MERCURY 



VENUS THE EARTH. 



69 



following; but will do so June 8. 2004 



June 6. 2012; December 11. 2117; December 

 8. 2125; June 11. 2247; and June 9. 2255. 

 In the present year Venus will be in con- 

 junction with Jupiter in April, and with 

 Saturn in December, or have the same 

 longitude. Her conjunction with the latter, 

 on the 19th of that month, will take place in 

 the constellation Capricornus, when the two 

 planets will be seen as in the annexed scene 

 through an inverting telescope. These 

 celestial approximations were supposed to 

 indicate terrestrial changes in times of 

 ignorance, and were so interpreted by the 

 astrologers. A conjunction of the five great 

 planets took place between the wheat-ear of 

 the constellation Virgo and Libra, September 

 15.1186. It will be ages before they all 

 collect again in that 



part of the heavens. Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon, were in con- 

 junction in Leo, when the peace of 1801 was proclaimed at Paris, 

 a circumstance which was not overlooked by the superstitious. 



But little is known of the physical constitution of Venus, owing 

 to the intense splendour with which she shines. The existence of 

 a considerable atmosphere is inferred from the appearance of a 

 penumbral light round the planet during her transits, as well as 

 from a faint radiance observed to stretch beyond her directly 

 illuminated hemisphere. The line in the annexed uppermost 

 figure marks the boundary of the direct influence of the sun's 

 rays ; and the upper and lower projections beyond it show the 

 twilight, which is referred to atmospheric reflection. Variable 

 and fleeting spots have also been repeatedly noticed, as in the 

 second figure, which naturally leads to the supposition of an 

 atmosphere charged with clouds and vapours, with water upon 

 the surface, from which they are formed. The conclusion that 

 she has mountains and valleys rests upon the fact that the edge 

 of her enlightened part appears shaded, that her corners are 

 sometimes obtuse, and present a luminous point apparently de- 

 tached from the planet. Schroeter regarded this as the summit 

 of a high mountain, illuminated by the sun after he had ceased 

 to be visible to the rest of that hemisphere. If these conclu- 

 sions may be depended upon, and they are warranted by strong 

 evidence, Venus presents striking points of analogy to the con- 

 stitution of the earth. An atmosphere reflecting light, the 

 medium of sound, and a highway for " fire and hail, snow and 

 vapour," a superficies exhibiting the diversities of land and 

 water, hill and vale these are some of her probable attributes, 

 features expressing a family likeness to our globe, and indicating 

 the action upon her surface of that mighty upheaving agency, 

 which, in bygone ages, piled the Alps, and reared the ramparts 

 of the Himalaya. 



