LESSON V. 



ON VENUS. 







Fair Venus next fulfils her larger round, 

 With softer beams, and milder glory crown'd ; 

 Friend to mankind, she glitters from afar, 

 Now the bright evening, now the morning star. 



BAKER. 



VENUS, the second planet from the sun, is 

 the next which comes under our consideration : 

 the character by which she is denoted in astro- 

 nomical performances is ? , which is the same as 

 that which the chemists make use of to denote 

 copper. 



The mean distance of this planet from the sun 

 is about 69 millions of miles, and her magnitude 

 is nearly the same as the earth's, her diameter be- 

 ing something more than 7?900 miles. Astrono- 

 mers have discovered mountains on her surface ; 

 and some dark moveable spots, which have been 

 observed on her disc, give us great reason to sup- 

 pose she has an atmosphere. Her periodical course 

 round the sun is completed in less than 225 days. 

 The time of a complete rotation on her axis was by 

 Bianchini assigned to be 24 days and 6 hours : 

 but Cassi?ii, with a much stronger appearance of 

 probability, says the rotation is performed in about 



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