But Venus only, as if more divine,
With Phœbus dares in partnership to shine.”
To quiet the minds of some superstitious people, greatly alarmed at the appearance of Venus in the day-time, Dr. Halley wrote a small piece, published in the Philosophical Transactions (No. 349) to show that this was nothing extraordinary, and might be expected every eight years. Venus, when viewed through a good telescope, is rarely seen to shine with a full face, but has phases just like those of the moon, being now gibbous, now horned, &c., and her illuminated part constantly turned towards the sun, looking toward the east when a morning star, and toward the west when an evening star. M. de la Hire, in 1700, through a telescope of sixteen feet, discovered mountains in Venus, which he found to be larger than those in the moon. These observations have recently been confirmed by M. Schroëter, who, in the year 1780, commenced a course of observations on this planet, the results of which were published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1792.
Venus, as well as Mercury, is sometimes seen to transit the sun’s disk, in form of a dark round spot; but these transits seldom happen. The first that was ever observed, was seen by our countryman Jeremiah Horrox, at Hool, an obscure village fifteen miles north of Liverpool: his account of which was published by Hevelius at Dantzic in 1661, under the title, “Venus in sole visa, anno 1631, November 24.” Mr. Horrox’s friend, William Crabtree, according to his direction, saw this transit at the same time, at Manchester. Two have occurred in the last century, namely, one June 6th, 1761, seen by many astronomers, which excited particular attention by a dissertation published by Dr. Halley in the Philosophical Transactions (No. 348) in which he proposed finding, from that transit, the sun’s parallax, and thence the distance of the earth from the sun: and the other, June 3d, 1769, at 10h. 10ʹ, according to M. de la Lande, and consequently invisible at Paris and London; but by comparing together two observations made, one at Mexico, and the other to the north of Petersburgh, we perceive the sun’s parallax, was determined with great precision. The transits of Venus, occurring between the years 1631 and 2110, according to the calculations of persons most eminent in astronomical science, are as follow:
| 1631 | December 6 |
| 1639 | December 4 |
| 1761 | June 5 |
| 1769 | June 3 |
| 1874 | December 8 |
| 1882 | December 6 |
| 2004 | June 7 |
| 2109 | December 10 |
The Earth is the next planet in order; called by the Greeks Γη, and by the poets Γαια, from γαω to generate, produce, which, says Parkhurst, is from the Hebrew, גאה to grow as a plant, because it produces, or is the mother of all terrestrial things; or in the poetic language of the Orphic hymn to the earth,
——“Brings forth her various fruits,
With throes maternal.”
The word used by Moses is הארץ haarets, translated earth, whence in the Anglo-Saxon, eard and eord; Danish jord, jorden; Dutch erd and aerd; and Teutonic erd, erde.
The distance of the earth from the sun is about 95,000,000 miles: her orbit round the sun is 597,000,000 miles, and she performs her revolution round the sun, from any equinox or solstice to the same point again, in 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 57 seconds; of course, her hourly motion in her orbit is 68,000 miles. Her diameter is 7,964 miles, her circumference is 25,000 miles, and the time of rotation upon her axis, from west to east, is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds: by which the inhabitants upon the equator are carried after the rate of 1,042 miles an hour, and those upon the parallel of London, 580 miles, as we have already noticed. The annual and diurnal motion of the earth is thus described by Milton: