Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred
More justly, seat worthier of gods, as built
With second thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God, after better, worse would build?
Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens,
That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as seems,
In thee concentring all their precious beams
Of sacred influence! As God in Heaven
Is centre, yet extends to all, so thou
Centring receiv'st from all those orbs; in thee,
Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears,
Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth
Of creatures animate with gradual life
Of growth, sense, reason, all summed up in Man,
With what delight I could have walked thee round,
If I could joy in aught--sweet interchange
Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crowned,
Rocks, dens, and caves.--ix. 99-118.

Though it is impossible to regard the Earth as possessing the importance
ascribed to it by the ancient Ptolemaists; nevertheless, our globe is a
great and mighty world, and appears to be one of the most favourably
situated of all the planets, being neither near the Sun nor yet very far
distant from the orb; and although, when compared with the universe, it
is no more than a leaf on a tree in the midst of a vast forest; still,
it is not the least important among other circling worlds, and
unfailingly fulfils the part allotted to it in the great scheme of
creation.

THE PLANET HESPERUS

This is the beautiful morning and evening star, the peerless planet that
ushers in the twilight and the dawn, the harbinger of day and unrivalled
queen of the evening. Venus, called after the Roman goddess of Love, and
also identified with the Greek Aphrodite of ideal beauty, is the name by
which the planet is popularly known; but Milton does not so designate
it, and the name 'Venus' is not found in 'Paradise Lost.' The ancients
called it Lucifer and Phosphor when it shone as a morning star before
sunrise, and Hesperus and Vesper when it became visible after sunset. It
is the most lustrous of all the planets, and at times its brilliancy is
so marked as to throw a distinct shadow at night.

Venus is the second planet in order from the Sun. Its orbit lies between
that of Mercury and the Earth, and in form approaches nearer to a circle
than that of any of the oth