number seem to rise and set, whilst others are always visible, is simply that such as are further removed from the Pole-star form larger circles than those which are nearer a fact which may be readily understood by observing the motion of a wheel: the axle never changes, but any particular point on the outer edge of the wheel describes a larger circle than such parts as are midway between the centre and the circumference.

Our readers must, however, bear in mind that stars actually neither rise nor set; that this beautiful effect is caused by the daily motion of the earth on its axis, to which we owe the grateful vicissitudes of day and night. And in order to assist them in discovering that beacon star which is allimportant in finding the position of many others, we shall briefly again repeat, that if we suppose the distance from the northern point of our horizon-where the mighty dome of heaven seems to rise from off the earth to the zenith, which is immediately above our heads-to be divided into five equal parts, then at nearly the height of three of those divisions gleams the Pole-star. This star is about 1° 10" from the pole; and excepting the small circle which it therefore necessarily describes, it is always in the same position, whether by day or night, summer or winter. The southern axis, on the contrary, is not distinguished by any analogous star, or clusters, resembling the Great and Lesser Bears. Astronomers relate that none of the stars in that quarter form circles, for that all appear to rise or set. Still, however, the semicircles or portions of semicircles-usually called arcs -which they describe, seem to have a common centre at some distance below the horizon; and this may be considered as the southern end of that great axis, which is so gloriously studded at its northern point.

Circumpolar is a term usually applied to all such stars as revolve around the poles. Those which never rise nor set to an inhabitant of London, and which are uniformly visible unless obscured by clouds, or disappearing in the blaze of day, are called stars of perpetual apparition, being constantly above the horizon. This term pertains to all such as belong to the constellations of which we have just now been speaking.

Persons who watch from night to night the rising of those stars that gem the heavens will find it important to remember, that while the glittering hosts seem to move round the earth from east to west, in consequence of its daily rotation, they become visible about 3' 56' earlier every evening, and thus may be thought to gain nearly one whole revolution more than the sun during the year. This is occasioned by that luminary appearing to progress among the constellations of the zodiac from west to east, in consequence of the earth's annual rotation. And in order to the better understanding of this portion of our subject, it is needful to observe, that the term sidereal day, which often occurs, signifies the revolution of the earth on its axis in 23h. 56m.; being the time which elapses from the appearing of a star upon the meridian till its coming there again. If the earth was stationary, this period would comprise our day; but such is not the case: and the rolling ball, on which we live and move, advances nearly one degree in its daily orbit.

When, at this season of the year, the nights are frosty and the heavens cloudless, most glorious stars are revealed in all directions; we shall, therefore, defer speaking at large concerning the fixed stars till the year is more advanced, and constellations are scarcely visible in the light nights of

summer.

Pisces is the twelfth and last sign of the zodiac, and although the least

attractive, is one of the largest constellations pertaining to the northern hemisphere. Unlike many others, it does not consist of an isolated figure, but is composed of three parts, viz., of two fishes, at a little distance from each other, connected by a line or cord. The fishes are not large, but the line is widely extended, and lies between them in a very undulated position. No probable conjecture can be formed as regards the species, nor

has any distinctive name been assigned them; they are merely represented as thick and short, with large heads, wide mouths, and forked tails, and having a kind of ring affixed to each tail, from which the cord depends. This cord, in order to comprise the greatest possible number of stars, appears flat, and somewhat broad, extending not in a straight line from one fish to another, but circuitous, and ornamented towards the middle with a kind of knot.

Astronomers have not assigned any star of the first brilliancy to this constellation; such as compose it are mostly of the second or third magnitude, and yet they are disposed so equally and regularly that the entire sign may be readily discerned.

The neighbouring constellations are those of Aries, Andromeda, Pegasus, Aquarius, and the Whale. The upper fish lies in a position perpendicular to the ecliptic, while the lower is nearly horizontal; the former verges on Andromeda and the Ram, the latter on the pitcher belonging to Aquarius, and the back and wing of Pegasus.

The

Among the eight-and-forty constellations which Greek astronomers derived from their Egyptian brethren, and which have been transmitted to the present day, the Fishes have retained their form and station unaltered. True it is that whereas Hipparchus and Ptolemy assigned only thirty-eight stars to this sign, Flamstead enumerates one hundred and thirteen, but no attempt has been ever made to improve its ungainly appearance. Greeks, that imaginative race, who peopled their groves and streams with ideal beings, referred the origin of their favourite constellations to some historic event or poetic legend. It was otherwise with the Egyptians; they adopted such figures as characterize the twelve signs of the zodiac, with reference to the changes of the seasons or country occupations: the constellation Pisces therefore denotes the approach of spring, and the season for fishing.

CHAPTER III.

MARCH.

"Ye stars, that are the poesy of heaven."

NONE, perhaps, among the constellations are more pleasing and conspicuous, none undoubtedly more suggestive of poetic thoughts and kindly feelings, than the Pleiades, or Vergiliæ.

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Daughters were they of Atlas and Pleione, or Æthra, one of the Oceanides. Their father, King of Mauritania, was equally renowned for his wisdom and great wealth; he was the master of a thousand flocks, and his gardens were everywhere celebrated for the variety of their fruits and flowers. These gardens, intrusted to a careful warder, amply repaid his care, and so widely spread their fame, that when Perseus, the deliverer of Andromeda, chanced to pass that way, he requested permission to gather some of the ripe fruit. His request was, however, decidedly refused: Atlas knew his origin, and having lent an anxious ear to the oracle of Themis, which, darkly uttered from amidst groves of laurel beside a rushing stream, foretold that the King of Mauritania should fall before a stranger youth, driven by fierce winds, and stranded with his mother Danaë on the coast of Seriphos, one of the Cyclades. This prediction, as poets tell, incited Atlas not only to refuse the rites of hospitality, but to offer violence to the stranger, who, on his part, being unequal in strength, and but slightly armed, drew from beneath his vest the terrible head of Medusa, bristling with snakesthat Medusa, one of the sister Gorgons, whom he had subdued in the deserts of Asiatic Scythia. So terrible was her aspect, men said in those far-off days, that none could look upon her without being changed into stone. Perseus therefore, who found the sisters asleep, looked not on them, but on his burnished shield, which reflected every object as clearly as a lookingglass; and, strengthened by Minerva, the goddess of Wisdom, cut off the head of Medusa with a single blow: this head he fixed on his shield, and went forth in quest of adventures. Presenting, therefore, before the sight of Atlas, that tremendous spectacle which none might look upon unharmed, the monarch was instantly changed--yet not into an isolated rock, but rather into a range of mountains, as became his kingly dignity, which mountains ran across the deserts of Africa, east and west, and bore his name, lifting their conic summits to the clouds, and often concealed by them. Hence the ancients fable that they upheld the magnificent dome of heaven, and that Atlas supported the world on his shoulders—a fable which originated, without doubt, in the well-known fondness of the Mauritanian monarch for astronomy, and from his frequenting elevated places and high mountains to watch the motions of the stars. Therefore it was that when his seven daughters were carried away by Busiris, King of Egypt, but redeemed by Hercules, conqueror of the Nemean lion, and to whom the white poplar is especially dedicated, the father rewarded his services by instructions in astronomy, and the present of a celestial globe. This knowledge Hercules communicated to the Greeks, and from this, also, originated the fable, that Hercules eased for some time the heavy burden borne, by Atlas, taking on his own shoulders the crushing weight of the universe.

Amidst the dim obscurity of this wild history, facts are yet discoverable that bear on the origin of science. They go far to show that gardening and astronomy occupied the attention of one of the greatest men belonging to a period antecedent to the historic era, but whose name, inscribed among the stars, and written, as it were, on that vast range of mountains from which the Atlantic Ocean takes its name, has been renowned throughout all ages. The existence of a celestial globe, with the giving of instruction as a reward for valour, and the passing also of astronomic science from Mauritania into Greece, are equally authenticated facts. We learn, moreover, that strangers demanded as their due the exercise of hospitality in those early ages; also the

baneful influence of obscure oracular predictions on the most enlightened minds.

Poets have sung concerning the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione-a nymph of ocean birth; and doubtless poets in all ages, though an imaginative race, drinking of the waters of Helicon, and loving to range through a world of their own creating, preserved facts that must otherwise have been lost in the obscurity of time. We owe much to them, and in preserving a brief memorial of those seven sisters, they offer to mankind beautiful and impressive examples of filial love and sisterly affection.

The name Pleiades is derived from a Greek word, signifying to sail, because their rising was hailed by navigators as a favourable time for venturing to sea; Vergilia, from ver, the spring, when the Ornithian winds blew softly, and the swallow returned to her nest; when also the kite and nightingale appeared in Greece, and trees, according to an ancient Calendar of Flora made by Theophrastus, began to put forth their leaves.

Each sister, as legends tell, married an immortal being, with the exception of Merope, who allied herself to Sisyphus, King of Corinth; and her star, in consequence, became somewhat dim. It is said concerning them, that while living with their parents, they were also called Hesperides, from the garden of their father-that celebrated garden which abounded with the choicest fruits, and where grew those golden-tinted apples which Hercules longed to possess. Often in a summer evening did Atlas, laying aside the cares of state, go forth with his seven daughters amid his fruits and flowers, telling them concerning their names and natures; how the opening of one flower preceded the expanding of another, and the return of punctual birds from other climes; how, also, he guarded with jealous care those richlyloaded trees, which appeared as if covered with golden fruit, because throughout the vast extent of Africa no other monarch was believed to possess them.

Often, too, when Silence and her sister Twilight came forth with the "folding star" of the latter, shedding refreshing dews, and drawing a gradual dusky veil over those bright gardens and ample fields, where herds and flocks lay down to rest, might the gay train of nymphs be seen accompanying their sire to the summit of some near hill. " Look, my daughters," he would say to them, "on the myriads of stars that seem to stud the heavens. How beautiful, and yet how varied in their forms and brightness! Some are dimly seen, others sparkle gloriously above our heads. Yonder are Orion and Mazzaroth, and a cluster of stars towards the north. Look carefully upon them, and you will readily discern that though, like the sands upon the sea-shore, they are innumerable, and seem inseparably intermingled, they yet form groups which mostly rise and set as seasons come and go, which invariably indicate the leafing of trees, and the opening of wild flowers, and point out to the husbandman and sailor when each should plant his field or adventure on the sea."

Thus instructed, and attentive to their sire, went forth the daughters of Atlas into other realms. Alcyone, whose name is borne by sea-birds, espoused Ceryx, King of Trachima. Merope, as already noticed, dwelt in Corinth, which her husband founded. The mists of ages obscure the homes of Maia, Electra, Celeno, and Targete. Sterope married Enomaces, King of Piscea, a powerful and flourishing city of Etruria, and who is conjectured to have greatly assisted her husband in its internal regulations. Judging

also from the faint light that history has cast on events connected with the seven sisters, on achievements likewise assigned to their sons, and on improvements in their adopted countries, we may conjecture that each sister shed a blessing on her home, and carried to other lands the knowledge which she had derived from her sire.

Astronomers in all ages have loved to describe the Pleiades: beautiful they are, and readily distinguished among their brethren: many have admired the group of stars that bears their name, who yet are little conversant with their history. Henceforth we trust that those who seek for them in clear evenings, from the end of August till the middle of April, will remember the filial love and sisterly affection of those who are thus immortalized-their love of stars and flowers, and the hallowed influence of their domestic virtues.

Seven stars were originally assigned to this group, each of which may be distinctly seen in clear frosty nights, although of different lustre. Modern discoveries, however, have shown that although the unassisted eye can see only this restricted number, the telescope reveals a much larger assemblage. Dr. Hook, formerly professor of geometry in Gresham College, informs us that by the aid of his twelve-feet telescope, which magnified about seventy times, he discovered seventy-eight stars in this interesting group.

“Canst thou bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth ?" Thus spoke a voice from out the whirlwind, bidding the patriarch Job consider the wonders and the glories of creation, and confess his utter inability to comprehend the ways of the Most High.

The aspect of the heavens is extremely beautiful during the present month, and, perhaps, as some of our readers may find it convenient to examine the different constellations rather at nine than ten, we shall pre

BETELCEUX

BELATRIX

RICEL

sent them with their general appearance on the 1st of March, at that hour.

Pegasus and Pisces, with several lesser constellations pertaining to the commencement of January, have disappeared; others which are still visible appear less elevated; and some have risen to a considerable height above the horizon. Orion, pre-eminent in beauty, is now in the south-west quarter of the heavens; the Pleiades, instead of being on the meridian, are due west, at an elevation of 34° above the western point of the horizon; Sirius shines west of the meridian in a direction SS.W.; Procyon and Canis Minor occupy nearly the same position; and Castor and Pollux, directly north of Procyon, have likewise passed the meridian. Thirty degrees to the west

ward of the zenith, Capella looks down from his starry dwelling. Men