The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-09
-rEREMIAH RORRnK

suns disk, in 1874, calls the attention of
lovers Of science to q very rare and important
astronomical event. No person living ever
saw Venus crossing the sun, and yet the OBJ
of this transit furnishes the most
essential elements of astronomical knowledge.
Venus, as viewed by the inhabitants of the
earth. is the most beautiful and interesting
of the planetary stars. Being the second
planet from the sun, and the most conspicu-
Gus of the two inferior planets having their
orbits within the orbit of the earth, and APP
preaching the earth at the time of her iufe-
rior conjunction within twenty-six million
miles, she ever has seemed a friendly lumi-
nary to the lovers and observers of celestial
scenery.
Her maximum brilliancy has been esti-
mated to equal the light of twenty fixed stars.
Her most beautiful appearance is presented
to the equatorial regions, at the period of her
greatest elongation, when she is seen high
above the horizon, shining with a pure, steady
light, like q twilight sun. She is so brilliant
at certain periods as to be visible at MONDAY,
and her light is so intense in the evenings of
her greatest splendor as to cast q shadow
upon the earth.
The body of the planet has been seen by
astronomers through her luminous atmo-
sphere; and her atmosphere itself has been
observed like a pale, penumbral halo of light
during her transits.
Transits of Venus across the sun disk
occur alternately at intervals of eight, one
hundred five and q half, and one hundred
twenty-one and q half years. The last transit
but one took place in 17G1, after an interval
of one hundred twenty-one and a half years;
the last transit took place in 1863, after an
interval of eight years; and the next transit
will take place in 1874 December 8, after
an interval of one hundred five and a half
years. The transit of 1874 will not be visible
in this country.
AS the observation of the transit of Venus
enables us to ascertain the suns horizontal
parallax-an element of knowledge of the
greatest importance, since by it we deter
mine, as accurately as we are able, the dis
lance of the sun from the earth, and the dis
tances of the planets from each other-the
transit of 1874 will awaken a general interest
in the following transit, which will take place
in 1882, and which will be visible in the most
enlightened parts of the world. No one who
observes the event in 1882 will ever see the
transit of Venus again.
This event, which furnishes the basis for
the most wonderful problems ever mastered
by the human mind, was first correctly calcu-
lated, and first observed, by a young enthu-
siast of scieuce named Jeremiah Horrox.
He was born at Toxteth, near Liverpool,
England, about the year 1920. He was a
dreamy, poetical youth, admired and beloved
1Or his alllaDl6 ulSpOSltlOu anu IOr UQe r6cJl-
tude of his intentions. He loved the night
and the sublimities of it's celestial scenery;
and, while others were idling or sleeping, it
was his delight-a delight amounting at times
to rapture-to follow the stars in their
courses, and to roam in fancy among the
golden zones on high.
Ere he reached the age of eighteen he had
mastered the most profound reasonings aud
calculations of the German and the Danish
astronomers.
When Kepler prepared his 'Rudolphine
Tables" he discovered that the planets Mer-
curry and Venus must sometimes pass over
the disk of the sun; and he predicted a tran
sit of Venus in the year 1851, and published
the prediction in a tract entitled "Admonito
ad Astronomers" Leipsic, 1920. Kepler died
before the date of the predicted transit.
Gassendi looked for the event in Paris; but
the prediction was not fulfilled.
When the boy Horrox began the study of
astronomy, he usued the tables of Lansber-
gius. These tables indicated a transit of the
planet Venus in 1859. But the tables of
Lansbergius were imperfect, and the boy
astronomer procured the Rudolphine, and
applied himself to a close examination of the
tables. In the weary hours that his com.
panions devoted to recreation and repose, he
studied and ciphered until he had recalculated
the problems of Kepler, and demonstrated
Lhul tbC tAdhoit DICulStCd " lOol WOllu tdh
place on the 24th of November Gold style)
1859.
From the age of thirteen the boy Horror
gaZed upon the evening-star, dreaming tina
the day would come when he, perhaps frs
among all the inhabitants that ever people(
the earth, would see that planet making he,
way across the disk of the sun.
The slow-paced years of his boyhood rol
ON. The expected autumn comes, with it
fodin0 rnn,nc onA dronpinn laouac Tho No
vember day that he has long seen in hi
dreams brightens the earth, and finds hin
watching.
1t is the Sabbath-the last of the fall. HI
stands in a darkened room, beside an opeI
sheet of paper, on which lies the suns image
At the very hour that he expects the disclo
sure, the church bells ring. Shall he wal
for the planet to write its message, or shall
he go to the house of God with the worship
pers? The question agitates his soul. H,
thinks of the consequence of losing the sigh
for which he has waited for so many anxious
years. He reasons that the worship of tn
Creator ought not to be neglected, even t.
witness the sublimest works that the Create
has made. jeremiah Horrox did what fey
men that the world ever saw would have
done; he left the room, and repaired to tn
sanctuary.
1t was a cloudy day. When he returned
the clouds had broken, and the luminous SIX
shone above him. He vent to the darkene
room. There, on that white sheet of paper
lay the suns image, and on the suns imag
appeared the planet Venus, disclosing the sc
crets of the far abysm of space, like the touc,
of the very finger of the Invisible.
Horrox made the following apology to me.
of science for suspending his observations
ST observed it the reelection of the sun
image from sunrise to nine o'clock; again,