Chap. 16.] ACCOUNT or THE WOELD. 48 



well as the laws to which they are subject, which might be 

 mentioned. For example, the planet Mars, whose course is 

 the most difficult to observe*, never becomes stationary when 

 Jupiter is in the trine aspect, very rarely when he is 60 aegrees 

 from the sun, which number is one-sixth of the circuit of the 

 heavens' ; nor does he ever rise in the same sign with Jupiter, 

 except in Cancer and Leo. The star Mercury seldom has 

 his evening risings in Pisces, but very frequently in Virgo, 

 and his morning risings in Libra ; he has also his morning 

 rising in Aquarius, very rarely in Leo. He never becomes 

 retrograde either in Taurus or in Gemini, nor until the 25th 

 degree of Cancer. The Moon makes her double conjunction 

 with the sun in no other sign except Gemini, while Sagit- 

 tarius is the only sign in which she has sometimes no con- 

 junction at all. The old and the new moon are visible on 

 the same day or night in no other sign except Aries, and 

 indeed it has happened very seldom to any one to have wit- 

 nessed it. From this circumstance it was that the tale of 

 Lynceus's quick-sightedness originated'. Saturn and Mars 

 are invisible at most for 170 days ; Jupiter for 36, or, at the 

 least, for 10 days less than this ; Venus for 69, or, at the least, 

 for 52 ; Mercury for 13, or, at the most, for 18*. 



CHAP. 16. (18.) — THE BEABON WHY THE STABS ABE OF DIF- 

 TEBENT COLOURS. 



Tlie difference of their colour depends on the difference in 

 their altitudes; for they acquire a resemblance to those planets 

 into the vapour of which they are carried, the orbit of each 

 tinging those that approach it in each direction. A colder 

 planet renders one that approaches it paler, one more hot 



1 "... . qusB (stella Martis) ut maxime excentrica volvitur, mottis 

 etiam maxime dissonos habere diu visa est . . . . j " Alexandre in Lemaire, 

 IL 180. 



* " . . . . qui nnmenis sexangulas mnndi efficit formas." 



Lynceus was one of the Argonauts and was celebrated for the acute- 

 ness of his vision ; Yal. Flaccus, L 462 et seq. 



* The relative situation of these astronomical phsenomena has changed 

 since the time of Pliny, in consequence of the precession of the equinoxes. 

 For an illustration and explanation of the various statements in this 

 chapter I may refer to the remarks of Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 368-370. 



VOL. I. E 



