S IT NOT PLEASANT to exercise our minds in 

 the contemplation of the great spectacles of 

 nature? Is it not useful to know, at least, upon 

 what we tread, what place we occupy in the 

 infinite, the nature of the sun whose rays 

 maintain terrestrial life, of the sky which sur- 

 rounds us, of the numerous stars which in the 

 darkness of night scatter through space their 

 silent light? Far from being a difficult and inaccessible 

 science, astronomy is the science which concerns us most, 

 the one most necessary for our general instruction, and at 

 the same time the one which offers for our study the great- 

 est charms and keeps in reserve the highest enjoyments. 



— Flammarion. 



To merely look with delight and wonder upon the twin 

 glitterings of the double stars, the gorgeous splendor of the 

 clusters, the pale glow of the nebulae ; to scan the wild 

 scenery of the moon; to watch the huge spots drifting 

 across the sun; to follow the satellites of Jupiter as they 

 circle about the giant planet ; to marvel at Saturn with his 

 "wondrous rings;" to wait and watch for the startling phe- 

 nomena of occultations and eclipses ; and through all this 

 to see the working of the majestic and glorious laws of the 

 universe — this is not to be set aside as worthless. — Gibson. 



Vol. VII 

 No. 12 



May 1915 



EDWARD F. BIGELOW 



MANAGING EDITOR 



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