JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. Ai 
"insurmountable and depths unfathomable. We have the best 
of evidence that it is a very old science. Job speaks with 
utmost ease and off-hand familiarity of the constellations, 
which, it is very clear, had been mapped out and named 
before his day. When once the spirit of enquiry respecting 
the heavens was awakened, it was never to sleep again. The 
individual sentinel may have been relieved that he might rest 
from his labors, but another took his place and the vigil was 
unbroken. From the hill tops of Eden and the lofty peaks of 
Ararat, from the watch towers of Babylon or the pyramids of 
Egypt, from the plains of Shinar to the deserts of Arabia, the 
astronomer has: patiently pursued his inspiring observations, 
grateful for what he had received from those who had pre- 
ceded him, and longing in his turn to give something more to 
those coming after him. 
Those phenomena near at hand which necessarily involved 
some connection with other worlds, it is probable led the way. 
The tides must have been a source of wonder to the ancient 
observer. It took years to find that the moon had anything 
to do with this daily rising of the waters. The rocks and hills 
and plains are just as much influenced, but their tongues are 
tied, they cannot tell it if they would. The yielding water, 
like an honest ghost, blabs the secret out. Lana amat terram, 
the moon makes love to the earth, and would embtace her, 
hence the tides. 
The moon’s phases next claimed the attention of the early 
astronomers. What strange power was that which produced 
these regularly recurring changes in this sun of the night. 
It was easy to see that the sun and moon and some of the 
stars also moved, but behind all these, and deeper imbedded 
in space were stars which as compared with those nearer 
‘moved not. ‘These were called ‘‘ fixed stars.’’ To detect the 
movement of those nearer the fixed stars became an absolute 
necessity. By them the motions of the planets could be 
traced, until astronomers even in the very early ages came to 
know their beaten pathway through the sky. The early 
observers noticed, however, that these stars which they called 
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