" As when the seaman sees the Hyades Winter 



Gather an army of Cimmerian clouds, Stars. 



Auster and Aquilon with winged steeds . . ." 



to recall how Spenser alludes to them as ' the 

 Moist Daughters,' or how our Anglo-Saxon 

 ancestors called them 'the Boar-Throng.' 

 One must know that Alpha of Bootes is the 

 astronomical signature of the greater Arcturus, 

 but how much it adds to the charm of this 

 star's interest for us to learn that among its 

 popular names are the Herdsman, the Bear- 

 Watcher, the Driver of the Wain, and to 

 know why these now familiar names were 

 given and by whom. One may grasp the 

 significance of the acquired knowledge that 

 this vast constellation of Bootes stretches from 

 the constellation of Draco to that of Virgo, and 

 the numeration of its degrees in declination and 

 ascension, and (if one may thus choose between 

 the 85 and the 140 of astronomers) that it 

 contains a hundred stars visible to the naked 

 eye. But, for some of us at least, there is 

 something as memorable, something as reveal- 

 ing, in a line such as that of the Persian poet 

 Hafiz, as paraphased by Emerson, 



" Poises Arcturus aloft morning and evening his spear" — 



or that superb utterance of Carlyle in Sa?ior 

 Resartus, 



291 



