8 STUDYING THE HEAVENS. 



Both possible and easy, provided the sky be clear and 

 cloudless. 



But this condition is as necessary by day as by night. 

 How can we determine in which direction lies the south, 

 if the sun be hidden from our gaze by an uniformly opaque 

 atmosphere, and if objects, lit up by a diffuse light, project 

 no shadow at any time of the day ? 



Endeavour to group together the stars which more particu- 

 larly strike your gaze ; and be careful, in these groupings, to 

 define every fantastic figure which is suggested by your 

 vivid imagination. Undoubtedly, our earliest ancestors, the 

 " world's gray forefathers," proceeded in this manner, in their 

 anxiety to lay hold of some definite guiding-marks in yonder 

 ocean of sparkling atoms. And to study a science by its 

 history is to follow up its successive development. 



THE GREAT AND THE LITTLE BEAR. 



Observe yonder very remarkable group of seven stars ; nearly 

 all are of the same splendour, and they are so arranged as to figure 

 an antique chariot, provided with a somewhat curved axle pole. 



Observe it carefully. And not far from this group you will 

 detect another, by no means so conspicuous, but exactly resem- 

 bling it in form. This second chariot is turned in an inverse 

 direction, and the stars composing it, with three exceptions, 

 are much less brilliant. 



Here, then, are two groups of stars, clearly distinguished 

 by their configuration two constellations, for such is the 

 scientific name given to all the stellar groups. 



