occupy the same place in the Zodiac, that, Aries did, in the time of Hipparchus; while the constellation Aries is now in the sign Taurus, Taurus in Gemini, and Gemini in Cancer, and so on. ARIES is therefore now the second constellation in the Zodiac. It is situated next east of Pisces, and is midway between the Triangles and the Fly on the N. and the head of Cetus on the S. It contains 66 stars, of which, one is of the 2d, one of the 3d, and two of the 4th magnitudes. "First, from the east, the Ram conducts the year; The rest, when Cynthia fills the sign, are lost." It is readily distinguished by means of two bright stars in the head, about 4° apart, the brightest being the most northeasterly of the two. The first, which is of the 2d magnitude, situated in the right horn, is called Alpha Arietis, or simply Arietis; the other, which is of the 3d magnitude, lying near the left horn, is called Sheratan, and may be known by another star of the 4th magnitude, in the ear, 140 S. of it, called Mesarthim, which is the first star in this constellation. Arietis and Sheratan, are one instance out of many, where stars of more than ordinary brightness are seen together in pairs, as in the Twins, the Little Dog, &c., the brightest star being commonly on the east. The position of Arietis affords important facilities to nautical science. Difficult to comprehend as it may be, to the unlearned, the skilful navigator who should be lost upon an unknown sea, or in the midst of the Pacific ocean, could, by measuring the distance between Arietis and the Moon, which often passes near it, determine at once not only the spot he was in, but his true course and distance to any known meridian or harbour on the earth.. Lying along the moon's path, there are nine conspicuous stars that are used by nautical men for determining their longitude at sea, thence called nautical stars. These stars are Arietis, Aldebaran, Pollux, Regulus, Spica Virginis, Antares, Altair, Fomalhaut, and Markab. The true places of these stars, for every day in the year, are given in the Nantical Almanac, a valuable work published annually by the English "Board of Admiralty," to guide mariners in navigating the seas. They are usually published two or three years in advance, for the benefit of long voyages. That a man, says Sir John Herschel, by merely measuring the moon's appa rent distance from a star, with a little portable instrument held in his hand, and What is its present position? How is it now situated with respect to the surrounding constellations? What are the number and magnitude of its stars? How is this constellation readily distinguished? Describe the two bright stars in the head. For what purposes is the position of some of the stars in Arietis important? How many stars are used for determining longitude at sea, and where are they situated? By what general name are they called? Enumerate them applied to his eye, even with so unstable a footing as the deck of a ship, stall say positively within five miles, where he is, on a boundless ocean, cannot but appear to persons ignorant of physical astronomy, an approach to the miraculous. And yet, says he, the alternatives of life and death, wealth and ruin, are daily and hourly staked, with perfect confidence, on these marvellous computations. Capt. Basil Hall, of the royal navy, relates that he had sailed from San Blas on the west coast of Mexico, and after a voyage of 8000 miles occupying eighty-nine days, arrived off Rio Janeiro, having in this interval passed through the Pacific ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and crossed the South Atlantic without making any land or seeing a single sail on the voyage. Arrived within a few days' sail of Rio, he took a set of lunar observations, to ascertain his true position, and the bearing of the harbour, and shaped his course accordingly. "I hove to," says he," at 4 in the morning, till the day should break, and then bore up; for although it was hazy, we could see before us a couple of miles or so. About 8 o'clock it became so foggy that I did not like to stand in farther, and was just bringing the ship to the wind again before sending the people to breakfast, when it suddenly cleared off, and I had the satisfaction of seeing the great Sugar-loat rock, which stands on one side of the harbour's mouth, so nearly right ahead that we had not to alter our course above a point in order to hit the entrance of Rio. This was the first land we had seen for three months, after crossing so many seas, and being set backwards and forwards by innumerable currents and foul winds.' Arietis comes to the meridian about 12 minutes after Sheratan, on the 5th December, near where the sun does in midsummer. Arietis, also, is nearly on the same meridian with Almaach, in the foot of Andromeda, 19° N. of it, and culminates only four minutes after it. The otner stars in this constellation are quite small, constituting that loose cluster which we see between the Fly on the north, and the head of Cetus on the south. When Arietis is on the meridian, Andromeda and Cassiopeia are a little past the meridian, nearly over head, and Perseus with the head of Medusa, is as far to the east of it. Taurus and Auriga are two or three hours lower down; Orion appears in the S. E.. and the Whale on the meridian, just below Aries, while Pegasus and the Swan are seen half way over in the west. The manner in which the ancients divided the Zodiac into 12 equal parts, was both simple and ingenious. Having no instrument that would measure time exactly, "They took a vessel, with a small hole in the bottom, and having filled it with water, suffered the same to distil, drop by drop, into another vessel set beneath to receive it, beginning at the moment when some star rose, and continuing till it rose the next following night, when it would have performed one complete revolution in the heavens. The water falling down into the receiver they divided into 12 equal parts; and having twelve other small vessels in readiness, each of them capable of containing one part, they again poured all the water into the upper vessel, and observing the rising of some star in the Zodiac, at the same time suffered the water to drop into one of the small vessels. And as soon as it was full, they removed it, and set an empty one in its place. Just as each vessel was full, they took notice what star of the Zodiac rose at that tine, and thus continued the process through the year, until the 12 vessels were fille" Thus the Zodiac was divided into 12 equal portions, corresponding to the 12 When does Arietis pass the meridian? What other brilliant star is on the meridian nearly at the same time? When Aries is on the meridian, what other constellations are immediately in view? Describe the manner in which the ancients divided the Zodiac. At what point of the Zodiac did this division commence? months of the year, commencing at the vernal equinox. Each of these portions served as the visible representative or sign of the month it appeared in. All those stars in the Zodiac which were observed to rise while the first vessel was filling, were constellated and included in the first sign, and called Aries, an animal held in great esteem by the shepherds of Chaldea. All those stars in the Zodiac which rose while the second vessel was filling, were constellated and included in the second sign, which for a similar reason, was denominated Taurus; and all those stars which were observed to rise while the third vessel was filling, were constellated in the third sign, and called Gemini, in allusion to the twin season of the flocks. Thus each sign of 30° in the Zodiac, received a distinctive appellation, according to the fancy or superstition of the inventors; which names have ever since been retained, although the constellations themselves have since left their noninal signs more than 30° behind. The sign Aries, therefore, included all the stars embraced in the first 30° of the Zodiac, and no more. The sign Taurus, in like manner, included all those stars embraced in the next 30° of the Zodiac, or those between 300 and 60°, and so of the rest. Of those who imagine that the twelve constellations of the Zodiac refer to the twelve tribes of Israel, some ascribe Aries to the tribe of Simeon, and others, to Gad. HISTORY.-According to fable, this is the ram which bore the golden fleece, and carried Phryxus and his sister Helle through the air, when they fled to Colchis from the persecution of their stepmother Ino. The rapid motion of the ram in his aerial flight high above the earth, caused the head of Helle to turn with giddiness, and she fell from his back into that part of the sea which was afterwards called Hellespont, in commemoration of the dreadful event. Phryxus arrived safe at Colchis, but was soon murdered by his own father-in-law, tes, who envied him his golden treasure. This gave rise to the celebrated Argonautic expedition under the command of Jason, for the recovery of the golden fleece. Nephele, queen of Thebes, having provided her children, Phryxus and Helle, with this noble animal, upon which they might elude the wicked designs of those who sought their life, was afterwards changed into a cloud, as a reward for her parental solicitude; and the Greeks ever after called the clouds by her name. But the most probable account of the origin of this constellation is given in a preceding paragraph, where it is referred to the flocks of the Chaldean shepherds. During the campaigns of the French army in Egypt, General Dessaix discov ered among the ruins at Dendera, near the banks of the Nile, the great temple supposed by some to have been dedicated to Isis, the feinale deity of the Egyp tians, who believed that the rising of the Nile was occasioned by the tears which she continually shed for the loss of her brother Osiris, who was murdered by Typhon. Others suppose this edifice was erected for astronomical purposes, from the circumstance that two Zodiacs were discovered, drawn upon the ceiling, on opposite sides. On both these Zodiacs the equinoctial points are in Leo, and not in Aries; from which it has been concluded, by those who pertinaciously endeavour to array the arguments of science against the chronology of the Bible and the validity of the Mosaic account, that these Zodiacs were constructed when the sun entered the sign Leo, which must have been 9720 years ago, or 4000 years before the inspired account of the creation. The infidel writers in France and Germany, make it 10,000 years before. But we may "set to our seal," that whatever is true in fact and correct in inference on this subject will be found, in the end, not only consistent with the Mosaic record, but with the common meaning of the expressions it uses. The discovery of Champollion has put this question for ever at rest; and M. Latronne, a most learned antiquary, has very satisfactorily demonstrated that these Egyptian Zodiacs are merely the horoscopes of distinguished personages, or the precise situation of the heavenly bodies in the Zodiac at their nativity. The idea that such was their purpose and origin, first suggested itself to this gentleman on finding, in the box of a mummy, a similar Zodiac, with such What did each of these portions of the Zodiac serve? What stars were placed in the first sign? What name was given to the constellation thus formed? What stars were placed in the second sign? What was the second constellation called? What stars were placed in the third sign, and what was it called? Are the same names still retained? What does this precession, or going forward of the stars amount to in a year? Inscriptions and characters as determined it to be the horoscope of the deceased person. Of all the discoveries of the antiquary among the relics of ancient Greece, the ruins of Palmyra, the gigantic pyramids of Egypt, the temples of their gods, or the sepulchres of their kings, scarcely one so aroused and riveted the curiosity of the learned, as did the discovery of Champollion the younger, which deciphers the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt. The potency of this invaluable discovery has already been signally manifested in settling a formidable controversy between the champions of infidelity and those who maintain the Bible account of the creation. It has been shown that the constellation Pisces, since the days of Hipparchus, has come, by reason of the annual precession, to occupy the same apparent place in the heavens that Aries did two thousand years ago. The Christian astronomer and the infidel are perfectly agreed as to the fact, and the amount of this yearly gain in the appaient motion of the stars. They both believe, and both can deinonstrate, that the fixed stars have gone forward in the Zodiac, about 50" of a degree in every revo. lution of the heavens since the creation; so that were the world to light upon any authentic inscription or record of past ages, which should give the true position or longitude of any particular star at that time, it would be easy to fix an unques. tionable date to such a record. Accordingly, when the famous "Egyptian Zodiacs," which were sculptured on the walls of the temple at Dendera, were brought away en masse, and exhibited in the Louvre at Paris, they enkindled a ruore exciting interest in the thousands who saw them, than ever did the entrance of Napoleon. "Educated men of every order, and those who had the vanity to think themselves such," says the commentator of Champollion, "rushed to behold the Zodiacs. These Zodiacs were immediately published and commented upon, with more or less good faith and decorum. Science struck out into systems very bold; and the spirit of infidelity, seizing upon the discovery, flattered itself with the hope of drawing from thence new support. It was unjus tifiably taken for granted, that the ruins of Egypt furnished astronomy with mon. uments, containing observations that exhibited the state of the heavens in the most remote periods. Starting with this assumption, a pretence was made of demonstrating, by means of calculations received as infallible, that the celestial appearances assigned to these monuments extended back from forty-five to sixty-five centuries; that the Zodiacal system to which they must belong, dated back fifteen thousand years, and must reach far beyond the limits assigned by Moses to the existence of the world." Among those who stood forth more or less bold as the adversaries of revelation, the most prominent was M. Dupuis, the famous author of L' origine de tous les Cultes. The infidelity of Dupuis was spread about by means of pamphlets, and the advocates of the Mosaic account were scandalized "until a new Alexander arose to cut the Gordian knot, which men had vainly sought to untie. This was Champollion the younger, armed with his discovery," The hieroglyphics now speak a language that all can understand, and no one gainsay. "The Egyptian Zodiacs, then," says Latronne, "relate in no respect to astronomy, but to the idle phan tasies of judicial astrology, as connected with the destinies of the emperors who made or completed them." CETUS. THE WHALE.-As the whale is the chief monster of the deep, and the largest of the aquatic race, so is it the largest constellation in the heavens. It occupies a space of 500 in length, E. and W., with a mean breadth of 200 from N. to S. It is situated below Aries and the Triangles, with a mean declination of 12° S. It is represented as making its way to the E., with its body below, and its head elevated above the equinoctial and is six weeks in passing the meridian. Its What is the comparative size of the Whale? What is its extent? Where is it situated How long is the Whale in passing the meridian? tail comes to the meridian on the 10th of November, and its nead leaves it on the 22d of December. This constellation contains 97 stars; two of the 2d magnitude, seven of the 3d, and thirteen of the 4th. The head of Cetus may be readily distinguished, about 20° S. E. of Aries, by means of five remarkable stars, 4° and 5o apart, and so situated as to form a regular pentagon. The brightest of these is Menkar, of the 2d magnitude, in the nose of the Whale. It occupies the S. E. angle of the figure. It is 310 N. of the equinoctial, and 15° E. of El Rischa in the bight of the cord between the Two Fishes. It is directly 37° S. of Algol, and nearly in the same direction from the Fly. It makes an equilateral triangle with Arietis and the Pleiades, being distant from each about 23° S.; and may otherwise be known by a star of the 3d magnitude in the mouth, 3° W. of it, called Gamma, placed in the south middle angle of the pentagon. Nu is a star of the 4th magnitude, 4° N. W. of Gamma, and these two constitute the S. W. side of the pentagon in the head of the Whale, and the N. E. side of a similar oblong figure in the neck. Three degrees S. S. W. of Gamma, is another star of the 3d magnitude in the lower jaw, marked Delta, constituting the E. side of the oblong pentagon; and 6° S. W. of this, is a noted star in the neck of the Whale, called Miru, or the "wonderful star of 1596," which forms the S. E. side. This variable star was first noticed as such by Fabricius, on the 13th of August, 1596. It changes from a star of the 2d magnitude so as to become invisible once in 334 days, or about 7 times in 6 years. Herschel makes its period 331 days, 10 hours, and 19 minutes; while Hevelius assures us that it once disappeared for 4 years; so that its true period, perhaps, has not been satisfactorily determined. The whole number of stars ascertained to be variable, amounts to only 15; while those which are suspected to be variable, amount to 37. Mira is 70 S. S. E. of El Rischa, in the bend or knot of the riband which connects the Two Fishes. Ten degrees S. of Mira, are 4 small stars, in the breast and paws, about 3° apart, which form a square, the brightest being on the E. Ten de When does it approach, and when does it leave the meridian? What is the whole number of stars in Cetus? What is the magnitude of the principal ones? How may the head of Cetus be distinguished? What are the name and position of the brightest? How far is it from the equinoctial, and the principal star in the Fishes? What is its direction from Algol and the Fly? With what stars does it form an equilateral triangle? How may it otherwise be known? Describe the position of Ñu. Describe the situation of Delta and Mira. When and by whom was this star discovered to be variable? What are the extent and period of this variation? How long does Herschel make it? What does Hevelius say of it? Has the true perio of Mira been satisfactorily determined? How far, and which way is Mira from Alpha, in the knot of the riband? What four small strrs do you observe 10° S. of Mira? |