When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, AUTUMN. Now when the cheerlefs empire of the sky WINTER Dr. Long obferves, that reprefents the horns of the ram; Ŏ the head and horns of the bull; II the figure of gemini, the twins joining hands and feet; the character cancer reprefents the change of the fun's declination from North to South, by two lines or figures drawn fo as to point two contrary ways; is the tail of the lion;: my was originally the three ears of corn which Virgo held; is the beam of the balance; m was at firft the picture of the fcorpion; the arrow of the archer; v reprefents capricorn the goat is a natural reprefentation of the water's. undulating furface; is the picture of two fishes tied together back to back. fish; The figures of the 12 figns are fuppofed by Dr. Jennings, and other aftronomers, to be Egyptian hieroglyphics, by which they defigned to exhibit fome remarkable natural occurrence in each month, as the fun paffed through thefe figns. Thus the first three months, beginning from the vernal equi. nox, were remarkable for the production of thofe animals which they moft valued, namely, fheep, kine, and goats. The lambs came firft, which are reprefented by their parent, the RAM; next the calves, reprefented by the BULL; and the kids, which commonly come in pairs, and which, therefore, gave the name to GEMINI, the third constellation; I 3 conftellation; which was not at first represented by Trvo Boys, but by Two Beafts; as referring to the fruitfulness of goats, in producing twin kids about the time when the fun was in that conftellation. When, in the fourth month, the fun is arrived at the summer solstice, he discontinues his progrefs toward the North pole, and begins to go back again to the Southward; this retrograde motion the Egyptians expreffed by the CRAB, which is faid to go backwards. The exceffive heat that ufually follows in the next month, is fignified by the LION; an animal remarkable for his ftrength and fiercenefs; or, as others obferve, when that animal, driven by thirft from the defart, made his appearance on the banks of the Nile. Nothing could be more proper than the fymbol for the harveft: namely, the VIRGIN reaper or gleaner with an ear of corn in her hand. The feventh conftellation, when the fun arrives at the autumnal equinox, is expreffed by the BALANCE, or SCALES, in equilibrio, because the days and nights, being then of the fame length, feemed to obferve an equilibrium like that inftru. ment. October is often a fickly feafon, when the furfeits acquired in the hot months of the fummer produce their fatal effects; the fymbol is therefore the SCORPION, who wounds with a fting in his tail, as he recedes; or, according to others, when certain regular winds brought forth a burning vapour like the poifon of the fcorpion. The diverfion of hunting, which is chiefly followed after the fall of the leaf, is defignated by the SAGITTARIUS, or archer. The GOAT, which is an animal that delights to browfe up hill and to climb the higheft rocks, is the emblem of the winter folftice, when the fun begins to afcend from the Southern Southern tropic, and is continually mounting higher and higher for the enfuing half year. AQUARIUS, or the water-bearer, fitly reprefents the rains, or fnows, of the winter. And the two FISHES in a band, had, it is imagined, reference to the prime fishing feafon, which began in February. Thus it is rationally fuppofed, that most of the heavenly bodies, taken in groupes or individually, obtained their appellations according to their connexion with rural and terreftrial operations, and the analogies which they were found to bear to the labours of the field and the objects of their climate and foil *. The Ethiopians, it is conjectured, were the firft who invented the fcience of the ftars, and gave names to the planets, not, as Lucan obferves, at random and without meaning, but defcriptive of the qualities which they conceived them to poffefs; and it was from them that this art paffed, still in an imperfect state, to the Egyptians; to whom, however, others folely attribute the invention of this fyftem. Its origin is thus accounted for by an ingenious foreigner: When men began to unite in fociety, they found it neceffary to enlarge the means of their fubfiftence, and confequently to apply themfelves to agriculture; and the practice of agriculture required the obfervation and knowledge of the heavens. It was neceffary to the periodical return of the fame operations of nature; to the fame phenomena of the fkies; it was neceffary to regulate the duration and fucceffion of the feafons, months, and year. In order to this, it was requifite to become *The ancients, fays Maimonides, directing all their attention to agriculture, gave names to the ftars derived from their occupation during the year. acquainted with the march of the fun, which in its zodaical revolution fhewed itself the first and fupreme agent of all the creation; then of the moon, which by its changes and returns regulate and diftributed time; finally of the ftars, and even of the planets, which, by their appearance and difappearance on the horizon and the nocturnal hemifphere, formed the minutest divifions. In a word, it was neceffary to establish an entire fyftem of aftronomy, and to form an almanac. Heaven Is as the book of God before thee fet, Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn MILTON. From the inftant this agricultural race of men had turned an eye of obfervation on the ftars, they found it neceffary to diftinguish individuals or groupes, and to align to each a proper name. A confiderable difficulty here prefented itfelf; for on the one hand, the celeftial bodies, fimilar in form, offered no reculiar character by which to denominate them; and on the other hand, language, poor and in a state of infancy, had no expreflions for fo many new and metaphyfical ideas; but the ufual ftimulus of genius, neceffity, conquered all obftacles. Hav. ing remarked, that the annual appearances of the productions of the earth were conftantly connected with the rifing and fetting of certain ftars, and with their pofition relatively to the fun,--the mind, by a natural mechanifm, affociated in its thought terreftrial and celeftial objects, which had in fact a certain alliance; and, applying to them the fame fign, it gave to the stars and the groupes that it formed of of them, the very names of the terreftrial objects to which they bore affinity. Some of the poetical fictions of the ZODAICAL SIGNS are as follow: ARIES is the ram with the golden fleece which Jupiter prepared to carry Phryxus and Helle in the air from lolchos in Theffaly, or rather from the mountain Laphyftium in Bootia, where their father Athamus was going to immolate them, at the inftigation of their ftep-mother Ino, towards Colchis, now Mingrelia, part of Georgia, adjacent to the Eastern extremity of the Euxine or Black Sea. Helle, in this aerial paffage, became giddy, and fell from her feat into that part of the fea, which, from her death by this accidental immerfion into it, received the name of Hellefpont. It is a narrow freight between the Archipelago and the fea of Marmora, and is now called the Dardanelles. The Hellefpont is famous for the love and death of Hero and Leander *; and for the bridge of boats which the Thrafonic Xerxes built over it when he invaded Greece +. Phryxus, after he had given his fifter a burial on the neighbouring coaft, purfued his journey, and arrived fafe at Colchis; where he facrificed the ram to Jupiter, and fufpended its fleece upon a tree in the foreft confecrated to Mars, the god of war. This is the famous golden fleece which was obtained by Jafon and the Argonauts. Some fuppofe, that when Phryxus and Heile fled from the * "Of Seftos fhe, fair Hero was her name; See LEMPRIERE'S DICTIONARY. rage |