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Hast thou ne'er seen the comet's flaming light?
Th' illustrious stranger passing, terror sheds,
On gazing nations, from his fiery train
Of length enormous; takes his ample round
Through depths of ather; coasts unnumber'd worlds
Of more than solar glory doubles wide

Heaven's mighty cape; and then revisits earth,
From the long travel of a thousand years.

YOUNG.

252. The twinkling stars, of which we see so many every clear evening, do not belong to our solar system; but are themselves so many Sunt to other systems like ours.

Each Star is supposed to be the centre of its own system; and to have planets, moons, and comets moving round it at immense distances, like those of our solar system!

Bright legions swarm unseen, and sing, unheard
By mortal ear, the glorious Architect,
In this his universal temple, hung
With lustres, with innumerable lights,
That shed religion on the soul; at once,-
The temple and the preacher! O how loud,
It calls Devotion! genuine growth of night
-Devotion! daughter of Astronomy!
An undevout astronomer is mad.

YOUNG.

253. They are called fixed stars, because they never appear to move; and are so distant, that although the orbit of the Earth is twice 93 millions, or 186 millions of miles across; and we are consequently 186 millions of miles nearer to some stars at one time than we are at another, yet the stars always appear in the same places.

Oh Nature! all-sufficient! over all !

Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works!

Snatch me to heaven; and show thy wonders there-
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profusely scatter'd o'er the blue immense.

THOMSON.

254. The distance of the nearest of the fixed stars cannot be less than 32 billions of miles; and all of them are doubtless as far distant from each other.

They appear to fill infinite space in shoals or VAST systems of stars; and our Sun is supposed

to be one of that amazing shoal of stars, whose myriads form the bright cloud of light called the Milky Way.

How distant, some of the nocturnal suns!
So distant, says the sage, 'twere not absurd
To doubt, if beams, set out at Nature's birth,
Are yet arrived at this so foreign world;
Thongh nothing half so rapid as their flight.
An eye of awe and wonder let me roll,
And roll for ever. Who can satiate sight
In such a scene, in such an ocean wide

Of deep astonishment? Where depth, height, breadth,
Are lost in their extremes ; and where, to count
The thick-sown glories in this field of fire,
Perhaps a seraph's computation fails,

YOUNG.

255. The stars, as seen through a telescope, are infinite in number, more than 100,000 have been reduced to a catalogue; but with the naked eye, not more than 6 or 800 stars on the clearest night can be seen;-so deceptive is the appearance when viewed hastily.

256. The ancients, in order to find and describe the stars, classed them into figures of men and beasts, called Constellations, and there were fifty of these. The moderns have added twenty-four others; so that the celestial globe, in which the stars are accurately laid down as in the heavens, is covered with the figures of these imaginary constellations.

257. In the Zodiac, or part of the heavens where the Sun appears to nove, there were twelve of these constellations: as,

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Aries, the Ram
Taurus, the Bull

Gemini, the Twins.
Cancer, the Crab
Leo, the Lion...
Virgo, the Virgin.
Libra, the Balance
Scorpio, the Scorpion
Sagittarius, the Archer...
Capricornus, the Goat.....
Aquarius, the Water Bearer..
Pisces, the Fishes........*

On the earth's orbit, see the various signs :-
Mark where the Sun, our year completing, shines a
First the bright Ram his languid ray improves a
Next glaring wat'ry thro' the Bull he moves;
The am'rous Twins admit his genial ray i
Now burning, thro' the Crab, he takes his way
The Lion, flaming, bears the solar power;
The Virgin faints beneath the sultry shower,
Now the just Balance weighs his equal force;
The slimy Serpent swelters in his course ;
The sabled Archer clouds his languid face ;
The Goat with tempests urges on his race ;
Now in the Water his faint beams appear;
And the cold Fishes end the circling year.

CHATTERTON,

Obs. 1. These constellations were of Egyptian con trivance; and the characters (which it is needful to learn) are Egyptian hieroglyphies, or rude paintings of the things represented, or some known emblem of the things.

2.--The signs of the Zodiac, in which the earth and planets move, may also be recollected by means of the following lines :

The ram, the bull, the heav'nly twins,
And next the crab, the lion shines,
The virgin and the scales

The scorpion, arcker, and sea-goat,
The man that holds the water-pel,
And Asa with glittering tails,

258. The most showy of the constellations is Orion, distinguished by his belt of * in a row;

beneath these is Sirius, the brightest of the stars; and above, to the right, are the red star of the Bull, and the Pleiades or Seven Stars; and to the left, two bright stars, Castor and Pollux.

These bright constellations are always visible on a winter's evening.

Obs.-The student of Nature, who takes an evening's walk to admire the magnificence and the glory of the starry heavens, and desires to profit by his observations, should learn to class the heavens into particular divisions; and fix on certain points, as landmarks, to direct his attention.

By knowing the part of the heavens in which the Sun rises, he is able to determine the eastern side; by attending to its situation at noon, he ascertains the south; and by noticing the place of its setting, he determines the western side of the horizon. He need not be told that the north is opposite to the south.

The moment, then, in which he casts his eyes on the sparkling expanse of heaven, he is supposed to be sensible of the bearings of the cardinal points, north, south, east, and west.

The next principle to be recognised is, that he sees above his horizon, one half of the whole heavens; that is to say, one-half of the heavens are always visible, or above the horizon, and the other half is below the horizon. He must not expect, therefore, to see all the constellations and planets at once; but only that half which at the time of observation, is above the horizon,

For the sake of precision and accurate reference, astronomers have supposed the 360 degrees, into which

• The horizon is the line all around where the sky and the earth seem to meet. The zenith is the point directly over head, go deBrees from the horison.

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