THE FAERY YEAR 



JANUARY 



The Venus Eve 



NO one who cares for sky pageantry should fail 

 to watch Venus on serene evenings at mid- 

 winter. Cities are not good to see the sky 

 from, because of the smoky air and high buildings 

 which cramp the view. But even from a great city 

 Venus and Jupiter, soon after sundown, may some- 

 times be seen in full splendour. Over traffic, glare 

 and confusion I saw Venus burning in the amber ; at 

 a greater height came Jupiter, travelling in the awful 

 blue, which was unflecked by the smallest fragment 

 of cloud and unstained by the afterglow. By-and- 

 by, Venus, low in the west, might easily have been 

 mistaken for one of the lights of the city. This 

 pageant of planets, once seen from a city in mid- 

 winter, is unforgetable ; but it is still better to watch 

 Venus and Jupiter swinging west, when we are on 

 the marsh at dusk, or in the secret wood. 



Venus first appears on this faery scene as a 



mere point of white light, not larger than a star of 



second magnitude, but beautifully steady. This 



begins her rule ; it is scarcely dusk ; the sun, like a 



B I 



