the Creator himself is more worthy of worship than 

 the phenomena he has instituted of admiration. He resolved, if need 

 be, to lose the vision, and keep his eye single to the glory of God 

 alone. 



When he returned from the service, he went to the darkened room. 

 The sun was still shining clearly. He approached the paper. It was 

 there the round shadow on the luminous image. 



He sat down, overcome with the fulness of his emotions. The 

 shadow crept slowly along the bright centre, like the finger of the 

 Invisible. Then he knew that the great principles of astronomy were 

 true, and he saw that a new revelation of scientific truth awaited 

 mankind. 



There are moments in human experience that repay the toils and 

 struggles of a lifetime. Such were those of Galileo when he raised the 

 newly-made telescope to the heavens ; such were those of Rittenbouse, 

 when, a century after the discovery of Horrox, he saw the shadow of 

 Venus again crossing the disk of the sun ; and such were those that the 

 boy-astronomer himself felt as he watched the dark spot the mighty 

 shadow of a planet in the far abyss of space almost imperceptibly 

 stealing across the circumference of the reflected circle on the paper. 

 The sublimity of the youth's vision was as grand as the moral great- 

 ness of his soul. 



His friend Crabtree, to whom he had communicated the secret, 

 made the same discovery, by the same means, in a different place of 

 observation. 



The report of the discovery awakened a new interest in astro- 

 nomical science throughout the world. Horrox was censured by 

 men of culture for suspending his observations during the Sabbath 

 service. He answered : " I observed the sun from sunrise to nine 

 o'clock ; again a little before ten, and lastly at noon, and from one to 

 two o'clock the rest of the day being devoted to higher duties!" 



His work was ended. He fell a martyr to science, at the age of 

 twenty-two. His companions in astronomical study also perished at 

 an early age, two of them in the civil wars, and one of these at Mars- 

 ton Moor, fighting in defence of the crown. 



The twilight of his young life was serene and cloudless. As his 

 bodily strength decayed, he felt that his soul would soon rise in tri- 

 umph over the glittering orbs on high, and join the pure in heart. 



Nearly one hundred and thirty years passed before the transit of 

 Venus was again visible. A transit had indeed occurred in 1761, but 

 it did not fall within the observation of the astronomer. 



The transit in 1709 was eagerly looked for because it was pre- 

 dicted. Expeditions were fitted out by the British, French, and Rus- 



