New-York daily tribune., 1858-11-26


tie profoundly interesting phenomenon.
At that time there lived in Lancashire England, q
child of twelve year.. Jeremish Horrox. HIS parents
v,ie poor. He had already Uncovered extraordinary
promise, ard been carefully trsOed. AT the age Of
fourteen his nlrd i turned 70 as.ronomcs studies.
1he fame Of Tycho Brshe and Of n pier the latter
ust dead fills bis IN afion and re dreams Of emu
isrg them. Bu. his ,oudirior "a humble He has no !
teaohsr-no conpanioa in st1dy-smal means: yet .
these 81 ccursgeneuis DO eEtc'usliy deprsss his
amor. he fts up rudely apartment devoted 10 az
rouonical observatons-buys few books-ussters 4
them Sone Vdn obscur,ty-cu'grow grows'heu-aodasthe
age of twenty is among the fol mAthen acians
and philosophers Of bis time
In 1859, Horro1 had discovered that Lamberss
bt ssted tables ot determining the psces of the pau
cts unreliable std suspected, contrary TO KEEP
ler and L,nsoerg oat Venus would traserse the suns
ohk e, the ne1t interior conjunction. Win ths des
ne eet himself vigorously at work and msic 8 com-
pl,te invesiisaiou, which resulted in confirming his
surnite He found that the plsnet woui eoter upon
the olsr disk on the 9Th Decenbe' lt39, h,tls be-
fore supr,t. Tha, dsy Close st hand that he
was upahe get word TO other observers in season
except his FREUD, William Crao.ree. who lived near
Manchester, sms'eur astronomer ike himself. and
about lis iwn age. With what mad enthusiasm must
these t~o youths have MADE their hurried and rude
prepars,iuns, each in his little chamber for WIT
messing this deeply interesting phs snomenop OF the s-
picach OF which, they well kne~, all tee world be-
sire were ignorapti-a phenomenon which cotempo-
ray as ronomers had all LOGGED to zee, but had not
sep wi ch Gassendi hsd hoped against hope to VII
eight years before--s phenomenon which va not
sgan TIL l76l the year designated by kepler
for the next transit after that Of 1891 an interval OF
more than a century and quarter. The eveptlal day
fell Sunday. The had not risen above the hori-
befre Houoxs telescope was upon II, and 80 Goa
,nu.d till church time when he repaired to his rei-
gsus duties, curate oi the parish, thinking unos-
coming to ect graver matters of worship for the
sake of glorious an accessory; in his own
words sd maora qum atique ob haec parergs
"teglg non decuit.' A boy Of twenty What atrial
of devotion! With what fever be must have repeated
his prayers that day How must imagioary transits
of the planet across tie suus d-k and real transs of
the picture Of his little astronomical across his
mDds disk have peeped in ano * his religious medi-
tations! How must hope and fear and faith and sup
plcaiiop, all revolving aboa the central idea Of the
great coming event. have Mingled confusedy With the
rouLe of church service, and made him in spite of
| bimself, fer that day. Jealous worshiper.
Shortly after 3 o'clock he resumes his post. The
Gun had been obscued and clouds threatened " defeat
his hspes But suddenly the clouds open and the sun
! bee. mes distinctly visible. II seemed" says he
:" as if divine Providence encouraged my aspirations
At this moment, :" "ecce gra',ssm1 spectacu um ct
"tot vo;orum msterisml 1 perceived 3 spot Of unu-
sua magnitude, and of perfectly round form, that
/ ad just wholly entered upon the left limb of the
SUM- TIE Conditions continued favorable aod he
was enabled to make severc accarste measurements
in the half.hour that remained before sunset Crab
tiee, at 8roughton Manchester was equally for
tur ate in cstctng sight of tue remarkable phcnome-
non. Toe sky had been overcast all day. and he had,
would seem, given up all hepe, and LETT his tee-
scope. Just before sunset, however, the sun broke
through the clouds and he to his instrument aud
.'b.hed, 10 hs uprpeakabc delight, the round black
"spot! He was so csptivated Byte spectacle that
Z" he gazed upon il immovably for some time; and
when he rece vered himself the clouds had again OBJ
scured the son. 20 that he was unable TO make any
| accurate measurements"
Thus happened this memorable transit; the first, it
is supposed, ever watched by human eyes. Thus tn
unpb,d over the accepted science of his ii boy
philosopher, who by his genius-that is by bis patient
application-a synonym of genius-set at naught the
calculations of famed astronomers, and Immortal
rerown. With what astonishment, grief and vexati
Of d.sppor tment professional Observers must have
read this youthful amateurs account of the and
bis successful observation of Calico and Des Car.
ties and Gsssendi and all the veteran Astronomers of
that day. found in Jeremiah Horrox their Paul Nor
ply Horrox died in l6il, aged twenty two, greatly
lamenied.
IL is now nearly century since transit Of Venus
has occurred. That Of June 81, 1869, is memorable.
To observe it, expeditions were equipped and sent to
remote places by several European sovereigDs The
observaions Of Europe were represented in Laplaud
ard Kantcbafka, In ST. Helena and the Cape of Good
Hope in IDdla and in the Sandwich Islands: tue expe
diiion to tie latter se entrusted to the lamentsd
Csptan Cook At each of these distant positions the
precise iDstabt Of the planets entering upon and eav
ing the suns disk marked. These records on
comparison found, expected, not TO agree in
time and from these difsreUcss was calculated the
angle formed at The planet by two lines joining aud
opposite points Of the earhs surface. This angle is
known as paraLar. BY means Of IL the distances OF
the heavenly bodies kDown The transts Of Venus
succeed each ether regularly at alternate intervals Of
eigbt and or bu5dred an five aud half and eight
and one hundred and twentyone and half years. The
next will &C nr in 1874.
BY her lovely superiority among the stars, Venus
NUT have always sitrscted universal adnirstion. At
superior conjunction her apparent size is ess than that
Of Mercury when st its favorable uncture: while
at inferior coDjunctoD she pre- .nts surface forty
tines as large. The OF this remarkable differ
plain when it is considered that in the former
position she is separated from the earth by the sum Of
their distances from the sun and in the latter by the
difference Of those dhtances. The distances of Venus
from the Gun being s,xy nine millions Of miles,
and Of the earth nlpety-fve millions, the plsre when
fsrttest from the earth, will be and oDe-thrd times
as far of az che Is when nearest She is nov rsplly
approaching this Leares point Of her orbit, and will
., a. tO.h of nao.rbax oay hs- abe will