the sterling stuff of which she is made to | selves, who write, had done battle for the the first impertinent inquisitor, who may Uranian satellites, trusting in Sir W. be unworthy alike of her confidence and Herschel's care and customary accuracy; her regard. She will continue to astonish but there can be now no question that those who pretend to understand her by rising to heights, when she is summoned thither, which are unapproachable to her complacent and courted critics. Yet, in spite of all this, it may happen that quiet girls of the best type may lack the wit, the adaptability to that with which they have no sympathy, the glibness, and that unlimited faith in themselves which must be possessed by those who desire to attract the notice of the more shallow portion of society. The truth is that the noisy girl is as much the product of education and training as anything else, and it may as well be frankly admitted that in her own horrible way she is unapproachable.

We do not wish to be misunderstood. We have no desire to imply that all quiet girls are endowed with genius and the virtues, for some are simply fools who would be noisy enough if they could find anything to say. What we do protest against is the habit which prevails of slighting quiet girls and speaking ill of them before they have been fairly tried, and of paying sickening homage to the conceited chatterboxes of little moral sense and principle. What we would indicate is that while noisy damsels will often turn out to be gaudy impostors, many quiet ones will amply repay the time, trouble, and love which any one may bestow upon them.

From The Spectator.

THE PLANET VULCAN.

DURING the last few weeks, attention has been directed afresh to the planet which, seventeen years ago, the French doctor, Lescarbault, was said to have discovered. For years none saw any trace of it, and it seemed about to take its place among astronomical myths, like the rings of Uranus, the satellite of Venus, and the second moon of our earth (seen by Petit, of Toulouse, but usually escaping discovery, because concealed by the earth's shadow). Other objects which had held an apparently more secure position, as the second moon of Neptune, and the four extra satellites of Uranus, which Sir W. Herschel supposed he had discovered, have quite recently been dismissed from our text-books of astronomy, where they had long been recorded without any expression of doubt or suspicion. We our

these satellites no more exist than the ring which the forty-feet reflector of the great astronomer seemed to show round Uranus. As for the satellite of Venus, though few now suppose the planet has any attendant, such faith was once placed in its existence, that Frederick the Great proposed to give to it the name of his illustrious friend D'Alembert. It does not appear from D'Alembert's reply that he doubted the reality of that astronomical phantasm. "Your Majesty," he said, "does me too much honor, in wishing to baptize this new planet with my name. I am not great enough to become the satellite of Venus in the heavens, nor young enough to be so on the earth. I know too well how small a place I occupy in this lower world to covet one in the sky." To this day, French writers on astronomy regard the question as undecided, and it was but a month or so ago that the Abbé Moigno devoted sev. eral pages of his journal, Les Mondes, to consider the evidence for and against that mysterious attendant upon the planet of love.

The case of Vulcan is somewhat different. If Venus has a satellite, the smaller body cannot usually be concealed behind the planet, or (lying between the planet and us) be lost to view upon her disc. Therefore, the satellite should have been seen thousands of times by the hundreds of observers who have studied Venus, whereas there have been but twenty or thirty observations of the supposed satellite. But if there is really a planet travelling nearer to the sun than Mercury, we should only expect to see this planet on very rare occasions. During total eclipse it might be seen, and indeed, as Sir J. Herschel said, it ought long since to have been seen during eclipse, if it has any real existence. When passing between the sun and the earth, too, it would sometimes pass across the sun's face, like Venus in transit; and for the same reasons which render transits of Mercury far more common than transits of Venus, transits of Vulcan would be far more common than transits of Mercury. It was during a transit, if Lescarbault's account be correct, that Vulcan was seen by him seventeen years ago, and news recently received from China respecting the planet describe another passage which Vulcan is said to have made across the face of the sun.

The account given by Lescarbault in

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N

1859 was not altogether satisfactory; the the observation the subject of a calcula-
principal flaw has not hitherto, we believe, tion, and two French mathematicians
been noticed, except very passingly. Le- showed that Loomis's results could be rec-
verrier published in the latter half of that onciled with Lescarbault's, on the assump-
year the result of his investigation of the tion that they had both seen the same
motions of Mercury, and at the close of planet. One cannot but regret that the
his paper expressed the opinion that either idea did not occur to Mr. Loomis of for-
Venus must be heavier by one-tenth than warding a telegram to Greenwich Observa-
had been supposed, or else there must be tory. Or, if he were unwilling to do this,
a planet within the orbit of Mercury dis- he might have sent a messenger to one of
turbing Mercury's movements. On this, the many persons who have observatories
Lescarbault announced that nine months in and around Manchester. As Loomis's
before, namely, on March 26th, 1859, he telescope was only a small one (less than
had observed the passage of a round, three inches in aperture), he could hardly
black body across the face of the sun, have failed to know of half-a-dozen per-
which he thought might be the body sons provided with at least equal tele-
whose existence was suspected by Lever-scopic power, and residing within a half-
rier. But he said he did not like to an hour's journey of his place of business.
nounce its discovery until he had seen it A similar remark cannot certainly be ap-
again. Considering how many years had plied to the observation last made upon
elapsed during which the sun had been con- this mysterious planet, seeing that the ob-
stantly observed by astronomers without server, M. Weber, was in Pe-chee-lee,
this planet being seen, the chance of Les- when he saw the spot on the sun, and may
carbault's securing a second view should be forgiven for not telegraphing to Ma-
have seemed so small, that one cannot well dras or Melbourne, the nearest well-pro-
understand his reticence. This seems to vided observatories. The news reached
have been Leverrier's opinion at the time. Europe by post.
"It will interest you,"
In "calling at the residence of the modest wrote M. Wolf to Leverrier, on the receipt
and unobtrusive practitioner, Leverrier of Weber's letter, "to know that on April
said to him, in an abrupt and authorita- 4, at half past four Berlin time, M. Weber
tive tone, 'It is, then, you, sir, who pre- saw, at Peckeloh, a round spot on the sun,
tend to have discovered the intra-Mercu- which was without spots in the morning
rial planet, and who have committed the and on the next day, as seen not only by
grave offence of keeping your observation M. Weber, but by myself and M. Schmidt
secret for nine months. I warn you that at Athens." Wolf adds, with natural satis-
I have come here with the intention of faction, that the interval between Lescar-
doing justice to your pretentions, and of bault's observation and Weber's amounts
demonstrating that you have been either to exactly one hundred and forty eight
dishonest or deceived. Tell me unequiv- times the period which he had himself
ocally what you have seen.'" This abrupt assigned to Lescarbault's planet. Lescar-
address, which in England would proba-
ably have led to the visitor's descending
from the observatory much more abruptly
even than he had entered it, seems to have
been met very calmly by Lescarbault, who
succeeded in satisfying Leverrier that an
inter-Mercurial planet had really been ob-
served. "Leverrier congratulated the
medical practitioner upon his discovery,
and left with the intention of making the
facts thus obtained the subject of fresh
calculations."

Three years after Lescarbault's observation, viz., on March 20, 1862, Mr. Loomis, of Manchester, saw a round spot on the sun's face. He called a friend's attention to it, and both remarked its sharp, circular form. Unfortunately business duties only allowed him to watch the spot for twenty minutes, during which time he found that it changed considerably in position. He wrote to Mr. Hind, who made

bault was not so well pleased as might have been expected with Weber's observation. It appears that during the late war the Germans plundered his library and observatory, and having discovered the place where his instruments were concealed, destroyed them. "I should, therefore, have preferred," he says, "since I myself have failed to find Vulcan again, that either a Frenchman or a non-German foreigner had made the discovery." He admitted, however, that he was under obligation to M. Weber.

So satisfactory was Weber's observation considered, that on the strength of it M. Leverrier made fresh calculations, and it was presently announced to the world that probably Vulcan would again cross the sun's face on October 2nd or 3rd. Waiting to hear from colonial observers whether anything remarkable was seen on those days, we may be permitted to call

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