ftellations, the number that can be seen at a time, by the naked eye, is not above a thousand.

Since the introduction of telescopes, indeed, the number of the fixed stars has been justly confidered as immenfe; because the greater perfection we arrive at in our glaffes, the more stars always appear to us. Mr. Flamfteed, late royal aftronomer at Greenwich, has given us a catalogue of about three thousand stars, which is the most complete that has hitherto appeared. Halley obferved three hun dred and fifty more in the fouthern hemifphere.

THE

our earth, and from one another, is of all confiderations the most proper for raifing our ideas of the works of God. The ftar nearest to us, and confequently the largest in appearance, is the dogftar, or Sirius. Modern difcoveries make it probable, that each of these fixed ftars is a fun, having worlds revolving round it, as our fun has the earth and other planets revolving round him. So that, perhaps, there are as many fyftems of worlds, as

there

there are fixed ftars in the expanse of heaven. Now the dog-star appears twenty-seven thousand times lefs than the fun; and, as the distance of the stars must be greater as they feem lefs, mathematicians have computed the diftance of Sirius from us to be two billions and two hundred thousand millions of miles.

The motion of light, therefore, which, though fo quick as to be commonly thought instantaneous, takes up more time in travelling from the ftars to us, than we do in making a Weft India voyage. A found would not arrive to us from thence in fifty thousand years; which, next to light, is confidered as the quickest body we are acquainted with. And a cannon-ball, flying at the rate of four hundred and eighty miles an hour, would not reach us in seven hundred thousand years.

CHAP. XIII.

OF THE CONSTELLATIONS ON EACH SIDE OF

THE

THE ZODIAC.

'HE first people, who paid much attention to the fixed stars, were the shepherds in the beautiful plains of Egypt and Babylon; who, partly

from

from amusement, and partly with a view to direct them in travelling during the night, observed the fituation of thefe celeftial bodies. Endowed with a lively fancy, they divided the stars into different ompanies or conftellations, each of which they fupposed to represent the image of some animal, os other terreftrial object.

The peasants in our own country do the same thing; for they distinguish that great northern conftellation, which philosophers call the Urfa Major, by the name of the Plough, the figure of which it may certainly reprefent with a very little help from the fancy.

But the conftellations, in general, have preserved the names, which were given them by the ancients.. They are reckoned twenty-one northern, and twelve fouthern; but the moderns have increased the number of the northern to thirty-fix, and of the fouthern to thirty.

NORTHERN CONSTELLATIONS.

The Little Bear, the Great Bear, the Dragon, the Greyhounds, Bootes *, and Mons Menelaus: Cea.. phaust, Berenice's Hair, Charles's Heart, the Northern Crown, Hercules, and Cerberus: The Harp, *The keep of the bear.

A King of Ethiopia.

With his club watching the dragon.

the

the Swan, the Fox, the Goofe, the Lizard, Caffiopeia, and Perfeus: Andromeda, the Great Triangle, the Little Triangle, Auriga, Pegasus*, the Dolphin, and the Arrow: The Eagle, Serpentarius, the Serpent, Sobiefki's Shield, Camelopardus, and the Colt: Antinous, the Lynx, the Little Lion, and Mufca.

SOUTHERN CONSTELLATIONS.

The Whale, the River Eridanus, the Hare, Orion, the Great Dog, and the Little Dog: The Ship Argo, Hydra, the Centaur, the Cup, the Crow, the Wolf, and the Altar: the Southern Crown, the Southern Fifb, the Phoenix, the Crane, and the Peacock: Noah's Dove, the Indian, the Bird of Paradife, Charles's Oak, the Southern Triangle, and the Fly or Bee: the Swallow, the Cameleon, the Flying Fish, the American Goofe, the Water Serpent, and the Sword Fifb.

Some of the principal stars have particular names given them, as Aldebaram, in the Bull's Eye; Regulus, or the Lion's Heart; Arcturus, in Bootes; Syrius, in the Great Dog; Spica, or the Ear of Corn, in Virgo; Pleiades, or the Seven Stars.

Befides the ftars vifible to the naked eye, there is a very remarkable space in the heavens, called the Galaxy, or Milky Way. This is a broad circle

*Or the Flying Horfe.

of

of a whitish hue, like milk, going quite round 1 whole heavens, and confifting of an ini

ber of small stars, visible through a teleco though not difcernible by the naked eye.

CHA P. XIV.

OF THE TWELVE SIGNS IN THE ZODIAC.

BESIDES the above-mentioned, there are twelve

figns or conftellations in the Zodiac, as it is called from a Greek word fignifying an animal, because each of these twelve reprefents fome animal. The line in the middle of the Zodiac is called the Ecliptic; because eclipfes happen in or near that line. It is called Via Solis, the fun's annual path, or way, through the heavens. But in astronomy it is that circle, or path, which the earth would describe to an eye, placed in the centre of the system, viz. the fun. It is divided into twelve equal parts,

*

Properly speaking, however, it ought to be called the earth's yearly path through the heavens.

which