THE BEAR. 161 



bent solely upon giving names to the constellations, were 

 quietly poking fun at the unlearned. It would be difficult 

 otherwise to account for the position assigned to Ursa 

 Major and Ursa Minor, for there is nothing whatever 

 in the position of the stars forming these constellations 

 that in any -way indicates the figure of a bear, the outlines 

 of the various animals in the constellations being purely 

 imaginative and arbitrary. It is somewhat singular that the 

 bear did not figure among the signs of the zodiac, when 

 such comparatively insignificant creatures as the ram and 

 the fish were pressed into the service. Summing up the 

 bear, it may be said that its good qualities predominate over 

 its evil ones, and that it is man's fault rather than the bear's 

 that they do not dwell comfortably and sociably together. 



W.L.-VII. . It 



