Venus, the brightest star which ever shines in the limpid glory of the western sky, is not a star, strictly speaking; it is a planet, a world like ours, and of the same size, which only shines by reflecting the Sun’s light into space. When one remembers that it is the same with us, and that, seen from the distance of some ten million miles, our Earth shines with a similar lustre, one is forced to admit that we are much more beautiful from afar than we are close by. There is indeed no possible comparison between the two aspects. Seen close at hand, we are agitation, the struggle for existence, fight, battle, envy, jealousy, drama, hunger, often misery; seen from afar, we are calm, serenity, pure nobility, celestial light, almost an image of God! It is probably the same with Venus, so white and so radiant seen from here; possibly if we could go close to her, we should hear the cries of wild beasts in the forests, the battles of men devouring each other in so-called civilised lands, and we might witness geological and human revolutions, more formidable on account of the fact that Venus, younger than ourselves, is less advanced in evolution. Being nearer the Sun than we and enveloped in a very dense atmosphere, Venus must have a higher temperature than the Earth. Its atmosphere is heavily charged with hot vapours. Its sky is always overcast; thunder and lightning must be never-ending. Electricity plays no doubt a prominent part. But, although many things are imperfect, there is good everywhere. It is one of the charms of astronomy that it enables us to see through time as well as through space. Those who remain in ignorance of the elements of this science do not even know that they are depriving themselves of the most agreeable satisfactions of the mind. They are like travellers who pass through a wonderful landscape without even asking where they are. This planet consecrated to Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, who, in the days of ancient Greece, was said to have emerged from the waves to charm gods and men, and whose mythical history brings us such eloquent evidence of the influence of celestial aspects upon the origin of religions--this planet, we say, owes its terrestrial glory to its situation between the Earth and the Sun. While our globe gravitates round the Sun at the distance of 92 million miles, in a year of 365 days, Venus passes along the orbit contained within our own, at the distance of 65 million miles from the Sun, in a year numbering 225 days. It follows that from time to time it passes between the Sun and ourselves, approaching to within 25 million miles or even less, since the two orbits are not circular, but elliptical. * * * * *