tinted diamond in the eastern or western twilight; or watchedVenus wax and wane in brightness, until, at times, it wasvisible, day after day, even at full noon; as he noted the blood-red fire of Mars; the calm, but potent, radiance of Jupiter ; orthe dull pale light of Saturn,—thought that each held ruleover its own house, or sphere in the heavens ; that each exertedits own influence for bane or blessing on men’s lives, on monarchand prince, on peoples and kingdoms.
We shall presently discuss the various planets in their orderof distance from the Sun, and give a brief statement of someof the most important discoveries made with regard to them,both before and since the invention of the telescope. We will,however, by way of introduction, first refer to a few points ofinterest connected with the nature of the planetary orbits ingeneral, and explain the difference between the Copernicansystem of astronomy and that which prevailed before thebeginning of the sixteenth century.
We may assume that our readers believe with Copernicus that the Earth and all the other planets revolve around theSun ; a theory the simplicity of which, when rightly under-stood, is so beautiful, and in such striking contrast with thecomplexity of any other, as almost of itself to convince anunprejudiced mind of its truth. In order, however, rightlyto understand its beauty, a considerable amount of care andstudy are necessary, and the student must understand howcomplicated the apparent movements of the planets are, beforehe can duly appreciate the way in which they are explainedby the extremely simple real movements, attributed to themby the Copernican theory.
If we could watch them all from the Sun, or from somedistant point of sight look down upon the planes of their orbits,and take, as it were, a bird’s-eye view of the whole SolarSystem , it would be comparatively easy to discover the lawsthat rule their ever-changing places. But, instead of this, theirmovements appear to us to be most remarkably complicated,because we are forced to view them from the ever-moving-standpoint of the Earth , as it speeds upon its rapid path throughspace; from which it results, as we shall presently more fully