The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-01-26
The Morning ana ErrminO StoI

The Morning and EremimO Star.
" Fairest of stars last in the train OF night
II better thou belong not 10 the dawn,
Sure pledge Of day that CTOwn'st the smiling morn
NTH thy bright circlet praise him in thy sphere"
Milton.
All through the spring months, and
onward to the end of June, the evening
star shone nightly in the west, slowly
passing downward along the track which
the sun had followed. She had been
growing brighter and brighter up to the
end of May, and for week Or so longer,
but then she began to lose lustre night
after night. She also drew nearer and
nearer to the suns place on the sky, so
as to set sooner aud sooner after him.
At last she was no more seen. But if
during this September and October, and
afterward till next spring, you get up
before sunrise, you will see the morning
star in the cast, shining very brightly in
September, but gradually with less and
less splendor, until at length. late in
spring next year, it will be lost to view.
This morning star is the same, body
which before had shOne in the evening.
It shines half the time as an evening
star, and half as an morning star; or, to
be more exact, | ought to say that after
shining for a long time as an evening
star, and being lost for long time from
view, it shines on just as long a time as a
morning star, then is again lost from
view then shines for as long time as
before in the evening, and so on con-
tinually. 1t also changes in brightness
all the time, in this way:
For rather more than eight months
you see it in the evening, getting
brighter and brighter, slowly, for the
first seven months, and then getting
fainter much more quickly, until at last
you lose sight IF it. In about a fort
night you see it as morning star, get
ting brighter and brighter quickly dur
ing rather mere than month, and get
ting slowly fainter and fainter during
the seven months, after which it can no
more he seen. So that it shines about
eight months as a morning star. After
this it remains out Of sight for about
two months, and is then seen as an even
ing star. And so it goes on changing
from a morning to an evening star, and
from au evening star to a morning star,
and always changing in brightness in the
way Just described.
The star which shows these strange
changes is called by astronomers Venus,
and is the most beautiful Of all the stars.
Venus was called the planet of love
and in old times, when men thought,
that the stars rule our fortunes, the rays
of Venus were supposed to do a great
deal of good to those who were born
when she was shining brigh thy. But in
our time, men no longer fancy that be-
cause q star looks beautiful like Venus,
it brings cook luck; or because that a
star looks dim and yellow, like Saturn,
it brings bad fortune. They know that
Venus is a globe like our own earth,
going around the sun just as the earth
does. Our earth seen from Venus looks
like star to US. And if there are any
creatures living on Venus who can study
the stars as we do, they have quite as
much reason for thinking that the globe
on which we live brings them good luck,
AS we have for thinking that their globe
brings us good luck.-Prot Richard 4.
Proctor, ST. Nichoi1s.