Letters on Astronomy Part 21

Sir William Herschel has given catalogues of two thousand nebulae, and has shown that the nebulous matter is distributed through the immensity of s.p.a.ce in quant.i.ties inconceivably great, and in separate parcels, of all shapes and sizes, and of all degrees of brightness between a mere milky appearance and the condensed light of a fixed star. In fact, more distinct nebulae have been hunted out by the aid of telescopes than the whole number of stars visible to the naked eye in a clear Winter's night. Their appearances are extremely diversified. In many of them we can easily distinguish the individual stars; in those apparently more remote, the interval between the stars diminishes, until it becomes quite imperceptible; and in their faintest aspect they dwindle to points so minute, as to be appropriately denominated _star-dust_. Beyond this, no stars are distinctly visible, but only streaks or patches of milky light. The diagram facing page 379 represents a magnificent nebula in the Galaxy. In objects so distant as the fixed stars, any apparent interval must denote an immense s.p.a.ce; and just imagine yourself situated any where within the grand a.s.semblage of stars, and a firmament would expand itself over your head like that of our evening sky, only a thousand times more rich and splendid.

Many of the nebulae exhibit a tendency towards a globular form, and indicate a rapid condensation towards the centre. This characteristic is exhibited in the forms represented in Figs. 70 and 71. We have here two specimens of nebulae of the nearer cla.s.s, where the stars are easily discriminated. In Figs. 72 and 73 we have examples of two others of the remoter kind, one of which is of the variety called _star-dust_. These wonderful objects, however, are not confined to the spherical form, but exhibit great varieties of figure. Sometimes they appear as ovals; sometimes they are shaped like a fan; and the unresolvable kind often affect the most fantastic forms. The opposite diagram, Fig. 74, as well as the preceding, affords a specimen of these varieties, as given in Professor Nichols's 'Architecture of the Heavens,' where they are faithfully copied from the papers of Herschel, in the 'Philosophical Transactions.'

[Ill.u.s.tration Figure 74. VARIOUS FORMS OF NEBULae.]

Sir John Herschel has recently returned from a residence of five years at the Cape of Good Hope, with the express view of exploring the hidden treasures of the southern hemisphere. The kinds of nebulae are in general similar to those of the northern hemisphere, and the forms are equally various and singular. The _Magellan Clouds_, two remarkable objects seen among the stars of that hemisphere, and celebrated among navigators, appeared to the great telescope of Herschel (as we are informed by Professor Nichols) no longer as simple milky spots, or permanent light flocculi of cloud, as they appear to the una.s.sisted eye, but shone with inconceivable splendor. The _Nubecula Major_, as the larger object is called, is a congeries of cl.u.s.ters of stars, of irregular form, globular cl.u.s.ters and nebulae of various magnitudes and degrees of condensation, among which is interspersed a large portion of irresolvable nebulous matter, which may be, and probably is, star-dust, but which the power of the twenty-feet telescope shows only as a general illumination of the field of view, forming a bright ground on which the other objects are scattered. The _Nubecula Minor_ (the lesser cloud) exhibited appearances similar, though inferior in degree.

[Ill.u.s.tration Figure 75. A NEBULA IN THE MILKY WAY.]

It is a grand idea, first conceived by Sir William Herschel, and generally adopted by astronomers, that the whole Galaxy, or Milky Way, is nothing else than a nebula, and appears so extended, merely because it happens to be that particular nebula to which we belong. According to this view, our sun, with his attendant planets and comets, const.i.tutes but a single star of the Galaxy, and our firmament of stars, or visible heavens, is composed of the stars of _our_ nebula alone. An inhabitant of any of the other nebulae would see spreading over him a firmament equally s.p.a.cious, and in some cases inconceivably more brilliant.

It is an exalted spectacle to travel over the Galaxy in a clear night, with a powerful telescope, with the heart full of the idea that every star is a world. Sir William Herschel, by counting the stars in a single field of his telescope, estimated that fifty thousand had pa.s.sed under his review in a zone two degrees in breadth, during a single hour's observation. Notwithstanding the apparent contiguity of the stars which crowd the Galaxy, it is certain that their mutual distances must be inconceivably great.

It is with some reluctance that I leave, for the present, this fairy land of astronomy; but I must not omit, before bringing these Letters to a conclusion, to tell you something respecting other curious and interesting objects to be found among the stars.

VARIABLE STARS are those which undergo a periodical change of brightness. One of the most remarkable is the star _Mira_, in the Whale, (_Omicron Ceti_.) It appears once in eleven months, remains at its greatest brightness about a fortnight, being then, on some occasions, equal to a star of the second magnitude. It then decreases about three months, until it becomes completely invisible, and remains so about five months, when it again becomes visible, and continues increasing during the remaining three months of its period.

Another very remarkable variable star is _Algol_, (_Beta Persei_.) It is usually visible as a star of the second magnitude, and continues such for two days and fourteen hours, when it suddenly begins to diminish in splendor, and in about three and a half hours is reduced to the fourth magnitude. It then begins again to increase, and in three and a half hours more is restored to its usual brightness, going through all its changes in less than three days. This remarkable law of variation appears strongly to suggest the revolution round it of some opaque body, which, when interposed between us and Algol, cuts off a large portion of its light. "It is," says Sir J. Herschel, "an indication of a high degree of activity in regions where, but for such evidences, we might conclude all lifeless. Our sun requires almost nine times this period to perform a revolution on its axis. On the other hand, the periodic time of an opaque revolving body, sufficiently large, which would produce a similar temporary obscuration of the sun, seen from a fixed star, would be less than fourteen hours." The duration of these periods is extremely various. While that of Beta Persei, above mentioned, is less than three days, others are more than a year; and others, many years.

TEMPORARY STARS are new stars, which have appeared suddenly in the firmament, and, after a certain interval, as suddenly disappeared, and returned no more. It was the appearance of a new star of this kind, one hundred and twenty-five years before the Christian era, that prompted Hipparchus to draw up a catalogue of the stars, the first on record.

Such, also, was the star which suddenly shone out, A.D. 389, in the Eagle, as bright as Venus, and, after remaining three weeks, disappeared entirely. At other periods, at distant intervals, similar phenomena have presented themselves. Thus the appearance of a star in 1572 was so sudden, that Tycho Brahe, returning home one day, was surprised to find a collection of country people gazing at a star which he was sure did not exist half an hour before. It was then as bright as Sirius, and continued to increase until it surpa.s.sed Jupiter when brightest, and was visible at mid-day. In a month it began to diminish; and, in three months afterwards, it had entirely disappeared. It has been supposed by some that, in a few instances, the same star has returned, const.i.tuting one of the periodical or variable stars of a long period. Moreover, on a careful reexamination of the heavens, and a comparison of catalogues, many stars are now discovered to be missing.

DOUBLE STARS are those which appear single to the naked eye, but are resolved into two by the telescope; or, if not visible to the naked eye, are seen in the telescope so close together as to be recognised as objects of this cla.s.s. Sometimes, three or more stars are found in this near connexion, const.i.tuting triple, or multiple stars. Castor, for example, when seen by the naked eye, appears as a single star, but in a telescope even of moderate powers, it is resolved into two stars, of between the third and fourth magnitudes, within five seconds of each other. These two stars are nearly of equal size; but more commonly, one is exceedingly small in comparison with the other, resembling a satellite near its primary, although in distance, in light, and in other characteristics, each has all the attributes of a star, and the combination, therefore, cannot be that of a planet with a satellite. In most instances, also, the distance between these objects is much less than five seconds; and, in many cases, it is less than one second. The extreme closeness, together with the exceeding minuteness, of most of the double stars, requires the best telescopes united with the most acute powers of observation. Indeed, certain of these objects are regarded as the severest _tests_ both of the excellence of the instruments and of the skill of the observer. The diagram on page 382, Fig. 76, represents four double stars, as seen with appropriate magnifiers. No. 1, exhibits Epsilon Bootis with a power of three hundred and fifty; No. 2, Rigel, with a power of one hundred and thirty; No. 3, the Pole-star, with a power of one hundred; and No. 4, Castor, with a power of three hundred.

Our knowledge of the double stars almost commenced with Sir William Herschel, about the year 1780. At the time he began his search for them, he was acquainted with only _four_. Within five years he discovered nearly _seven hundred_ double stars, and during his life, he observed no less than twenty-four hundred. In his Memoirs, published in the Philosophical Transactions, he gave most accurate measurements of the distances between the two stars, and of the angle which a line joining the two formed with a circle parallel to the equator. These data would enable him, or at least posterity, to judge whether these minute bodies ever change their position with respect to each other. Since 1821, these researches have been prosecuted, with great zeal and industry, by Sir James South and Sir John Herschel, in England; while Professor Struve, of Dorpat, with the celebrated telescope of Fraunhofer, has published, from his own observations, a catalogue of three thousand double stars, the determination of which involved the distinct and most minute inspection of at least one hundred and twenty thousand stars. Sir John Herschel, in his recent survey of the southern hemisphere, is said to have added to the catalogue of double stars nearly three thousand more.

[Ill.u.s.tration Fig. 76.]

Two circ.u.mstances add a high degree of interest to the phenomena of double stars: the first is, that a few of them, at least, are found to have a revolution around each other; the second, that they are supposed to afford the means of ascertaining the parallax of the fixed stars. But I must defer these topics till my next Letter.

LETTER XXIX.

FIXED STARS CONTINUED.

"O how canst thou renounce the boundless store Of charms that Nature to her votary yields?

The warbling woodland, the resounding sh.o.r.e, The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields; All that the genial ray of morning yields, And all that echoes to the song of even, All that the mountain's sheltering bosom s.h.i.+elds, And all the dread magnificence of heaven,-- O how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven!"--_Beattie._

In 1803, Sir William Herschel first determined and announced to the world, that there exist among the stars separate systems, composed of two stars revolving about each other in regular orbits. These he denominated _binary stars_, to distinguish them from other double stars where no such motion is detected, and whose proximity to each other may possibly arise from casual juxtaposition, or from one being in the range of the other. Between fifty and sixty instances of changes, to a greater or less amount, of the relative positions of double stars, are mentioned by Sir William Herschel; and a few of them had changed their places so much, within twenty-five years, and in such order, as to lead him to the conclusion that they performed revolutions, one around the other, in regular orbits. These conclusions have been fully confirmed by later observers; so that it is now considered as fully established, that there exist among the fixed stars binary systems, in which two stars perform to each other the office of sun and planet, and that the periods of revolution of more than one such pair have been ascertained with some degree of exactness. Immersions and emersions of stars behind each other have been observed, and real motions among them detected, rapid enough to become sensible and measurable in very short intervals of time. The periods of the double stars are very various, ranging, in the case of those already ascertained, from forty-three years to one thousand.

Their orbits are very small ellipses, only a few seconds in the longest direction, and more eccentric than those of the planets. A double star in the Northern Crown (_Eta Coronae_) has made a complete revolution since its first discovery, and is now far advanced in its second period; while a star in the Lion (_Gamma Leonis_) requires twelve hundred years to complete its circuit.

You may not at once see the reason why these revolutions of one member of a double star around the other, should be deemed facts of such extraordinary interest; to you they may appear rather in the light of astronomical curiosities. But remark, that the revolutions of the binary stars have a.s.sured us of this most interesting fact, that _the law of gravitation extends to the fixed stars_. Before these discoveries, we could not decide, except by a feeble a.n.a.logy, that this law transcended the bounds of the solar system. Indeed, our belief of the fact rested more upon our idea of unity of design in the works of the Creator, than upon any certain proof; but the revolution of one star around another, in obedience to forces which are proved to be similar to those which govern the solar system, establishes the grand conclusion, that the law of gravitation is truly the law of the material universe. "We have the same evidence," says Sir John Herschel, "of the revolutions of the binary stars about each other, that we have of those of Saturn and Ura.n.u.s about the sun; and the correspondence between their calculated and observed places, in such elongated ellipses, must be admitted to carry with it a proof of the prevalence of the Newtonian law of gravity in their systems, of the very same nature and cogency as that of the calculated and observed places of comets round the centre of our own system. But it is not with the revolution of bodies of a cometary or planetary nature round a solar centre, that we are now concerned; it is with that of sun around sun, each, perhaps, accompanied with its train of planets and their satellites, closely shrouded from our view by the splendor of their respective suns, and crowded into a s.p.a.ce, bearing hardly a greater proportion to the enormous interval which separates them, than the distances of the satellites of our planets from their primaries bear to their distances from the sun itself."

Many of the double stars are of different colors; and Sir John Herschel is of the opinion that there exist in nature suns of different colors.

"It may," says he, "be easier suggested in words than conceived in imagination, what variety of illumination two suns, a red and a green, or a yellow and a blue one, must afford to a planet circulating about either; and what charming contrasts and 'grateful vicissitudes' a red and a green day, for instance, alternating with a white one and with darkness, might arise from the presence or absence of one or other or both above the horizon. Insulated stars of a red color, almost as deep as that of blood, occur in many parts of the heavens; but no green or blue star, of any decided hue, has ever been noticed una.s.sociated with a companion brighter than itself."

Beside these revolutions of the binary stars, _some of the fixed stars appear to have a real motion in s.p.a.ce_. There are several _apparent_ changes of place among the stars, arising from real changes in the earth, which, as we are not conscious of them, we refer to the stars; but there are other motions among the stars which cannot result from any changes in the earth, but must arise from changes in the stars themselves. Such motions are called the _proper motions_ of the stars.

Nearly two thousand years ago, Hipparchus and Ptolemy made the most accurate determinations in their power of the relative situations of the stars, and their observations have been transmitted to us in Ptolemy's 'Almagest;' from which it appears that the stars retain at least _very nearly_ the same places now as they did at that period. Still, the more accurate methods of modern astronomers have brought to light minute changes in the places of certain stars, which force upon us the conclusion, _either that our solar system causes an apparent displacement of certain stars, by a motion of its own in s.p.a.ce, or that they have themselves a proper motion_. Possibly, indeed, both these causes may operate.

If the sun, and of course the earth which accompanies him, is actually in motion, the fact may become manifest from the apparent approach of the stars in the region which he is leaving, and the recession of those which lie in the part of the heavens towards which he is travelling.

Were two groves of trees situated on a plain at some distance apart, and we should go from one to the other, the trees before us would gradually appear further and further asunder, while those we left behind would appear to approach each other. Some years since, Sir William Herschel supposed he had detected changes of this kind among two sets of stars in opposite points of the heavens, and announced that the solar system was in motion towards a point in the constellation Hercules; but other astronomers have not found the changes in question such as would correspond to this motion, or to any motion of the sun; and, while it is a matter of general belief that the sun has a motion in s.p.a.ce, the fact is not considered as yet entirely proved.

In most cases, where a proper motion in certain stars has been suspected, its annual amount has been so small, that many years are required to a.s.sure us, that the effect is not owing to some other cause than a real progressive motion in the stars themselves; but in a few instances the fact is too obvious to admit of any doubt. Thus, the two stars, 61 Cygni, which are nearly equal, have remained constantly at the same or nearly at the same distance of fifteen seconds, for at least fifty years past. Mean-while, they have s.h.i.+fted their local situation in the heavens four minutes twenty-three seconds, the annual proper motion of each star being five seconds and three tenths, by which quant.i.ty this system is every year carried along in some unknown path, by a motion which for many centuries must be regarded as uniform and rectilinear. A greater proportion of the double stars than of any other indicate proper motions, especially the binary stars, or those which have a revolution around each other. Among stars not double, and no way differing from the rest in any other obvious particular, a star in the constellation Ca.s.siopeia, (_Mu Ca.s.siopeiae_) has the greatest proper motion of any yet ascertained, amounting to nearly four seconds annually.

You have doubtless heard much respecting the "immeasurable _distances_"

of the fixed stars, and will desire to learn what is known to astronomers respecting this interesting subject.

We cannot ascertain the actual distance of any of the fixed stars, but we can certainly determine that the nearest star is more than twenty millions of millions of miles from the earth, (20,000,000,000,000.) For all measurements relating to the distances of the _sun and planets_, the radius of the earth furnishes the base line. The length of this line being known, and the horizontal parallax of the sun or any planet, we have the means of calculating the distance of the body from us, by methods explained in a previous Letter. But any star, viewed from the opposite sides of the earth, would appear from both stations to occupy precisely the same situation in the celestial sphere, and of course it would exhibit no horizontal parallax. But astronomers have endeavored to find a parallax in some of the fixed stars, by taking the _diameter of the earth's...o...b..t_ as a base line. Yet even a change of position amounting to one hundred and ninety millions of miles proved, until very recently, insufficient to alter the place of a single star, so far as to be capable of detection by very refined observations; from which it was concluded that the stars have not even any _annual parallax_; that is, the angle subtended by the semidiameter of the earth's...o...b..t, at the nearest fixed star, is insensible. The errors to which instrumental measurements are subject, arising from the defects of instruments themselves, from refraction, and from various other sources of inaccuracy, are such, that the angular determinations of arcs of the heavens cannot be relied on to less than one second, and therefore cannot be appreciated by direct measurement. It follows, that, when viewed from the nearest star, the diameter of the earth's...o...b..t would be insensible; the spider-line of the telescope would more than cover it.

Taking, however, the annual parallax of a fixed star at one second, it can be demonstrated, that the distance of the nearest fixed star _must exceed_ 95000000 200000 = 190000000 100000, or one hundred thousand times one hundred and ninety millions of miles. Of a distance so vast we can form no adequate conceptions, and even seek to measure it only by the time that light (which moves more than one hundred and ninety-two thousand miles per second, and pa.s.ses from the sun to the earth in eight minutes and seven seconds) would take to traverse it, which is found to be more than three and a half years.

If these conclusions are drawn with respect to the largest of the fixed stars, which we suppose to be vastly nearer to us than those of the smallest magnitude, the idea of distance swells upon us when we attempt to estimate the remoteness of the latter. As it is uncertain, however, whether the difference in the apparent magnitudes of the stars is owing to a real difference, or merely to their being at various distances from the eye, more or less uncertainty must attend all efforts to determine the relative distances of the stars; but astronomers generally believe, that the lower orders of stars are vastly more distant from us than the higher. Of some stars it is said, that thousands of years would be required for their light to travel down to us.

I have said that the stars have always been held, until recently, to have no annual parallax; yet it may be observed that astronomers were not exactly agreed on this point. Dr. Brinkley, a late eminent Irish astronomer, supposed that he had detected an annual parallax in Alpha Lyrae, amounting to one second and thirteen hundreths, and in Alpha Aquilae, of one second and forty-two hundreths. These results were controverted by Mr. Pond, of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich; and Mr. Struve, of Dorpat, has shown that, in a number of cases, the supposed parallax is in a direction opposite to that which would arise from the motion of the earth. Hence it is considered doubtful whether, in all cases of an apparent parallax, the effect is not wholly due to errors of observation.

But as if nothing was to be hidden from our times, the long sought for parallax among the fixed stars has at length been found, and consequently the distance of some of these bodies, at least, is no longer veiled in mystery. In the year 1838, Professor Bessel, of Koningsberg, announced the discovery of a parallax in one of the stars of the Swan, (61 _Cygni_,) amounting to about _one third of a second_.

This seems, indeed, so small an angle, that we might have reason to suspect the reality of the determination; but the most competent judges who have thoroughly examined the process by which the discovery was made, a.s.sent to its validity. What, then, do astronomers understand, when they say that a parallax has been discovered in one of the fixed stars, amounting to one third of a second? They mean that the star in question apparently s.h.i.+fts its place in the heavens, to that amount, when viewed at opposite extremities of the earth's...o...b..t, namely, at points in s.p.a.ce distant from each other one hundred and ninety millions of miles. On calculating the distance of the star from us from these data, it is found to be six hundred and fifty-seven thousand seven hundred times ninety-five millions of miles,--a distance which it would take light more than ten years to traverse.

Indirect methods have been proposed, for ascertaining the parallax of the fixed stars, by means of observations on the _double stars_. If the two stars composing a double star are at different distances from us, parallax would affect them unequally, and change their relative positions with respect to each other; and since the ordinary sources of error arising from the imperfection of instruments, from precession, and from refraction, would be avoided, (as they would affect both objects alike, and therefore would not disturb their relative positions,) measurements taken with the micrometer of changes much less than one second may be relied on. Sir John Herschel proposed a method, by which changes may be determined that amount to only one fortieth of a second.

The immense distance of the fixed stars is inferred also from the fact, that the largest telescopes do not increase their apparent magnitude.

They are still points, when viewed with gla.s.ses that magnify five thousand times.

With respect to the NATURE OF THE STARS, it would seem fruitless to inquire into the nature of bodies so distant, and which reveal themselves to us only as s.h.i.+ning points in s.p.a.ce. Still, there are a few very satisfactory inferences that can be made out respecting them.

First, _the fixed stars are bodies greater than our earth_. If this were not the case, they would not be visible at such an immense distance. Dr.

Wollaston, a distinguished English philosopher, attempted to estimate the magnitudes of certain of the fixed stars from the light which they afford. By means of an accurate photometer, (an instrument for measuring the relative intensities of light,) he compared the light of Sirius with that of the sun. He next inquired how far the sun must be removed from us, in order to appear no brighter than Sirius. He found the distance to be one hundred and forty-one thousand times its present distance. But Sirius is more than two hundred thousand times as far off as the sun; hence he inferred that, upon the lowest computation, it must actually give out twice as much light as the sun; or that, in point of splendor, Sirius must be at least equal to two suns. Indeed, he has rendered it probable, that its light is equal to that of fourteen suns. There is reason, however, to believe that the stars are actually of various magnitudes, and that their apparent difference is not owing merely to their different distances. Bessel estimates the quant.i.ty of matter in the two members of a double star in the Swan, as less than half that of the sun.

Secondly, _the fixed stars are suns_. We have already seen that they are large bodies; that they are immensely further off than the furthest planet; that they s.h.i.+ne by their own light; in short, that their appearance is, in all respects, the same as the sun would exhibit if removed to the region of the stars. Hence we infer that they are bodies of the same kind with the sun. We are justified, therefore, by a sound a.n.a.logy, in concluding that the stars were made for the same end as the sun, namely, as the centres of attraction to other planetary worlds, to which they severally dispense light and heat. Although the starry heavens present, in a clear night, a spectacle of unrivalled grandeur and beauty, yet it must be admitted that the chief purpose of the stars could not have been to adorn the night, since by far the greater part of them are invisible to the naked eye; nor as landmarks to the navigator, for only a very small proportion of them are adapted to this purpose; nor, finally, to influence the earth by their attractions, since their distance renders such an effect entirely insensible. If they are suns, and if they exert no important agencies upon our world, but are bodies evidently adapted to the same purpose as our sun, then it is as rational to suppose that they were made to give light and heat, as that the eye was made for seeing and the ear for hearing. It is obvious to inquire, next, to what they dispense these gifts, if not to planetary worlds; and why to planetary worlds, if not for the use of percipient beings? We are thus led, almost inevitably, to the idea of a _plurality of worlds_; and the conclusion is forced upon us, that the spot which the Creator has a.s.signed to us is but a humble province in his boundless empire.

LETTER x.x.x.

SYSTEM OF THE WORLD

"O how unlike the complex works of man, Heaven's easy, artless, uninc.u.mbered, plan."--_Cowper._

HAVING now explained to you, as far as I am able to do it in so short a s.p.a.ce, the leading phenomena of the heavenly bodies, it only remains to inform you of the different systems of the world which have prevailed in different ages,--a subject which will necessarily involve a sketch of the history of astronomy.

By a system of the world, I understand an explanation of _the arrangement of all the bodies that compose the material universe, and of their relations to each other_. It is otherwise called the 'Mechanism of the Heavens;' and indeed, in the system of the world, we figure to ourselves a machine, all parts of which have a mutual dependence, and conspire to one great end. "The machines that were first invented," says Adam Smith, "to perform any particular movement, are always the most complex; and succeeding artists generally discover that, with fewer wheels, and with fewer principles of motion, than had originally been employed, the same effects may be more easily produced. The first systems, in the same manner, are always the most complex; and a particular connecting chain or principle is generally thought necessary, to unite every two seemingly disjointed appearances; but it often happens, that _one great connecting principle_ is afterwards found to be sufficient to bind together all the discordant phenomena that occur in a whole species of things!" This remark is strikingly applicable to the origin and progress of systems of astronomy. It is a remarkable fact in the history of the human mind, that astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, having been cultivated, with no small success, long before any attention was paid to the causes of the common terrestrial phenomena.

The opinion has always prevailed among those who were unenlightened by science, that very extraordinary appearances in the sky, as comets, fiery meteors, and eclipses, are omens of the wrath of heaven. They have, therefore, in all ages, been watched with the greatest attention: and their appearances have been minutely recorded by the historians of the times. The idea, moreover, that the aspects of the stars are connected with the destinies of individuals and of empires, has been remarkably prevalent from the earliest records of history down to a very late period, and, indeed, still lingers among the uneducated and credulous. This notion gave rise to ASTROLOGY,--an art which professed to be able, by a knowledge of the varying aspects of the planets and stars, to penetrate the veil of futurity, and to foretel approaching irregularities of Nature herself, and the fortunes of kingdoms and of individuals. That department of astrology which took cognizance of extraordinary occurrences in the natural world, as tempests, earthquakes, eclipses, and volcanoes, both to predict their approach and to interpret their meaning, was called _natural astrology_: that which related to the fortunes of men and of empires, _judicial astrology_.

Among many ancient nations, astrologers were held in the highest estimation, and were kept near the persons of monarchs; and the practice of the art const.i.tuted a lucrative profession throughout the middle ages. Nor were the ignorant and uneducated portions of society alone the dupes of its pretensions. Hippocrates, the 'Father of Medicine,' ranks astrology among the most important branches of knowledge to the physician; and Tycho Brahe, and Lord Bacon, were firm believers in its mysteries. Astrology, fallacious as it was, must be acknowledged to have rendered the greatest services to astronomy, by leading to the accurate observation and diligent study of the stars.

At a period of very remote antiquity, astronomy was cultivated in China, India, Chaldea, and Egypt. The Chaldeans were particularly distinguished for the accuracy and extent of their astronomical observations. Calisthenes, the Greek philosopher who accompanied Alexander the Great in his Eastern conquests, transmitted to Aristotle a series of observations made at Babylon nineteen centuries before the capture of that city by Alexander; and the wise men of Babylon and the Chaldean astrologers are referred to in the Sacred Writings. They enjoyed a clear sky and a mild climate, and their pursuits as shepherds favored long-continued observations; while the admiration and respect accorded to the profession, rendered it an object of still higher ambition.