Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-02-14


cd to know that she had all the care
that was meant for twelve, for she WAS
the happiest little chick that ever
ived.-&. Nicholas for February.
A Talk About the Stars.
BY PROF. R. A. PROCTOR.
1t is very pleasant to know the stars
to be able, like Millions hermit, to
&C Sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth show"
And it is not at all difficult to learn all
the chief star-groups-or consultations,
as they are called-if only the learner
goes properly to work. Perhaps l
ought rather 10 say, if the teacher goes
properly to work. [ remember when
I was 3 boy about twelve years old,
being very much perplexed by the
books Of astronomy, and the star
charts, from which / tried to learn the
stars. There was Bonnycastie's AS
tronomy," pith very pretty picture of
one cc14stellatiOn, Andromeda, in
which if one looked very carefully, one
could perceive stars, those these were
nearly lost in the carefully shaded pic
ture Of the Chained Lady herself. An
other bouk which [ found in my faith
er's library showed series of near pic
lures of all the chief consultations, but
gave no clear information as to their
Whereabouts. And the charts which I
found were not at all easy to under-
stand, being, in fact, the usual star
charts, which give 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 work
ing my way from the Great Bear to
consultations close by it, then to others
close by these, and so on, that I slowly
learned the chief star-groups.
Now the ancients, when they called a
group of stars by any name, really I'M
agined some resemblance between the
star-group and the figure after which
they named it. [ have heard it said
that the iveliest imagination cannot
form figures of familiar objects out of
the stars; but this 10 certainly mis-
take, for [ know that p hen | was g. lad,
and before | had learned to associate
the stars with the consultations at pres
ent in use, I used to imagine among
the stars the figures of such objects as
was most familiar with. In the con-
stellation of the Swan, [ saw a capital
kite lit is there to this day.. In the
Great Bear, I saw the figure of q toy
very common at that time in England,
representing q monkey that passed
over the top of q pole. The three stars
forming the handle Of the Dipper made
the tail of the monkey; and if you look
at the Dlpper in the position it now oc-
cupies in the early, evening, you will
readily see the figure of climbing
monkey. In Perseus [ could see gar
land of flowers such as my sisters used
to make. Orion was climbing giant
giant going down hill as be passed over
the west In the Serpent Bearer and
Serpent | saw q mOnstrOus sword,
shaped like the curved saber which
5aladin welded; and so forth. No
doubt, in the infancy Of astronomy, or
perhaps of the world itself, men were
fanciful in the same way, and the
figures they assigned to the star-groups
really seemed pictured VA the sky. The
idea of separating the consultations
one from another was much later one
than that of merely naming the more
remarkable star-grOups. In one set OF
stars seemed to resemble any object,
and another set to resemble another
object, | think the cores onding nam Les
would have been given even though
some stars of one set were included
within the other set. In fact, { think
this very constellation of the Dragon
seems to me to show that our modern
constellation figures have been largely
reduced.
You may perhaps think that it mat
tiers very little what figures She ancients
really imagined among the stars. But
you will be disposed to think differ
emily when [ mention that the sup
posed want Of resemblance mow be-
tween the star-groups and tae figures
assigned to them, has led some to form
the bold idea that there was once
strong resemblance, but that some
stars have gone out, others have shone
out more strongly, or are altogether
new, and that thus the ressm blance
has been destroyed. When we remem-
Der that our sun Is only one aAaong the
vast number Of suns, it becomes rather
a serious matter for the inhabitants of
the earth if so many suns have really
changed For, in that case, our sun
may soon change in his turn, and
either broil us up with excess Of heat,
or leave us to perish miserably from
extremity of cold. However, [ think
the explanation which [ have given
shows that the resemblance formerly
imagined still remains, and that it is
only because modern. astronomy has
dooked the dimensions Of the old fig
Eures that they no longer correspond
with their names-St Niobolus.
A GOOD story Is told OF n well-knoWn
Baoad street broker, who, ON his way
home from the club the other evening,