CIRCLE OF THE SCIENCES, WITH SUITABLE REFLECTIONS. ASTRONOMICAL SKETCHES, NO. XI.-MARS, VENUS, &C. Mars is the fourth planet in our system: his orbit is above the orbit of the Earth, at the distance of a hundred and fifty millions of miles from the Sun. His nearest distance from the Earth is about fifty-five millions of miles, and he shines with different degrees of lustre, according to his proximity to or distance from the Earth. He performs his periodical revolution in one year, three hundred and twenty-one days, twenty-three hours, thirty minutes, at the rate of fifty-six thousand miles an hour. His diurnal motion is completed in twenty-four hours, thirty-nine minutes, twenty-one seconds, of our time. Mars is of a dusky red, by which he is easily distinguished from Jupiter or any other of the planets. This appearance is attributed to the density of his atmosphere. Mars moves round the Sun from west to east; and his motion, like the motion of the other planets, is sometimes direct, occasionally retrograde, and at other times he appears stationary. His daily motion is through thirty-one minutes, twenty-six seconds, thirty-eight thirds; and his annual motion is through six signs, eleven degrees, seventeen minutes, and nine seconds. He rises sometimes before the Sun, and is a morning star; and sets sometimes after him, and is an evening star. Mars is the least planet of our system: his diameter does not exceed four thousand one hundred and eightynine miles, and apparent diameter, is only nine seconds, seven thirds, although, when in opposition to the Sun, it has sometimes exceeded twenty-nine seconds, two thirds, when he appears as large as Venus; yet he can always easily be distinguished from this planet by his inferior brightness. The axis of his orbit inclines to his equator twenty-eight degrees, forty-two minutes; which is five degrees, fourteen minutes more than that of our Earth; so that the inhabitants (if any) have greater variations in their days and nights than those which we have; their days being longer in summer, and their nights longer in winter. There are four very small planets between Mars and Jupiter, their names are Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, -supposed by some astronomers to be the parts of a large planet which has been rent or torn asunder by an extraordinary convulsion. The next planet is Jupiter, whose diameter is nearly ninety thousand miles. This planet is one thousand two hundred and eighty-one times larger than our Earth. He is at the amazing distance of four hundred and ninety-six millions of miles from the Sun, and four hundred and one millions of miles from the Earth, at his least distance. The diameter of his orbit is near one thousand millions of miles, and the circumference above three thousand millions. This astonishing circuit he performs in eleven years, three hundred and fifteen days, fourteen hours, of our time, at the rate of twenty. nine thousand miles an hour. "The rotation of Jun ter on his axis is performed in nine hours, fifty-six sʊ conds; so that his year contains ten thousand four hu dred and seventy days; and the diurnal velocity of h equatorial parts is greater than the swiftness with whic he moves in his annual orbit; a singular circumstance, as far as we know. By this prodigiously quick rottion, his equatorial inhabitants are carried twenty-five. thousand nine hundred and twenty-miles every hour, which is nine hundred and twenty miles an hour more than an inhabitant of our Earth's equator moves in twenty-four hours, besides the twenty-five thousand above-mentioned, which is common to all parts of his surface by his annual motion." Jupiter is surrounded by faint substances called belts, in which so many changes appear, that they are thought to be clouds; for some of them have been first interrupted and broken, and then have entirely disappeared. Large spots have been seen in these belts; and when a belt vanishes, the spots disappear with it. To the naked eye, this planet appears nearly as large, though never quite so brilliant, as Venus. The light and heat it receives from the Sun are supposed to be about one twenty-seventh of those of the Earth. The orbit of Jupiter inclines one degree, eighteen minutes, forty-seven seconds to the plane of the ecliptic The axis of Jupiter is so nearly perpendicular to his orbit, that he has no sensible change of seasons, which is a great advantage, and wisely ordered by the Author of nature; for if the axis of this planet were inclined any considerable number of degrees, just so many degrees round each pole would in their turn be almost six of our years together in darkness. And as each degree of a great circle on Jupiter contains seven hundred and six of our miles, at a mean rate, it is easy to judge what vast tracts of land would be rendered uninhabitable by any considerable inclination of his axis. Four very little Moons are observed near Jupiter, which constantly accompany him through his mighty round. They are invisible to the naked eye; but, seen through a telescope of considerable power, they make a most interesting and beautiful appearance. The motion of Jupiter appears sometimes direct, and sometimes retrograde; whilst at other times he appears stationary. His motion is retrograde during one hundred and nineteen days, and he remains stationary four days. PHILIP GARRETT. YOUNG LADIES' GARLAND. INNOCENCE. Written for the Monthly Repository and Library of Entertaining Knowledge. There is a charm in innocence before which strength becomes weakness and power becomes impotent. Beauty may dazzle,—but beauty without innocence never awes the bold intruder who would despoil the loveliest flower in the garden of God. The attainment of this virtue in its full perfection requires not only an irreproachable course of conduct, but also a strict guardianship over the thoughts. The thought of licentious and forbidden pleasure has power to impart a stain to female purity which, if unseen by the eye of man, throws its shadow on the heart and creates fear, distrust, and a sense of guilt in a bosom whiter than the mountain snow. The greatest blessing lent to poor humanity to remind it of Eden and Heaven, should retain its freshness and its perfection of moral beauty without those secret defections of thought which are like enemies admitted one by one at midnight into the strong hold of virtue, Young ladies should never presume on hiding a serious defect in their principles of moral virtue. If it be known to themselves, the glance of their own eyes may betray the secret-if they feel the hidden guilt, the indescribable charm of innocence may have fled from the blooming countenance for ever, or may only linger like a frightened dove on a flowering shrub whose branches a serpent is shaking in his ascending folds. All of the joys of earthly pleasure, that may truly bear the name of pleasure, time will scatter in the path of the virtuous from his silken wings;-all of the sor rows of departure from virtue, the grave and the sunless eternity beyond only can reveal. A ruined female is like a once beautiful star turned aside from the glori ous path in which she rolled in music round the sunnow adrift and on fire, the wonder and terror of the sil ver-eyed constellations-the seducer only of those wayward lights that might have risen at first in the heavenward skies, but whose onward courses have been towards the blackness of darkness. A virtuous female, preserving her purity of thought, and increasing the charities and generous affections of her heart through every vicissitude and change of life, may be compared to a star that rises indeed dimly, half seen in the dusky twilight and baptized in the dewdrops of the eveningbut soon putting on the spotless apparel of beauty, diffusing strange splendor through the admiring heavens, smiling on earth, yet attracted towards the kindred star of Bethlehem, and lost long before the dawn in the intense glories of a better sphere. If woman be the ministering angel of humanity, what must she be when the heavens receive her into their unsullied realms! What must she be whom the bright immortals stoop to love while she walks through earthly bowers! BOTANY, A BRANCH OF FEMALE EDUCATION. (Continued from Vol. I., page 360.) And such an endless variety, too, of forms, and hues, and shapes, almost as infinite as the everlasting changes of the kaleidoscope, and yet all harmonizing and blend ing in one splendid picture of beauty. "Some," says the pious Hervey, "are intersected with elegant stripes, or studded with radiant spots-some affect to be genteelly powdered, or neatly fringed; while others are plain in their aspect, unaffected in their dress, and content to please with a naked simplicity. Some assume the monarch's purple, but black, doleful black, has no admittance into the wardrobe of Spring." But, "Who can paint Like Nature? Can Imagination boast Thomson What a fine picture is this from Casimir's address to the sleeping rose: t "Siderum sacros imitata vultus But the mere external beauties, however rich and splendid, of the vegetable kingdom, are not all that please or charm the amateur of this science. His views of the Deity are enlarged; he sees His matchless wisdom in the formation, and His goodness in the production of every flower that blooms; and his heart expands with loftier and more ardent feelings of gratitude and adoration to Him, "Whose breath perfumes them, and whose pencil paints." The female who loves the study of Botany has no great relish for the wild and feverish dissipations of society; she prefers the quiet and tranquil scenes of nature, and luxuriates amidst the varied and beautiful productions of her hand.-She may be seen gliding through the walks of a garden, like the spirit of flowers, or bending over them, like a sylph hovering over a bed of roses. To her |