1891-92. | THE GREAT CENTRE; AN ASTRONOMICAL STUDY. 189 
THE GREAT CENTRE; AN ASTRONOMICAL STUDY. 
BY jC) HAMILTON, LL.B. 
(Read 6th February, 1892.) 
The paper opened with a short review of the history of astronomy. 
With reference to the special branch of the subject, it summed up the 
teachings of Pythagoras, as to harmony in the movement of the spheres, 
and the central fire of Philolaus, around which thé heavenly bodies were 
supposed to perform a circling dance. Farthest off were the fixed stars, 
then in order the five planets the moon and the earth. 
The beautiful theory of the harmony of the spheres was not lost sight 
of by our great poet, as is seen in the famous dialogue between Lorenzo 
and Jessica, (Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Sc. I.) 
Reference was made to the theory of the Great Centre by other poets, 
such as Edgar A. Poe, in “Eureka”; and Addison, calling it the 
“Heaven of Heavens,” in No. 580 of the Spectator; Tennyson’s last 
verse of “In Memoriam”; and Dryden’s lines: 
“This place ; the highest mansion of the sky 
I’ll call the Palace of the Deity.” 
The “Mystery of the Seven Stars” was then discussed. As satellites 
revolve around planets and planets around suns, so the solar system moves 
around a grand centre. This holds good in regard to the constellations 
and known systems of the universe in an inconceivably magnificent 
extent. What that centre is may be asked. It was shown that strange 
reference to the Pleiades was made by Job; that the priests of Belus 
noted their rising and setting two thousand years before Christ, and 
astronomers point to this region as one of amazing majesty. The Greeks 
called them Pleiades and said they were the seven daughters of Atlas 
and Pleidne, of whom all but one, Meropé, were united to immortal gods 
and placed in heaven after death. Their names are Alcyoné, Meropé, 
Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Steropé and Celeno. The Greek name for the 
group has its origin ascribed sometimes to the word signifying to sail, as 
their rising was looked for by the sailors of the Mediterranean; but 
another derivation makes them the heavenly doves. 
Our Mohawks have a legend as to the seven stars in which seven 
brothers who unfortunately fell in love with the same fair squaw, were 
translated to heaven on her untimely death. The Chippewas of Lake 
