62 Fixed Stars. 



harvest ; which was aptly expressed by 

 one of the female reapers, with an ear of 

 corn in her hand, viz. Virgo, the Maid. 

 The ancients gave to the next sign, Scor- 

 pio, two of the twelve divisions of the 

 zodiac ; autumn, which affords fruits in 

 great abundance, affords the means and 

 causes of diseases, and the succeeding 

 time is the most unhealthy of the year ; 

 expressed by this venomous animal, here 

 spreading out its long claws into one sign, 

 as threatening mischief, and in the other 

 brandishing his tail to denote the comple- 

 tion of it. The fall of the leaf was the 

 season of the ancient hunting ; for which 

 reason the stars which marked the sun's 

 place at this season, into the constellation 

 Sagittary, a huntsman with his arrows 

 and his club, the weapon of destruction 

 for the large creatures he pursued. The 

 reason of the Wild Goat's being chosen to 

 mark the southern solstice, when the suti 

 has attained his extreme limit that way, 

 and begins to return and mount again to 

 the northward, is obvious enough ; the 

 character of that animal being that it is 

 mostly climbing, and ascending some 

 mountain, as it browses. There yet re- 



