22 VENUS. [Lesson v. 



Phosphorus or Lucifer; but when eastward of 

 the sun, she shines in the evening after he sets, 

 and then is called popularly the evening star ; but 

 poets then give her the name Hesperus or Vesper. 

 She retains each of these names in its turn about 

 290 days. 



Venus, as well as Mercury, is sometimes seen 

 to transit the sun's disc, in form of a dark round 

 spot. These transits of Venus happen but seldom. 

 One was seen in England iir 1639 ; and two in 

 the last century, viz. the one in 1761, and the 

 other in 1/69: there will not happen another 

 until December gth, 1874; and after that, only 

 one more, namely, on December 7th, 1882, before 

 the close of the present century. 



None of the wandering stars are more cele- 

 brated and admired among the ancients, than the 

 one we are now reflecting upon : they had a pro- 

 digious veneration for her, making her their fa- 

 vourite goddess, paying her adoration, and all that 

 Deity could claim ; they even thought that her 

 power supplied earth, air, and sea, and that clouds 

 and tempests disappeared at her presence. But 

 those who direct their contemplations into a 

 proper channel will strip the planet of these ima- 

 ginary honours, and place them where they are 

 really due : we must consider her in all her va- 

 ried and attendant beauties, as a part, a small 

 part only, of the divine workmanship of HIM 

 " who covers himself with light, as with a gar- 

 *' nient, and has stretched out the heavens like a 

 curtain.'* By thus examining with attention 



the 



