ASTRONOMY* 
4 fr 
gy, give wild and romantic fables about the origin of the 
conftellations, probably derived from the hieroglyphics of 
the Egyptians, and tranfmitted, with fome alterations, 
from them to the Greeks, who probably obfcured them 
greatly with their own fables. See Hyginus’s Poet. Aftron. 
Riccioli, Almageft. lib. vi. cap. 3, 4, 5 ; Shelburne’s Notes 
upon Manilius ; Bailly r s Ancient Aftronomy ; and Gebe- 
lin’s Monde Primitif, vol.iv. from the whole of which it 
is made probable, that the invention of the ligns of the 
zodiac, and probably of mod of the other conftellations 
of the fphere, is to be afcribed to fome very ancient na¬ 
tion, inhabiting the northern temperate zone, probably 
what is now called Tartary, or the parts to the northward 
of Perlia and China ; and from thence tranfmitted through 
China, India, Babylon, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, &c. 
It is a very probable conjecture, that the figures of the 
figns in the zodiac, are defcriptive of the feafons of the 
year, or months, in the Sun’s path : thus, the firft fign 
Aries, denotes, that, about the time when the Sun enters 
that part of the ecliptic, the lambs begin to follow the 
ffteep; that on the Sun’s approach to the fecond conftel- 
lation, Taurus, the Bull, is about the time of the cows 
bringing forth their young. The third fign, now Gemini, 
was originally two kids, and fignified the time of the goats 
bringing forth their young, which are ufually two at a 
birth, while the former, the fheep and cow, commonly 
produce only one. The fourth fign, Cancer, the Crab, an 
animal that goes fide-ways and backwards, was placed at 
the northern folftice, the point where the Sun begins to 
return back again from the north to the fouthward. The 
fifth fign, Leo, the Lion, as being a very furious animal, 
was thought to denote the heat and fury of the burning 
Sun, when he has left Cancer, and entered the next fign 
Leo. The fucceeding conftellation, the fixth in order, re¬ 
ceived the Sun at the time of ripening corn and approach¬ 
ing harveft; which was aptly exprelfed by one of the fe¬ 
male reapers-, with an ear of corn in her hand, viz. Virgo,- 
the maid. The ancients gave to the next fign, Scorpio, 
two of the twelve divifions of the zodiac : autumn, which 
affords fruits in great abundance, affords the means and 
caufes of difeafes, and the fucceeding time is the mod un¬ 
healthy of the year; expreffed by this venomous animal, 
here fpreading out his long claws into the one fign, as threat¬ 
ening mifchief, and in the other brandifhing his tail to de¬ 
note the completion of it. The fall of the leaf was the 
feafon of the ancient hunting; for which reafon the ftars 
which marked the Sun’s place at this feafon, into the con¬ 
ftellation Sagittary, a huntfman with his arrows and his 
club, the weapons of deftruftion for the large creatures 
he puufued. The reafon of the Wild Goat’s being cho- 
fen to mark the foutbern folftice, when the Sun has at¬ 
tained his extreme limit that way, and begins to return 
and mount again to the northward, is obvious enough ; the 
character of that animal being, that itismoftly climbing, 
and afcending fome mountain, as it browzes. There yet 
remain two of the figns of the zodiac to be confidered with 
regard to their origin, viz. Aquarius and Pifces. As to 
the former, it is to be confidered that the winter is a wet 
and uncomfortable feafon ; this therefore was expreffed by 
Aquarius, the figure of a man pouring out water from an 
urn. The laft of the zodiacal conftellations was Pifces, a 
couple of fillies tied together, that had been caught: the 
leffon was, The fevere feafon is over; your flocks do not 
yet yield their ftore, but the feas and rivers are open, and 
there you may take fifti in abundance. 
Through a vain and blind zeal, rather than through any 
love tor the fcience, fome perfons have been moved to 
alter either the figures of the conftellations, or their names. 
Thus, venerable Bede, inftead of the profane names and 
figures of the twelve zodiacal conftellations, fubftituted 
thofe of the twelve apoftles; which example was followed 
by Schiller, who completed the reformation, and gave 
fcripture names to all the conftellations in the heavens. 
Thus, Aries, or the Ram, was changed into Peter; Tau¬ 
rus, the Bull, into St. Andrew; Andromeda, into the Se- 
puhhreof Chrift ; Lyra, into the Manger of Chiift ; Her¬ 
cules, into the Magi coming from the Eaft ; the Great 
Dog, into David ; and foon. And Weigelius, profeftor of 
mathematics in the univerfity of Jena, made a new order 
of conftellations; changing the firmament into a caelum 
heraldicurn, and introducing the arms-of all the princes in 
Europe, by wav of conftellations. Thus, Urfa Major, 
the Great Bear, he transformed into the elephant of the 
kingdom of Denmark ; the Swan, into the ruta with fwords 
of the houfe ot Saxony; Ophiuchus, into the crofs of Co¬ 
logne ; the Triangle, into compafles, which he calls the 
fymbol of artificers ; and the Pleiades, into the abacus Py- 
thagoricus, which he calls that of merchants, &c. Schil¬ 
ler alfo publiftied, in the year 1627, a work called Ccelum 
Stellarum Chrijlianum, or the Chriftian Starry Heaven, in 
which he fubftitutes, very improperly, other figures of 
the conftellations, and names, taken from the facred fcrip- 
tures, inftead of the old ones. But the more judicious 
among aftronomers never" approved of fuch innovations 
as they only tend to introduce eonfufion into aftronomy. 
The old conftellations are, therefore, ftill retained ; both 
becaufe better could not be fubftituted, and likewife to 
keep up the greater correfpondence and uniformity be¬ 
tween the old aftronomy and the new. 
Of PARALLAX. 
The parallax of any objeft is the difference between the 
places that the objeft is referred to irrrhe celeffial fphere, 
when feen at the fame time from two different places with¬ 
in that fphere. Or, it is the angle under which any two 
places in the inferior orbits are feen from a fuperior planer, 
or even the fixed ftars. The parallaxes principally ufed 
by aftronomers, are thofe which arife from confidering the 
objeCt as viewed from the centres of the Earth and the 
Sun, from the furface and centre of the Earth, and from 
all three compounded. The difference between the place 
of a planet,.as feen from the Sun, and the fame as feeii 
from the Earth, is called the parallax of the annual orbit; 
in other words, the angle at any planet, fubtended be¬ 
tween the Sun and the Earth, is called the parallax of the 
Earth’s or annual orbit. The diurnal parallax is the change 
of the apparent place of a fixed -ftar, or planet, or of any 
celeftial body; arifing from its being viewed on the furface, 
or from the centre of the Earth. 
To explain the parallaxes with refpeiff: to the Earth only, 
let H S, in the annexed figure, reprefent the Earth, T the 
centre thereof, ORG part of the Moon’s orbit, P rg part: 
