i9i4- I 9 I 5-] The Story of the Constellations. 191 



mathematics, which is a blessing ; for a long training in that 

 science tends to narrow the mind, and one becomes al- 

 together too mathematical. 



It is said of a mathematician who once fell in love, that he 

 dropped into poetry, and one of his pupils found the two first 

 lines of a poem written on a piece of paper on his desk ; they 

 betrayed the profound mathematical tendency of his mind. 

 The' lines were these — 



The sun from his perpendicular height 

 Cast his vertical beams on the sea. 



The boy added from his own non-mathematical standpoint the 

 two following lines — 



And the fishes beginning to sweat, 

 Said " Hang it how hot it will be ! " 



Early observations soon revealed that the sun, in the 

 course of a year, follows a particular path among the stars 

 from west to east. It was a long time before the exact 

 length of the year was determined, and as a consequence 

 great confusion arose with regard to the calendar and the 

 seasons. Nowadays we have hit it more exactly and manage 

 to neutralise the bad effect of the unstable fraction of a day 

 over 365 for the year, by a method of give-and-take of an 

 odd day at stated intervals. In order that the annual apparent 

 path of the sun among the stars might be exactly ascertained, 

 it was necessary to arrange the stars in and about that path 

 into easily recognisable groups in each of which the brighter 

 stars might have individual names. These groups are called 

 constellations, and twelve of them adorn that belt round the 

 celestial sphere called the Zodiac, the girdle of life, for with 

 one exception, Libra, all the constellations are made to repre- 

 sent some living creature. Besides the constellations found 

 in the Zodiac many others were grouped and named. A total 

 of 48 have come down to us from a hoary antiquity, and 

 much speculation has arisen as to when, and where, and by 

 whom these constellations were first named. Great difficulty 

 attends the inquiry, and though no positive answer can be 

 given, yet various important considerations have led many 

 astronomers to form at least a probable solution. According 



VOL. VII. N 



