MERCURY VENUS THE EARTH. 63 



this is really a luminous atmosphere of the sun, reaching beyond the orbit of Mercury, 

 and that it derives its form, that of a long and narrow ellipsis, only the half of which 

 we see, from its rapid revolution with the sun on its axis. But the most eminent 

 authorities differ concerning it. 



The decline of the sun to the horizon is as imposing a spectacle as his advance to it, 

 when the atmosphere favours the exhibition of his descent. The most gorgeous sunsets 

 are those of the West Indies, during the rainy season ; the sky is then sublimely mantled 

 with gigantic masses of clouds, which are tinged with the glare of the descending luminary, 

 and which seem to be impatiently waiting for his departure in order to discharge their 

 pent-up wrath on the bosom of the night. In the South Atlantic the sunset has a milder 

 and more sober aspect. In the Eastern tropics it has generally an overpowering fierceness, 

 as though the last expression of the solar heat should be the greatest. But during the 

 summer, in temperate latitudes, there is often a serenely beautiful horizon, a mellowness 

 of light, together with a rich and varied colouring on the sky, which combine to render 

 the European sunsets far more attractive than those which are intertropical. The milder 

 radiance of the " great light" in parting from us presents a picture to the eye of the 

 sentiment of the All-Merciful, " Again, a little while and ye shall see me." And how 

 open to observation are wise Contrivance and bountiful Design in the unvarying position 

 of the sun in the centre of the system, and the axical rotation of his tributaries, which not 

 only guarantee the regular return of their surfaces to his presence, but the undiminished 

 power and splendour of his beams ! If, adopting the nebular hypothesis, we suppose the 

 masses of the sun and of the planets to have been gradually formed, under control of the 

 law of attraction, the question still arises, how it came to pass, that the self-luminous 

 matter was collected into one mass at the centre, and not gathered into many masses like 

 the matter of the planets. So striking did this circumstance appear to Newton, that he 

 remarked in his first letter to Bentley : " I do not think it explicable by mere natural 

 causes, but am forced to ascribe it to the counsel and contrivance of a Voluntary Agent." 



CHAPTER II. 



MERCURY VENUS THE EARTH. 



To a superficial observer of the heavens at night when the moon is absent, only one class 

 of objects will be apparent the stars. But a little attentive observation will discover 

 other bodies, which, besides taking part in the apparent revolution of the celestial concave, 

 will be found to have independent movements. They seem stationary at intervals, then 

 in motion from west to east, and going back again from east to west, their positions con- 

 stantly changing in regard to the earth, to each other, and to the host of stars. These 

 peculiarities were marked in very early times, and in allusion to them the Greeks applied 

 to such bodies the term planet, which signifies to wander. Their course, capricious and 

 uncertain to the ancient eye, is now discerned to be a direct and regular highway ; and 

 hence, if as yet they had received no general title, we should find one for them, expressing 

 the prosecution of orderly rather than erratic travel. The planets are divided into 

 primary and secondary. The former revolve round the common centre of gravity in the 

 system ; the latter officiate as satellites to the primaries in their great pilgrimage, and 

 combine with it a revolution round them. The planets are also divided into inferior and 

 superior, referring to their positions being within or without the path of the earth. The 

 expressions are somewhat unfortunate, for the immediate idea conveyed by them refers to 



