56 History of Nature. [BooK II. 



the Heaven (that is, it is the sixth Part of the Heaven) : 

 neither doth Jupiter shew his rising in any, save only two 

 Signs, Cancer and Leo. The Planet Mercury seldom hath 

 his Evening Rising in Pisces, but very often in Virgo ; and 

 the Morning Rising in Libra. In like Manner, the Morning 

 Rising is in Aquarius, but very seldom in Leo. Neither 

 becometh he retrograde in Taurus and Gemini : and in 

 Cancer, not under the twenty-fifth Degree. As for the 

 Moon, she entereth not twice in Conjunction with the Sun 

 in any other Sign but Gemini : and sometime hath no Con- 

 junction at all, and that only in Sagittarius. As for the last 

 and first of the Moon, to be seen in the same Day or Night, 

 happeneth in no other Sign but in Aries, and few Men have 

 had the Chance to see it. And hereupon came Linceus to be 

 so famous for his Eyesight. Also, the Planets Saturn and 

 Mars appear not in the Heaven at the most 170 Days: 

 Jupiter 36, or at least ten Days wanting : Venus 69, or when 

 least, 52 : Mercury 13, or at least, 17. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 What is the Cause that the Planets alter their Colours ? 



THE Reason of the Planet's Altitudes is it that tetnpereth 

 their Colours, for they take the Likeness of the Air, into 

 which they enter ; and the Circle of another Planet's Motion 

 coloureth them as they approach either Way, ascending or 

 descending. The colder setteth a pale Colour, the hotter a 

 red, and the windy a fearful Hue. Only the Points and 

 Conjunctions of iheAbsides, and the utmost Circumferences, 

 shew a dark black. Each Planet hath a several Colour; 

 Saturn is white, Jupiter clear and bright, Mars a fiery red, 

 Venus glowing, when Lucifer; when Occidental, or Vesper, 

 resplendent ; Mercury sparkling, the Moon pleasant, the 

 Sun when he riseth, burning, afterwards radiating 1 . Upon 



1 Many of the colours here mentioned are only optical deceptions, but 

 that of the planet Mars must proceed from something inherent in the 

 planet itself, or the atmosphere by which it is surrounded ; for while 



