he Italian astronomer
arrived at with regard to its habitability were not supported by
telescopic evidence sufficient to justify such a belief. Galileo writes:
'Had its surface been absolutely smooth it would have been but a vast,
unblessed desert, void of animals, of plants, of cities and men; the
abode of silence and inaction--senseless, lifeless, soulless, and
stripped of all those ornaments which now render it so variable and so
beautiful:'--

There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Astronomer in the Sun's lucent orb
Through his glazed optic tube yet never saw.--iii. 588-90.

Milton may have remembered that Galileo was the first astronomer who
directed a telescope to the Sun; and that he discovered the dark spots
frequently seen on the solar disc.

Anyone who has read a history of the life of Galileo, and contemplated
the career of this remarkable man, his ardent struggles in the cause of
freedom and philosophic truth, his victories and reverses, his brilliant
astronomical discoveries, and his investigation of the laws of motion,
and other natural phenomena, will arrive at the conclusion that he
merited the distinction conferred upon him by our great English poet,
when he included him among the renowned few whose names are found in the
pages of 'Paradise Lost.'

CHAPTER V

THE SEASONS

The great path of the Sun among the constellations as seen from the
Earth is called the Ecliptic. It is divided into 360 deg., and again into
twelve equal parts of 30 deg., called Signs. As one half of the ecliptic is
north, and the other half south, of the equator, the line of
intersection of their planes is at two points which are known as the
equinoctial points, because, when the Sun on his upward and downward
journey arrives at either of them the days and nights are of equal
length all over the world. The equinoctial points are not stationary,
but have a westerly motion of 50'' annually along the ecliptic; at this
rate they will require a period of 25,868 years to complete an entire
circuit of the heavens.

Milton alludes to the ecliptic when he mentions the arrival of Satan
upon the Earth:--

Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success,
Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel,
Nor staid till on Niphates top he lights.--iii. 740-42.

Extending for 9 deg. on each side of the ecliptic is a zone or belt called
the Zodiac, the mesial line of which is occupied by the Sun,