66 SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



upon his surface, an evident proof that he shines with a borrowed radiance. The first 

 transit ever observed was on the 6th of November, 1631, by Gassendi. To -witness 

 another in 1651, Shakerlaus undertook a voyage to Surat, and lost his life in Persia 

 on his return. Halley enjoyed the sight of one at St. Helena, in 1667, and called attention 

 to the important use which might be made of such phenomena in the case of Venus. 

 Lalande, in his old age, remarks of that on November 8th, 1802: "The passage of 

 Mercury over the sun's disk was observed this morning for the nineteenth time 

 astronomers enjoyed in the completest manner the sight of this curious phenomenon I 

 was the more anxious to have a view of it, as I shall never see it more." The event 

 will occur eight times during the remainder of the present century at the following 

 periods : 



1845. May8. I 1861. Nov. 11. 1878. May 6. 



1848. Nov. 9. 1868. Nov. 4. 1881. Nov. 7. 



1891. May 9. 



1894. Nov. 10. 



The next transit will thus v be in May of the present year, and be visible in England. 

 It will commence at nineteen minutes past four P.M. mean solar time, at Greenwich. 

 The planet will keep advancing over the disk till sunset. At five, six, and seven 

 o'clock its appearance will be as represented in the following scene traversing the solar 



disk in the direction indicated. The last contact of the two bodies will be at nine 

 minutes before eleven, and consequently the whole phenomena will not be witnessed 

 in this country. To us therefore the sun wtll set with Mercury as a speck upon his 

 face. \> 



VENUS. The nearest planet to the earth, and the second in point of distance from the 

 sun, Venus is the most beautiful of his satellites, and brilliant of the stars. Like Mercury, 

 she never adorns the midnight sky, nor has she ever been seen rising in the east while 

 the sun was setting in the west, or on the meridian at either sunrise or sunset. This 

 shows her path to be comparatively near the throne of the great luminary, from whom 

 she never departs more than 48, rather more than half the space from the horizon to the 

 zenith, and to be interior to that of the earth, and exterior to that of Mercury, whose 

 greatest elongation, or distance from the sun, is little more than 28. In addition to this, 

 she has been observed to eclipse Mercury, a clear proof of her position in space being 

 external to him, an instance of which occurred on the 17th of May, 1737. Venus is 

 alternately a morning and evening star, visible for about three hours after sunset, and as 

 long before sunrise. As a morning star she was called Phosphorus and Lucifer by the 

 ancients, and as an evening star Hesperus and Vesper. This bright herald of the sun's 

 advance to the eastern horizon, and his faithful follower to the western, were once sup- 

 posed to be distinct bodies. Pythagoras is said to have been the first who proclaimed 

 their identity. Obvious as this conclusion now is, it required experience and reflection 

 to arrive at it. The Greek Phosphorus, or the light-bringer, alludes to the office of the 

 planet, when rising before the sun, she ushers in the day. The Romans adopted the 

 expression : hence, the invocation in Martial, Phosphore, redde diem, " Phosphorus, 



