ld
show phases like the moon. When Galileo turned the little telescope
he had made on Venus, he confirmed the prophecy of Copernicus.
Desiring to take time for more extended observation, and still be
able to assert the priority of his discovery, he published the
following anagram, in which his discovery was contained:

[Page 141]
"Haec immatura a me jam frustra leguntur o. y."
(These unripe things are now vainly gathered by me.)

He first saw Venus as gibbous; a few months revealed it as crescent,
and then he transposed his anagram into:

"Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum."
(The mother of loves imitates the phases of Cynthia.)

Many things that were once supposed to be known concerning Venus are
not confirmed by later and better observations. Venus is surrounded
by an atmosphere so dense with clouds that it is conceded that
her time of rotation and the inclination of her axis cannot be
determined. She revealed one of the grandest secrets of the universe
to the first seeker; showed her highest beauty to her first ardent
lover, and has veiled herself from the prying eyes of later comers.

Florence has built a kind of shrine for the telescope of Galileo.
By it he discovered the phases of Venus, the spots on the sun,
the mountains of the moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and some
irregularities of shape in Saturn, caused by its rings. Galileo
subsequently became blind, but he had used his eyes to the best
purpose of any man in his generation.

THE EARTH.

Its sign [Symbol].

DISTANCE FROM THE SUN, 92,500,000 MILES. DIAMETER, POLAR, 7899
MILES; EQUATORIAL, 7925-1/2 MILES. AXIAL REVOLUTION, 23H. 56M.
4.09S.; ORBITAL, 365.86. ORBITAL VELOCITY PER MINUTE, 1152.8 MILES.

Let us lift ourselves up a thousand miles from the earth. We see it
as a ball hung upon nothing in empty space. As the drop of falling
water gathers itself [Page 142] into a sphere by its own inherent
attraction, so the earth gathers itself into a ball. Noticing
closely, we see forms of continents outlined in bright relief, and
oceanic forms in darker surfaces. We see that its axis of revolution
is nearly perpendicular to the line of light from the sun. One-half
is always dark. The sunrise greets a new thousand miles every hour;
the glories of [Page 143] the sunset follow over an equal space,
180 deg. behind. We are glad that the darkness never overtakes the
morning.

[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Earth and Moon in Space.]

_The Aurora