[Devmon] with visitors, particularly women, who flocked on board in such numbers that

[Wurtzel K. <pet...@mo...>]

T he was promoted to the rank of captain. CHAPTER TWO. SHOWS WHAT MEN
WILL DO AND DARE IN THE CAUSE OF SCIENCE. Men who study the stars
tell us strange and wonderful things--things that the unlearned find it
hard to understand, and harder
still to believe, yet things that we are now as sure of as we are of
the fact that two and two make four! There was a time when men said
that the sun moved round the earth; and

very natural it was in
men to say so, for, to the eye of sense, it looks as if this were
really the case. But those who study the stars have found out that the
earth moves round the sun--a discovery which has been of the greatest
importance to mankind--though the importance thereof cannot be fully
understood except by scientific men. Among other difficult things,
these astronomers have attempted to measure the distance of
the sun, moon, and stars from

our earth. Moreover, they have tried to ascertain the exact size of
these celestial lights, and they have, to a considerable extent,
been successful in their efforts. By their complicated calculations,
the men who study the stars can tell the exact day, hour, and minute
when certain events will
happen, such as an eclipse

of the sun or of the moon. Now, about the year 1768 the attention of
the scientific
world was eagerly turned to an event which was to take place in the
following year. This was the passage of the planet Venus across the
face of the sun.