470 COSMOS. 



A group of Sun-spot8 was visible, though some minutes 

 distant from the edge of the Sun, where the largest red, hook- 

 formed projection was developed. On the opposite side, not 

 far from the feeble eastern projection, there was also a Sun- 

 spot near the edge. It is scarcely possible that these funnel- 

 shaped depressions can have furnished the material constitut- 

 ing the red gaseous exhalations, on account of the distance 

 above-mentioned ; but as the whole surface of the Sun appears 

 to be covered with pores, perhaps the most probable con- 

 jecture is, that the same emanation of vapour and gas, which 

 rising from the body of the Sun forms the funnels,* pours 

 through these which appear to us as Sun-spots, or smaller 

 pores, and when illuminated present the appearance of red 

 columns of vapour, and clouds of various forms in the third 

 envelope of the Sun. 



MERCUKY. 



\Vhen it is remembered how much the Egyptians* occupied 

 themselves with the planet Mercury (Set-Horus), and the 

 Indians with their Buddha, 7 since the earliest times; how, 

 under the clear heaven of Western Arabia, the star- worship 

 of the race of the Asedites 8 was exclusively directed to Mer- 

 cury; and, moreover, that Ptolemy was able, in the 19th 

 book of the Almagest, to make use of fourteen observations 

 of this planet, which reach back to 261 years before our era, 



Moon, that the outline of this image is perceptible. If this 

 image were more intense than the remaining part of the field, 

 the vision would be positive." (Compare also on this subject, 

 Cosmos, vol. iii. p. 71. Note 19.) 

 6 Cosmos, vol. iv. pp. 365-371. 



Lepsius, Chronologie der JEgypter, Th. i. pp. 92-96. 

 1 Cosmos, vol. iv. p. 410, note 13. 



Cosmos, vol. ii, p. 592. 



