n his rays, so the
bending power of Venus's air brings the sun into our view round the dark
body of the planet. But the new paradox advances a much bolder theory.
Instead of an atmosphere such as ours, Venus has a glass envelope; and
instead of a surface of earth and water, in some cases covered with
clouds, Venus has a surface shining with metallic lustre.[53]

The author of this theory, Mr. Jos. Brett, startled astronomers by
announcing, a few years ago, that with an ordinary telescope he could
see the light of the sun's corona without the aid of an eclipse, though
astronomers had observed that the delicate light of the corona fades out
of view with the first returning rays of the sun after total eclipse.

The latest paradoxist, misled by the incorrect term 'centrifugal force,'
proposes to 'modify, if not banish,' the old-fashioned astronomy. What
is called centrifugal force is in truth only inertia. In the familiar
instance of a body whirled round by a string, the breaking of the string
no more implies that an active force has pulled away the body, than the
breaking of a rope by which a weight is pulled implies that the weight
has exerted an active resistance. Of course, here again the text-books
are chiefly in fault.

Such are a few among the paradoxes of various orders by which
astronomers, like the students of other sciences, have been from time to
time amused. It is not altogether, as it may seem at first sight, 'a sin
against the twenty-four hours' to consider such matters; for much may be
learned not only from the study of the right road in science, but from
observing where and how men may go astray. I know, indeed, few more
useful exercises for the learner than to examine a few paradoxes, when
leisure serves, and to consider how, if left to his own guidance, he
would confute them.

XI.

_ON SOME ASTRONOMICAL MYTHS._

The expression 'astronomical myth' has recently been used, on the
title-page of a translation from the French, as synonymous with false
systems of astronomy. It is not, however, in that sense that I here use
it. The history of astronomy presents the records of some rather
perplexing observations, not confirmed by later researches, but yet not
easily to be explained away or accounted for. Such observations Humboldt
described as belonging to the myths of an uncritical period; and it is
in that sense that I employ the term 'astronomical myth' in this essay.
I propose briefly to describ