The names of the constellations, and the hieroglyphic figures by which they are represented, appear, however, to have had their origin in superstitious and idolatrous notions. The Egyptians, it is well known, worshipped the host of heaven under the figures of most of the animals which represent the celestial constellations, particularly the signs of the Zodiac. They imagined the sun, which they called Osiris, to be a proper representative of the Spirit of Nature, or the Supreme Being, who, like the sun, appears everywhere present, exercising his influence over the universe. The moon, as she receives her light from the sun, was looked upon as a female divinity, and called Isis; which goddess was made to signify universal nature considered as passive, and susceptible of various impressions, forms, and qualities. They found, or imagined they found, in various animals some properties or qualities corresponding to the motions, appearances, or influences of the sun, moon, and stars. This induced them not only to use those animals in their hieroglyphic representations of their deities, but also to pay them divine honours. Thus, by the Ram, a prolific animal, they represented the genial, fertilizing influence of the sun in spring; and by the hot and furious Lion, his violent scorching heat in the summer; and the Bull was an emblem of the various powers of the sun in forwarding the business of agriculture, in which this animal was of particular service. As the overflowing of the Nile is particularly beneficial to the land of Egypt, and as that river was observed to swell at the rising of Sirius, or the Dog Star, so they had a special veneration for that orb, as if its divine influence had contributed to that fertility which was produced by the inundation of the Nile. That the Egyptians worshipped all the animals depicted on the Zodiac, and those which represent several of the other constellations, is proved by the testimony of several ancient authors, particularly Herodotus, who says that "in Egypt all sorts of beasts, whether wild or tame, were accounted as sacred, and received divine honours." And it is not improbable that this worship of the host of heaven, through the hieroglyphics of various animals, was a general practice during the abode of the children of Israel in that country, and that the following admonition of Moses has a reference to this circumstance: "Take heed lest ye corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any

beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth upon the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; and lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. But the Lord thy God hath taken you and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt." The reference here made to their being brought out of Egypt seems evidently intended to put the Israelites in mind of their deliverance from the idolatrous practices of the inhabitants of that country, as well as from the slavery to which they had been subjected, and consequently implies that the Egyptians indulged in the superstitious worship to which we have alluded.

As it is the practice of astronomers to denote the relative apparent magnitudes of the stars in each constellation by the letters of the Greek alphabet, the whole of this alphabet is here inserted, that the unlearned reader may be enabled to distinguish the different characters, and the order in which they follow each other.

The first letter of the Greek alphabet, a, denotes the largest or brightest star in each constellation. Thus, a Lyra is the brightest in the constellation of Lyra, or the Lyre; ß Lyræ, the star next in brightness to alpha; and so on throughout all the letters of the Greek alphabet. When the number of stars to be distinguished in any constellation is greater than the number of letters in the Greek alphabet, astronomers have recourse to the letters of the English alphabet, and distinguish the remaining stars, according to their apparent brilliancy, by the letters a, b, c, d, &c. ; and if more stars still remain to be distinguished, they resort to numerals, thus a2, d4, &c. From this mode of distinguishing the apparent magnitude of the stars, the reader will easily perceive that those stars which are distinguished by the first letters of the Greek alphabet are the largest in any particular constellation, while those which are marked with letters towards the close of the alphabet are among the smaller stars.

D 2

ON THE PROPRIETY OF ADOPTING A MORE NATURAL ARRANGEMENT AND DELINEATION OF THE STARRY GROUPS.

THE figures of the celestial constellations to which we have now adverted are still depicted on our celestial globes and planispheres, and present, in my opinion, a very awkward and unnatural representation of the starry heavens. It is rather a strange circumstance that, for a period of more than two thousand years, the firmament has been contemplated, and the arrangements of the bodies it contains studied, through the medium of bears, serpents, lizards, rams, whales, centaurs, dolphins, flying horses, three-headed dogs, hydras, dragons, and many other grotesque and incongruous figures. The sublime wonders of the evening sky have thus been associ

ated with a group of mean, ridiculous, and imaginary objects, of which we have scarcely any prototype in nature, and in which there is not the least shadow of a resemblance to the objects which they are intended to represent. When the young student of astronomy wishes to distinguish particular assemblages of suns and systems of worlds, he is required to connect them in his imagination with wolves, lions, snakes, and numerous fantastical figures, which are bent and twisted into unnatural shapes, which have as little resemblance to the objects in the heavens as the gloom of midnight to the splendours of the meridian sun. Such representations have a tendency to convey to juvenile minds a mean idea of the most august bodies in nature, and of the ample spaces which surround them, and in which they perform their revolutions.

The terms used in any science, the mode of communicating its instructions, and the delineations which such instructions require, ought undoubtedly to be accommodated to the discoveries which have been made in the course of ages, and to the present state and objects of that science; and unless we can show that the terms and figures to which I allude are the best calculated to the present state and objects of astronomical science, and fitted to assist the student in forming natural and correct ideas of the arrangement of the celestial orbs, it is expedient that some change and improvement in this respect should be adopted, in accordance with the new modifications and arrangements which have been introduced into other departments of science. The propriety of introducing some changes in delineating the constellations, and in their nomenclature, may perhaps appear from the following considerations:

1. The natural and hieroglyphic figures now in use have no resemblance to the groups of stars they are intended to represent. What resemblance, for example, exists between an eagle, a wolf, a centaur, a flying-fish, or Hercules with his club, and the constellations which bear their names and are attempted to be delineated by their figures? Even when imagination has stretched itself to the utmost in order to fancy a resemblance, it is obliged to represent such creatures in the most unnatural positions; and, after all, it is found impossible to bend and twist their wings, and legs, and tails, and claws, in such a manner as to take in all the stars in the group, some pretty conspicuous ones being still left unformed in the

intermediate spaces. Besides, the discovery of new stars by the telescope has now completely deranged the figures of the ancient constellations; so that, however much the legs, arms, and feet of the figures may be twisted, they cannot be made to coincide with hundreds of stars which are known to exist. The only constellations which may be said to bear a very rude resemblance to the natural figures are Orion and Ursa Major; but even in these the resemblance is very distant. Hence what is commonly called a bear is also conceived to resemble a plough and a wagon, and is, by the vulgar, distinguished by these names. Hence, also, different nations represent the same constellation by different figures: thus, instead of our hieroglyphic delineations, the Hindoos have bespattered the firmament with bedsteads, dogs' tails, ear-rings, couches, elephants' teeth, cats' claws, red saffron, children's pencils, lions' tails, festoons, wheels, razors, pieces of coral, pearls, and other whimsical objects equally appropriate.*

In a judicious comparison of the figures of the different clusters of stars with any other object, for the purpose of a name or reference, the figure of the particular cluster ought first to be accurately considered, and then an object, having as near a relation to it as possible, should be fixed upon as its representation. But an order exactly the reverse of this seems to have been adopted by the ancients in their arrangement and nomenclature of the constellations. They first fixed upon the heroes, animals, and mythological figures which they intended to place in the celestial vault, and then attempted, if possible, to bend the clusters of stars to correspond with them: a most absurd, unscientific, and unnatural procedure. And shall all succeeding astronomers in every nation tacitly give their approbation of such rude and injudicious arrangements, as if they were unqualified for forming a more scientific and definite outline of the sublime spaces of the firmament?

2. The figures now in use tend to convey a mean idea of the objects they are intended to represent. When the stars were considered as merely a number of tapers or studs fixed in the vault of heaven, solely for the purpose of shedding a few glimmering rays on the earth and adorning the canopy of our habitation, it might not appear quite so incongruous to

* See "Asiatic Researches," vol. ii., art. 16--Antiquity of the Indian Zodiac.