USEFUL KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS. 67 



This book is exceedingly clear, and even popular. 1836. 

 The treatise on and explanation of different projections of 

 the sphere, with the reasons for rejecting Mercator's, are 

 given in the first chapter. A great deal of bibliogra- 

 phical knowledge appears in the reference to early Astro- 

 nomers, and nob only much knowledge of Astronomy, but 

 much of the history of it may be gained from the work. 

 Astronomical Science in England in the sixteenth century 

 is represented by an explanation of the constellations 

 given by T. Hood in 1590 : 



Scholar. I marvell why, seeing she (Ursa Major) hath the Astronomy 

 forme of a beare, her taile should be so long. sixteenth 



Master. I imagine that Jupiter, fearing to come too nigh century, 

 unto her teetb, layde hold of her tayle, and thereby drew her 

 up into the heaven, so that shee of her selfe being very weigh tye, 

 and the distance from the earth to the heavens very great, there 

 was great likelihood that her taile must stretch. Other reason 

 know I none. 



A passage from the book adds interest to one of the 

 letters to Sir John Herschel : 



The figures of the constellations are of no use to the Astro- Forms of 

 nomer as such ; a star is sufficiently well known when its right t j ons> 

 ascension and declination are given ; and if letters referring to 

 the constellations are used, such as /3 in Orion, y in Draco, &c., 

 it is not now to direct the attention to any imaginary figure of 

 an armed man or a dragon, but to a particular region of the 

 heavens, which might with equal propriety have been called 

 region A or region B. It is to the mythological antiquary that 

 the figures are useful, as sometimes throwing light upon his pur- 

 suits. Every ancient people has written its own account of the 

 singular .fables, which are common to all mythologies, upon 

 groups of stars in the heavens, and it might have been thought 

 that some feeling of congruity, if taste were too much to expect, 

 would have prevented the burlesque of mixing the utensils of 

 modern life with the stories of the heroic age, presenting much 

 such an appearance as the model of a locomotive steam-engine 

 on the top of the Parthenon. But the Lacailles, the Halleys, and 

 the Heveliuses have arranged it otherwise ; the water-bearer pours 

 a part of the stream which should wash the southern fish into a 



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