THE NAMES OF THE PLANETS. I97 



to have been known from the remotest antiquity that there 

 were also some starlike objects which moved about. Of 

 these the earliest to be observed was, doubtless, the planet 

 Venus. Its brilliancy, as the evening star or the morn- 

 ing star, seems to have attracted attention from all intel- 

 ligent nations of which we have any record. As Venus 

 continually changed its place, and so far resembled the 

 sun and the moon, the astrologers credited this planet 

 with a significant intervention in terrestrial matters. But 

 there were other planets also to be discerned by those who 

 carefully watched the sky. Three bright objects, Jupiter, 

 Saturn, and Mars, showed by their movements that they 

 were bodies wholly different from ordinary stars. The 

 list of planets known to the ancients was completed by 

 the discovery of Mercury. It is impossible to reflect on 

 this achievement without admiring the acuteness of obser- 

 vation which disclosed the nature of this rarely seen 

 object, and identified its successive appearances. Mercury 

 seems to have been discovered independently by two or 

 three nations at dates antecedent to those of exact history. 

 It will thus be seen that there were in all five planets, 

 namely, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, and Mercury. If 

 to these we add the sun and the moon we have the total 

 seven "wanderers" with which the astrologers used to 

 conduct their mystic operations. 



There is no doubt that the ancient significance of the 

 number seven is attributable to the fact that there were 

 believed to be neither more nor less than seven of these 

 bodies. The most striking illustration that we can give 

 of the survival of astrological notions is found in the 

 connection between the names of the seven days of the 



