ZODIAC. 101 



represented by a scale-beam == . The sun enters this sign at the 

 time of the autumnal equinox, when the days and nights become 

 nearly equal all over the world, as we shall soon explain. Virgil 

 alludes to this constellation : 



" When poising Libra rest and labor weighs, 

 And parts with equal balance nights and days, 

 Goad, goad the steer, the barley seed enclose, 

 Till winter binds the ground in dead repose." 



The next month, abounding with venemous reptiles, was 

 characterized by the sign Scorpio, a scorpion, though in some of 

 the old Zodiacs it is represented under the form of a snake, or an 

 alligator; its symbol is 1\\. The next sign is represented, in all 

 the Zodiacs, under the form of a hunter, or archer, as the sun 

 enters this sign in November, the hunting month, and its symbol 

 is an arrow f. When the sun enters the next sign, about the 

 latter part of December, it is mid-winter, and the time of -the 

 winter solstice, the sun being at the position marked XVIII, see 

 the figure, page "91. It is represented under the form of a goat, 

 for now the sun, having reached its lowest southern declination, 

 begins to climb up in the heavens, like the goat climbing the 

 mountain steeps ; the sv mbol is ]?. The next sign is represented 

 by Aquarius, the water-pourer, perhaps in allusion to the rainy 

 season, and the symbol,CCO / , is intended, no doubt, to represent the 

 water, or waves. The last sign is Pisces, the fishes, represented 

 by the symbol ), and the constellation is usually figured in the 

 heavens as two fishes tied by their tails, for the earth being now 

 bound in winter's icy chains, subsistence is derived from the 

 streams. 



Such are the t\\ elve signs of the Zodiac, and through one of 

 these the sun passes eaih month, and thus their names, become 

 to us, indicative of months, Aries corresponding with March, 

 Taurus with April, &c. When the sun enters one sign the earth 

 enters the opposite, as in the following diagram. 



Thus, when the earth enters the sign Libra at C, at the time of 

 the vernal equinox, the sun, S, appears to enter the opposite sign. 

 Aries, at A, and when the earth arriving at D, enters the sign 

 Capricornus, at the time of the summer solstice, the sun enters 



