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the sun round the earth is performed in an orbit, 

 the plane of which being extended to the heavens, 

 traces among the constellations of the fixed stars, 

 a great circle of the sphere called the ecliptic, 

 and which is inclined to the equator. The oppo- 

 site points at which these circles intersect each 

 other are called the equinoctial points. The 

 points of the ecliptic most remote from the equa- 

 tor are called the solsticial points. When the 

 earth is in one of these points, the apparent place 

 of the sun is in the opposite one ; it being evi- 

 dent, that the apparent path of the sun will be 

 the same as that which is really traced by the 

 earth, and that they will always be in opposite 

 positions to each other. 



By the solsticial and equinoctial points, the 

 ecliptic is divided into four equal parts ; and the 

 intervals of time employed by the sun to describe 

 them constitutes the four seasons. In our lati- 

 tudes, spring is the period occupied by the sun 

 in passing from the equinoctial point, which it 

 meets in ascending, called the vernal equinox 

 to the northern solsticial point called the summer 

 soltice. Summer is the designation of the period 

 which it takes in passing from the summer sol- 

 tice to the autumnal equinox, or point of the 

 equator it touches in descending. Its passage 

 from that point to the winter soltice constitutes 

 autumn, arid from thence to the vernal equinox 

 is winter. 



It might naturally have been supposed, since 

 the sun's apparent path in the heavens is the 



