American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1876-12-30
. s-eANTON; DECEMBER 80 1876. -
A Talk About the Stars.

A Talk About the Stars. 81
It is very pleasant to know the starr
to be able, like Millions hermit, to
| Sit and rightly spsll
OF every star that heaven doth show. =
| And it is not at all difficult to learn
the chief star-groups-or consultations,
AZ they are called-f only the learner
goes properly to work. Perhaps I ought
rather to say, if the teacher goes prop.
erly to work. l remember, when Wa
a boy about twelve years old, being very
much perplexed by the books Of astron.
omy, and the star-charts, from which
tried to learn the stars. There was
!" Bonnycastie's Astronomy, ii, with :
very Pretty picture Of one constellation
-Andromeds-in which. il one looked
very carefully, one could perceive stars,
though these were nearly lost in the
carefully shaded picture Of the Chained
Lady 6sfseff. 4nother gDouk which. ]
found in my fathers library showed 9
series of neat pictures Of all the chief
consultations, but gave no information
as to their whereabouts. And the
charts which found are not At all easy.
to understand, being, in fact, the usual
star charts, which gave no information
whatever about the places of star groups
on the sky of any place or at any time.
So that it was only by working my way
from the Great Bear to- CONSULTATIONS
close by it, theAto others close by these
and soon, that SLOWLY learnedth star
groups. .Fs :; e.sifie Z % j
Now the ancients, when they called
a group Of stars by any name, really
imagined some Resemblance between
the star-group and the figure after
which they named it. I have heard it
said that the liyeliest imagination can
not form figures Of familiar objects out
of the stars but this is certainly mis-
take, for know that when I was = lad,
Apd before had learned to associate
the stars with the consultations at
present in use, used to imagine among
the stars the figures of such objects as
was most familiar with. In the con-
steiiation Of the Swan, I saw a capital
kite lit is there to this. day.. In the
Great Bear, saw the, figure Of q toy
very common at that time in England,
representing a monkey that passed over
the top of . pple.. The three stars
forming the handle Of the Dipper made
the tail of the monkey; and il you look
at Tho Dipper in the, position it now
occupies in the early evening, you
VIM readily see the figure Of Sclimbing
In Perseus could see .
garland of flowers such as my sisters
used to make. Orion was climbing
giant when rising, but took tho atti-
tude of giant going down hill as he
passed over to the west In the Ser
pent- Bearer and Serpent saw 8 mon
'ts6ds aword, shaped like the curved
,aber which Saladin welded and SO
'orth. No doubt, in the infancy of |
or perhaps Of the world
tself, men were fancifpl in the same
way, and the figures they assigned to
he star-groups really seemed pictured
n the sky. The idea of-separating the |
one from another was |
! much later one than that of merely |
raining the, more remarkable star
,roups. II one set of stars seemed to
any object, ana smother set to
esemble another object. I think the
corresponding names would have been
.ssx,<,. o.,o,,. <h~,,rb oor4a cko,.s ~ one |
ct were included, within the other set.
n fact, think this very constellation
i the Dragon seems to me to show
hat our modern constellation figures
ave been largely reduced in extent.
You may, perhaps, think that it mat
ers very little what figures the ancients
eally imagined among the stars. But
on will be disposed to think different
y when l mention that the supposed
rant of resemblance neso between the
tar groups and the figures assigned to
hem, has led some to form the bold
iea that there was once q strong re-
but that some stars have
one out, others have shone forth more
or are altogether new, and
hat thus the resemblance has been de-
troyed. When we remember that our
un is only one among the vast number
+ suns, it becomes rather serious
natter for the inhabitants of the earth
| SO many suns have really changed.
or, in that case, our sun may soon
hange in his turn, and either broil us
% with excess of heat, or leave us to
erish miserably from extremity Of
old. However, think the explana-
ion which have given shows that the
esemblance formerly imagined still re-
Mains, and that it is only because mod
IN astronomy has docked the dimen-
ions of the old figures that they no
niger correspond with their Names
'rof. r. d. Proctor, in st. Nicholas for
7ovember. ,-Is - ..l{
An Irishman's Cousin. /,