CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SOUTHERN CONSTELLATIONS WHICH DO NOT RISE IN THE LATITUDE OF LONDON.

With which constellation shall I begin, mamma? Centaurus is very conspicuous; may I select that?

Yes, if you please; there is no deficiency of interest there.

Why, who was Centaurus ?

I shall confine my answer to the greatest, the first, the most honourable Centaur. And who was he, mamma?

He was Chiron, the son of Saturn or Time, which is only an expression under which the Greeks concealed their ignorance of the real genealogy of important personages.

But who was Chiron ?

When I tell you, he was one of the precious things" produced from the foam of the churned ocean," I think you will recognise the venerable Noah.

What! again, and on this side the sphere, am I to have the pleasure of seeing the honoured patriarch?

Yes. A grateful posterity thought they never

could in characters sufficiently legible record the actions and the honours of this revered man, for not only is Noah the most honourable Centaur, but, "the ark itself was sometimes called Centaurus, and there seem to have been ships of old denominated from the ark, Centauri."

What is he supposed to be doing with that beast, at whose breast he is aiming a spear?

Not only does the attitude of the beast evince, but all the commentators are unanimous, that he is about to sacrifice it on the altar.

That is Lupus the wolf, whom he is about to sacrifice.

So our globe expresses it; but, "wild beast is the Arabian name of the constellation." Fetch me the Bible, and read what it says of Noah's offering, Gen. chap. viii. ver. 20.

"Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

Then we should expect to find Noah offering a clean, and not a wild beast; but let us remember, that the name given to it is of no consequence, but what the animal really is. Now," the animal, as delineated on the sphere, is no more like any wild beast with which we are acquainted, than it is like any tame one; and, from its forming one of the 48 ancient constellations, may be of Chaldaic origin, and of

a race extinct.

That the Centaur, and the

beast about to be sacrificed, were really of hieroglyphic origin, and that it was under an hieroglyphic veil that all history was anciently shadowed out, there is this strong evidence, that together they anciently formed but one constellation."

Will you not tell me, what the Greeks say about Chiron ?

He was, according to their account, a famous musician, also pre-eminently skilled in the medical art, and expert in shooting. He taught mankind the use of plants, gave instructions in the polite arts, and tutored the greatest heroes of the age. But he engaged in war with the Centauri, a people in Thessaly, reported by the uninstructed neighbouring states, to be half men, and half horses, because they for the first time saw them mounted on these swift animals; and he receiving a mortal wound, was placed among the constellations under that form.

I do not wonder at this report being spread about the people of Thessaly; for I have heard, that, when the Spaniards first went to America, the Mexicans thought the same. Pray, how many stars are there in this constellation?

In Centaurus there are 35, in Lupus 24.

Before we proceed to another, I must inquire, what account the Greeks give of that Altar, which you inform me commemorates Noah's

building an altar, and offering burnt offerings thereon.

It was, they say, made by Cyclops, and was the altar on which the gods swore to revenge themselves upon their enemies, the Titans. It is worthy of remark, that this was one of the earliest of the 48 old constellations. It contains 9 stars.

There are, rather nearer the pole than Centaurus, five or six very small constellations; will you tell me their names, mamma?

Under the body of Centaurus, you will see Crux. There are four stars in this constellation which form a cross, by which mariners, sailing, in the southern hemisphere, readily find the situation of the Antarctic pole. The small constellation, to the south of Crux, is the Musca Australis, the Southern Bee or Fly, consisting of 4 stars. You will perceive, that the next small constellation is a Triangle. It lies across the Antarctic circle: its appellation is, Triangulum Australe, and it contains 5 stars. To the south-east of Centaurus, lie the Compasses, consisting of four stars. The fifth, and last to which you referred, is Norma vel Quadra Euclidis, Euclid's Square or Rule. It has its name from Euclid, a native of Alexandria in Egypt, whose geometry, though he flourished three hundred years before Christ, is still most extensively studied: it encloses 17 stars. In