The Constellations o' Delusion.

ㅤThe Science of Astronomy is sublime and beautiful. Noble, elevating, consoling, divine, it gives us wings, and bears us through Infinitude. In these ethereal regions all is pure, luminous, and splendid. Dreams of the Ideal, even of the Inaccessible, weave their subtle spells upon us. The imagination soars aloft, and aspires to the sources of Eternal Beauty. What greater delight can be conceived, on a fine spring evening, at the hour when the crescent moon is shining in the West amid the last glimmer of twilight, than the contemplation of that grand and silent spec- tacle of the stars stepping forth in sequence in the vast Heavens. All sounds of life die out upon the earth, the last notes of the sleepy birds have sunk away. But if life is arrested around us, we may seek it in the Heavens. These incandescing orbs are so many points of interrogation suspended above our heads in the inaccessible depths of space.

ㅤThree stars of second magnitude placed obliquely at equal distances from each other, the first or highest of which marks the position of the equatorial line, indicate the Belt or Girdle. These stars, known as the Three Kings, and by country people as the Rake, as- sist greatly in the recognition of this fine constellation. A little below the second star of the Belt, a large white patch, like a band of fog, the apparent dimensions of which are equal to that of the lunar disk, is visible to the unaided eye: this is the Nebula of Orion, one of the most magnificent in the entire Heavens. Since that date it has been constantly studied and photographed by its many admirers, while the giant eye of the telescope discovers in it to-day an innumerable multitude of little stars which reveal the existence of an entire universe in this region. Orion is not merely the most imposing of the celestial figures; it is also the richest in sidereal wonders.

ㅤㅤThe brilliancy of the moon arises solely from the light of the sun, which falls on the dark or not self-luminous substance of the moon. Out of the vast flood of light, which the sun pours forth with such prodigality into space, the dark body of the moon intercepts a little, and of that little it reflects a small fraction to illuminate the earth. The moon sheds so much light, and seems so bright, that it is often difficult at night to remember that the moon has no light except what falls on it from the sun. Nevertheless, the actual surface of the brightest full moon is perhaps not much brighter than the streets of London on a clear sunshiny day. A very simple observation will suffice to show that the moon's light is only sunlight. Look some morning at the moon in daylight, and com- pare the moon with the clouds. The brightness of the moon and of the clouds are directly comparable, and then it is seen plainly that the sun which illuminates the clouds has also illumined the moon.