gwinftling UManetg 35 



be proved by careful observation. How calm Jupiter 

 is in the high heavens ! Could we see Mercury with the 

 naked eye at an equal elevation it would be, no doubt, 

 just as calm. This planet clings pretty closely to the 

 sun, and is therefore seen with the unaided vision only 

 low down through the greatest thickness of atmosphere, 

 laden, not infrequently, with the grossest impurities, 

 and of varying degrees of instability. Small wonder, 

 then, that it scintillates so amazingly. In like manner, 

 stars which rise to a great height become more subdued 

 as they mount the sky to grow livelier as they set. 



Two planets may have the same altitude yet one 

 sparkle more than the other. I have seen a twinkling 

 Venus and a twinkling Jupiter, weird as such an 

 assertion may sound ; and in every instance has Venus 

 been the more vivacious. Jupiter has always been 

 dignified even in his twinkle, so dignified, indeed, as 

 to give a certain inappropriateness to the word the 

 frivolous word twinkle. To a god of such high 

 attributes one must not suggest undignified haste. 



A twinkling Mars, too, have I seen, but only under 

 special atmospheric conditions. My southern prospect 

 lies over a great city, the air smoky, vapour-laden, 

 gross in many respects, and when the planet is immersed 

 in it all, nearing the horizon, it scintillates rapidly. An 

 experienced observer viewing it under precisely the 

 same conditions, once told me that he had mistaken 

 Mars for its rival Antares, the two bodies being then 

 in the same part of the sky. 



Saturn, to the best of my recollection, I have never 

 seen give the faintest flutter ; not even when in the 

 horizon murk. It might be argued that so " leaden " 

 a planet should be the least likely of any to betray 



