Tropic of Capricorn

“ The sun being nearly stationary for some days in the tropic of Capricorn, the air there becomes so much rarified, that the heavier winds, charged with watery particles, rush in upon it from the Atlantic on the west, and from the Indian Ocean on the east. The south wind, moreover, loaded with heavy vapour, condensed in that high ridge of mountains not far south of the Line, which forms a spine to the peninsula of Africa, and, running northward with the other two, furnish wherewithal to restore the equilibrium. ”

“ As there are in all countries some parts more pleasant than others, so there seems good reason to believe that within two or three degrees of the tropic of Capricorn, which passes through the midst of New Holland, is the most unwholesome and disagreeable part of this country ”

“ And the Sun, in the same part of the Heavens where he is now over the earthly Tropic of Capricorn, and makes the shortest days and longest nights in the Northern Hemisphere, will then be over the earthly Tropic of Cancer, and make the days longest, and nights shortest. ”

“ Aside from the changes of temperature that are due to the seasons, which are caused by the oscillating motion of the earth between the limits of the Tropic of Cancer on the north and the Tropic of Capricorn on the south, there are other changes constantly taking place in all seasons of the year. ”

“ A good eye sees at once that Alpha is double; but the two stars in Beta cannot be seen without a glass, because one of them is below the sixth magnitude, the minimum visible for the naked eye. Each of the stars in Beta is a telescopic double. The Goat heads westward, and the stars Delta (δ) and Gamma (γ) are in his tail. This constellation has given us our Tropic of Capricorn, because the place of the winter solstice was once within its boundaries, although now we find it far west, in Sagittarius. ”

“ The wydeste of thise three principal cercles is cleped the Cercle of Capricorne, by-cause that the heved of Capricorne turneth evermo consentrix up-on the same cercle. (That is to say, the Tropic of [Pg 90] Capricorn meets the ecliptic in the sign Capricornus, or, in other words, the sun attains its greatest declination southward when in the sign Capricornus.) ”

“ No climate of the temperate zone will be found to surpass in salubrity that of this Piedmont trans-Mississippi country. The calm zone of Capricorn is the duplicate of that of Cancer, and the winds flow from it as they do from that, both north and south, but with this difference: that on the polar side of the Capricorn belt they prevail from the northwest instead of the south-west, and on the equatorial side from the south-east instead of the north-east. ”

“ Greater even than Midir of the Dews, one of the great Lords of Death: greater than the Greek Poseidon or the Gaelic Manan, heaven-throned among the older gods though seen of mortals only on gigantic steeds of ocean, vast sea-green horses with feet of running waves and breasts of billows. For he is no other than one of the mightiest of the constellations, Capricorn itself! ”

“ The newspapers described, a few years since, a serious attack of fever; but as most persons have some experience of the kind, the fulfilment of the prediction can hardly be regarded as very wonderful. Epileptic attacks, which, as less common, might have saved the credit of the astrologers, have not visited 'this royal native.' The position of Saturn in Capricorn betokened loss or disaster in one or other of the places ruled over by Capricorn—which, as we have seen, are India, Macedonia, Thrace, Greece, Mexico, Saxony, Wilna, Mecklenburgh, Brandenburgh, and Oxford. ”

“ A second scarabæus is placed awry and cross-wise upon the first band, in the angle which the feet of the large figure form with the body, and before the space in which the Lion marches, which is a little behind. At the other end of this same band, the Capricorn is very near the bottom, or at the arms of the large figure; and, upon the left band, the Aquarius is separated to some distance from it. The Capricorn, however, is not repeated like the Crab. The division of this zodiac, from the entrance, is therefore made between the Lion and the Cancer ”

“ In all the hemisphere south of Capricorn, the land is greatly disproportioned to the ocean. The conical south point of America is but 55, and that of Africa only 35 degrees distant from the equator. A vast orbicular segment of this extreme of our planet, furnishes habitation for fishes only. The dry land is also diversified by elevations and plains ”

“ Harmonious all. On the celestial sphere
Though stars untold, as ocean's sand, appear,
Each tracks its separate orbit through the skies—
Fix’d is its place to set—its place to rise.
But the fourth circle on the ocean's face
To set and rise has no determin’d place.
Now mounting high to Cancer's torrid side—
With Capricorn now sinking in the tide.
If we this circle measure in the sky,
Spanning a sixth part with the human eye, 560
Two signs of twelve it can at once embrace,
Thence to the central eye an equal space. ”

“ Many intagli and camei of antique origin are found cut in Serpentine; these specimens include Egyptian scarabei and Babylonian cylinders of about 5,000 years ago, clear evidence that the ancients knew the stone, appreciated it and worked it.
The sign Capricorn is a strange one, symbolizing the Gateway of Heaven through which men pass when life on earth is done. Hence it expresses the 48mystery of the deep seas which were compared with the seas of space in sacred philosophy. ”

“ These are called tropical, because the Sun, after he has arrived at their first points, seems to turn, and to change his course towards a contrary latitude; [43] causing summer by the turn he makes in Cancer, and winter by that which he makes in Capricorn.
There are also two equinoctial signs: Aries, the first after the vernal equinox; and Libra, the first after the autumnal equinox: they are so called, because the Sun, when in the first point of either, makes the day and night equal. ”

“ And it is undoubtedly from the same Principle that to the Southwards of the Æquator, in part of the Indian Ocean, the North-West Winds succeed to the South-East, when the Sun draws near the Tropick of Capricorn; but I must confess, that in this latter occurs a difficulty, not well to be accounted for, which is, why this Change of the Monsoons should be any more in this Ocean, than in the same Latitudes in the Æthopick, where there is nothing more certain than a S. E. Wind all the Year. ”

“ Shone as the burned gold, with streames bright;
But now in Capricorn adown he light,
Where as he shone full pale, I dare well sayn.
The bitter frostes, with the sleet and rain,
Destroyed have the green in every yard. ”

“ At Venus’s Tropics, the Sun continues for about fifteen of our weeks together without setting in summer; and as long without rising in winter. Whilst he is more than 15 degrees from the Equator, he neither rises to the inhabitants of the one Tropic, nor sets to those of the other: whereas, at our terrestrial Tropics he rises and sets every day of the year.
38. At Venus’s Tropics, the Seasons are much the same as at her Poles; only the summers are a little longer, and the winters a little shorter. ”

“ The spot thus marking the planet's position is, by a very slight movement of the Rete, to be brought upon the horizon, and it will be found that the planet (situated 2° N. of the 6th degree) ascends together with the head (or beginning of the sign) of Capricorn. This result, which is not quite exact, is easily tested by a globe. When the latitude of the planet is south, its place cannot well be found when in Capricorn for want of space at the edge of the Astrolabe. ”

“ In poetry the dawn of the tropics may come up like thunder and the transition of darkness to light may be startling and sudden, but in my own experience the tropic dawn comes slowly and pervadingly. First a faint grayness, gradually growing brighter until the sun shoots up joyous and golden in its glory, painting the skies with flaming banners and penciling the tips and edges of clouds with the fires of morning. When we lazily drifted in toward Corregidor from the China Sea that morning, it was light enough to see distinctly for nearly an hour before the sun rose. ”

“ The Galaxy, Macrobius says, crosses the Zodiac in two opposite points, Cancer and Capricorn, the tropical points in the sun's course, ordinarily called the Gates of the Sun. These two tropics, before his time, corresponded with those constellations, but in his day with Gemini and Sagittarius, in consequence of the precession of the equinoxes; but the signs of the Zodiac remained unchanged; and the Milky Way crossed at the signs Cancer and Capricorn, though not at those constellations. ”

“ Observations show us that during the summer when the Sun is in the sphere of Cancer and allied signs, fecundation and growth are the order of the day. But when the Sun is in the South, in Capricorn, we have winter, when nature is dead. ”

“ It causes them much unnecessary worry, and may result in habitual melancholy, particularly if Saturn is afflicted. They ought to seek amusement outdoors, read funny stories and otherwise try to cultivate a sense of the humorous from childhood, for this is one of the saddest signs, and needs all possible encouragement.
Capricorn people are successful in detective work, where secret practices are used to trap others; and persistence is required to ferret out a mystery, for they never give up. ”

“ Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the planet of obstruction, therefore the vitality of these children isvery low and they are difficult to raise, but once infancy is passed the Saturnine persistence makes itself felt and they cling to life with an amazing tenacity so that they often become very old. They arevery much subject to colds and their principal source of danger is falls and bruises. ”

“ While the stars of Capricornus do not look anything like a sea-goat, he can be easily found by drawing a line from Vega in Lyra to Altair in Aquila and producing it until you come to the zodiac as shown in Fig. 179.
The two brightest stars of Capricornus are in his head. One of these stars is a naked eye double, but to many people it will seem merely a single star. As a matter of fact it is a fine sight test, for it takes a pair of mighty good eyes to separate them. Another bright star of the sea-goat is in his fishlike tail. ”

“ And it was now so bright that the waxing moon seemed but a pale yellow ghost of itself, hanging huge in the sunset. In a South African city a great man had married, and the streets were alight to welcome his return with his bride. "Even the skies have illuminated," said the flatterer. Under Capricorn, two negro lovers, daring the wild beasts and evil spirits for love of one another, crouched together in a cane brake where the fire-flies hovered. "That is our star," they whispered, and felt strangely comforted by the sweet brilliance of its light. ”