Explanation of the different emblematical Figures delineated on the Surface of the Celestial Globe.

I. THE CONSTELLATIONS IN THE ZODIAC.

It is conjectured that the figures in the signs of the zodiac are descriptive of the seasons of the year, and that they are Chaldean or Egyptian hieroglyphics, intended to represent some remarkable occurrence in each month. Thus, the spring signs were distinguished for the production of those animals which were held in the greatest esteem, viz. the sheep, the black-cattle, and the goats; the latter being the most prolific, were represented by the figure of Gemini.-When the sun enters Cancer, he discontinues his progress towards the north pole, and begins to return towards the south pole. This retrograde motion was represented by a Crab, which is said to go backwards. The heat that usually follows in the next month is represented by the Lion, an animal remarkable for its fierceness, and which, at this season was frequently impelled through thirst, to leave the sandy desert, and make its appearance on the banks of the Nile. The sun entered the 6th sign about the time of harvest, which season was therefore represented by a virgin, or female reaper, with an ear of corn in her hand. When the sun enters Libra, the days and nights are equal all over the world, and seem to observe an equilibrium, like a balance

Autumn, which produces fruits in great abundance, brings with it a variety of diseases: this season is represented by that venomous animal the Scorpion, who wounds with a sting in his tail as he recedes. The fall of the leaf was the season for hunting, and the stars which marked the sun's path at this time were represented by a huntsman, or archer, with his arrows and weapons of destruction.

The Goat, which delights in climbing and ascending some mountain or precipice, is the emblem of the winter solstice, when the sun begins to ascend from the southern tropic, and gradually to increase in height for the ensuing half year.

Aquarius, or the Water-bearer, is represented by the figure of a man pouring out water from an urn, an emblem of the dreary and uncomfortable season of winter.

The last of the zodiacal constellations was Pisces, or a couple of fishes, tied back to back, representing the fishing season. The severity of the winter is over. the flocks do not afford sustenance, but the seas and rivers are open, and abound with fish.

The Chaldeans and Egyptians were the original inventors of astronomy; they registered the events in their bistory, and the mysteries of their religion among the stars by emblematical figures. The Greeks displaced many of the Chaldean constellations, and placed such images as had reference to their own history in their room. The same method was followed by the Romans; hence, the accounts given of the signs of the zodiac, and of the constellations, are contradictory and involved in fable.

II. THE NORTHERN CONSTELLATIONS.

MONS MENALUS. The mountain Mænalus in Arcadia was sacred to the god Pan, and frequented by shepherds: it received its name from Mænalus, a son of Lycaon, king of Arcadia.

SERPENS is also called Serpens Ophiuchi, being grasped by the hands of Ophiuchus.

SERPENTARIUS, Ophiuchus, or Esculapius, is represented with a large beard, and holding in his two hands a serpent. The serpent was the symbol of medicine, and of the gods who presided over it, as Apollo and Esculapius, because the ancient physicians used serpents in their prescriptions.

TAURUS PONIATOWSKI was so called in honour of Count Poniatowski, a polish officer of extraordinary merit, who saved the life of Charles XII. of Sweden, at the battle of Pultowa, a town near the Dneiper, about 150 miles south-east of Kiow; and a second time at the island of Rugen, near the mouth of the river Oder.

SCUTUM SOBIESKI was so named by Hevelius, in honour of John Sobieski, king of Poland. Hevelius was a celebrated astronomer, born at Dantzick; his catalogue of fixed stars was entitled Firmamentum Sobieskianum, and dedicated to the king of Poland.

AQUILA is supposed to have been Merops, a king of the island of Cos, one of the Cyclades; who, according to Ovid, was changed into an eagle, and placed among the constellations.

ANTINOUS was a youth of Bithynia in Asia Minor, a great favourite of the emperor Adrian, who erected a temple to bis memory, and placed him among the constellations.—Antinöus is generally reckoned a part of the constellation Aquila.

EQUULUS, the little horse, or Equi Sectio, the horse's head, is supposed to be the brother of Pegasus.

LEO MINOR was formed out of the Stelle Informes, or unformed stars of the ancients, and placed above LEO, the zodiacal constellation. According to the Greek Fables, Lee was a celebrated Nemæan lion which had dropped from the moon, but being slain by Hercules, was elevated to the heavens by Jupiter, in commemoration of the dreadful conflict, and in honour of that hero. But this constellation was amongst the Egyptian hieroglyphics, long before the invention of the fables of Hercules. See the Zodiacal constellations, page 28. Nemæa was a town of Argolis in Peloponnesus, and was infested by a lion which Hercules slew, and clothed himself in the skin: games were instituted to commemorate this great event.

COMA BERENICES is composed of the unformed stars, between the Lion's tail and Böotes. Berenice was the wife of Evergetes, a surname signifying benefactor; when he went on a dangerous expedition, she vowed to dedicate her hair to the goddess Venus if he returned in safety. Sometime after the victorious return of Evergetes, the locks which were in the temple of Venus disappeared; and Conon, an astronomer, publicly reported that Jupiter had carried them away, and made them a constellation.

ASTERION ET CHARA, VEL CANES VENATICI, the two greyhounds, held in a string by Böotes; they were formed by Hevelius out of the Stella Informes, of the ancient catalogues.

BÖOTES is supposed to be Arcas, a son of Jupiter and Calisto; Juno, who was jealous of Jupiter, changed Calisto into a bear, she was near being killed by her son Arcas in hunting. Jupiter, to prevent farther injury from the huntsmen, made Calisto a constellation of heaven, and on the death of Arcas, conferred the same honour on him. Böotes is represented as a man in a walking posture, grasping in his left hand a club, and having his right hand extended upwards, holding the cord of the two dogs Asterion and Chara, which seem to be barking at the Great Bear; hence Böotes is sometimes called the bear-driver, and the office assigned him is to drive the two bears round about the pole.

CORONA BOREALIS is a beautiful crown given by Bacchus, the son of Jupiter, to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, second king of Crete. Bacchus is said to have married Ariadne after she was basely deserted by Theseus, king of Athens, and after her death the crown which Bacchus had given her was made a constellation.

HERCULES is represented on the Celestial globe holding a club in his right hand, the three-headed dog, Cerberus, in his left, and the skin of the Nemean Lion thrown over his shoulders. Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, and reckoned the most famous hero in antiquity.

CERBERUS was a dog belonging to Pluto, the god of the infernal regions; this dog had fifty heads, according to Hesiod, and three according to other mythologists: he was stationed at the entrance of the infernal regions, as a watchful keeper, to prevent the living from entering, and the dead from escaping from their confinement. The last and most dangerous exploit of Hercules was to drag Cerberus from the infernal regions, and bring him before Eurystheus, king of Argos.

LYRA, the lyre or harp, is included in Vultur Cadens. This constellation was at first a tortoise, afterwards a lyre, because the strings of the lyre were originally fixed to the shell of the tortoise: it is asserted that this is the lyre which Apollo or Mercury gave to Orpheus, and with which he descended the infernal regions, in search of his wife Eurydice. Orpheus, after death, received divine honours; the Muses gave an honourable burial to his remains, and his lyre became one of the constellations.

VULPECULA ET ANSER, the Fox and the Goose, was made by Hevelius out of the unformed stars of the ancients.

SAGITTA, the Arrow. The Greeks say that this constellation owes its origin to one of the arrows of Hercules, with which he killed the eagle or vulture that perpetually gnawed the liver of Prometheus, who was tied to a rock on Mount Caucasus, by order of Jupiter.

DELPRINUS, the dolphin, was placed among the constellations by Neptune, because, by means of a dolphin, Amphitrite became the wife of Neptune, though she had made a vow of perpetual celibacy.

PEGASUS, the winged horse, according to the Greeks, sprung from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, after Perseus, a son of Jupiter, had cut off her head. Pegasus fixed his residence on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, where, by striking the earth with his foot, he produced a fountain called Hippocrene. He became the favourite of the Muses, and being afterwards tamed by Neptune, or Minerva, he was given to Bellerophon to conquer the Chimæra, a hideous monster that continually vomited flames: the foreparts of its body were those of a lion, the middle was that of a goat, and the hinderparts were those of a dragon; it had three heads, viz, that of a lion, a goat, and a dragon. After the destruction of this monster, Bellerophon attempted to fly to heaven upon Pegasus, but Jupiter sent an insect which stung the horse, so that he threw down the rider. Bellerophon fell to the earth, and Pegasus continued his flight up to heaven, and was placed by Jupiter among the constellations.

ANDROMEDA is represented on the celestial globe by the figure of a woman almost naked, having her arms extended, and chained by the wrist of her right arm to a rock. She was the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, who, in order to preserve his kingdom, was obliged to tie her naked to a rock near Joppa, now Jaffa, in Syria, to be devoured by a sea-monster; but she was rescued by Perseus. in his return from the conquest of the Gorgons, who turned the monster into a rock by showing it the head of Medusa, Andromeda was made a constellation after her death, by Minerva,

TRIANGULUM. A triangle is a well known figure in geometry; it was placed in the heavens in honour of the most fertile part of Egypt, being called the delta of the Nile, from its resemblance to the Greek letter of that name A. The invention of Geometry is usually ascribed to the Egyptians, and it is asserted that the annual inundations of the Nile, which swept away the bounds and land-marks of estates, gave occasion to it, by obliging the Egyptians to consider the figure and quantity belonging to the several proprietors.

URSA MAJOR, is said to be Calisto, an attendant of Diana, the goddess of hunting. Calisto was changed into a bear by Juno.-See the Constellation Bootes.-It is farther stated that the ancients represented Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, each under the form of a wagon, drawn by a team of horses. Ursa Major is well known to the country people at this day by the title of Charles's Wain or wagon; in some places it is called the Plough. There are two remarkable stars in Ursa Major, considered as the hindmost in the square of the wain, called the pointers because an imaginary line drawn through these stars and extended upwards will pass near the pole star in the tail of the Little Bear.

COR CAROLI, or Charles's heart, in the neck of Chara, the southernmost of the two dogs held in a string by Böotes, was so denominated by Sir Charles Scarborough, physician to king Charles II. in honour of king Charles I.

DRACO. The Greeks give various accounts of this constellation; by some it is represented as the watchful dragon which guarded the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides, near Mount Atlas in Africa; and was slain by Hercules: Juno, who presented these apples to Jupiter on the day of their nuptials, took Draco up to heaven, and made a constellation of it as a reward for its faithful services; others maintain, that in a war with the giants, this dragon was brought into combat, and opposed to Minerva, who seized it in her hands and threw it, twist ed as it was, into the heavens round the axis of the earth, before it had time to unwind its contortions.

CYGNUS is fabled by the Greeks to be the swan under the form of which Jupiter deceived Leda, or Nemesis, the wife of Tyndarus, king of Laconia. Leda was the mother of Pollux and Helena, the most beautiful woman of the age; and also of Castor and Clytemnestra. The two former were deemed the offspring of Jupiter, and the others claimed Tyndarus as their father.

LACERTA, the lizard, was added by Hevelius to the old constella tions.

CASSIOPEIA was the wife of Cepheus, and mother of Andromeda. See these constellations, as also Cetus.

CEPHEUS was a king of Æthiopia, and the father of Andromeda by Cassiopeia; Cepheus was one of the Argonauts who went with Jason to Colchis to fetch the golden fleece.

PERSEUS is represented on the globe with a sword in his right hand, the head of Medusa in his left, and wings at his ancles. Perseus was the son of Jupiter and Danäe. Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, lent him his helmet, which had the power of rendering its bearer invisible; Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, furnished him with her buckler, which was resplendant as glass; and he received from Mercury wings and a dagger or sword; thus equipped, he cut off the head of Medusa, and from the blood which dropped from it in his passage through the air, sprang an innumerable quantity of serpents which ever after infested the sandy deserts of Lybia. Medusa was one of the three Gorgons who had the power to turn into stones all those on whom they fixed their eyes; Medusa was the only one subject to mortality; she was