motion, could no longer be sustained; for the starry heavens could not at the same time so move as to pass by the moon in one month, and to pass by the sun in a period twelve times as great. A train of the most im portant conclusions flowed at once from this great discovery. The starry heavens passed beneath and around the earth,-the sun and moon were wandering in the same direction, but with different velocities among the stars,-the constellations actually filled the entire heavens above the earth and beneath the earth, --the stars were invisible in the day time, not because they did not exist, but because their feeble light was lost in the superior brilliancy of the sun. The heavens were spherical, and encompassed like a shell the entire earth, and hence it was conceived that the earth itself was also a globe, occupying the centre of the starry sphere.

It is impossible for us, familiar as we are at this day with these important truths, to appreciate the rare merit of him who by the power of his genius, first rose to their knowledge and revealed them to an astonished world. We delight to honor the names of Kepler, of Galileo, of Newton; but here are discoveries so far back in the dim past, that all trace of their origin is lost, which vie in interest and importance with the proudest achievements of any age.

With a knowledge of the sphericity of the heavens, the revolution of the sun and moon, the constellations of the celestial sphere, the axis of its diurnal revolution, astronomy began to be a science, and its future progress was destined to be rapid and brilliant. A line drawn from the earth's centre to the north star formed the axis of the heavens, and day and night around this axis all the celestial host were noiselessly pursuing

their never ending journies.-Thus far, the only moving bodies known, were the sun and moon. These large and brilliant bodies, by their magnitude and splendor, stood out conspicuously, from among the multitude of stars, leaving these minute but beautiful points of light, in one great class, unchangeable among themselves, fixed in their groupings and configurations, furnishing admirable points of reference, in watching and tracing out the wanderings of the sun und moon.

To follow the moon as she pursued her journey among the stars was not difficult; but to trace the sun in his slower and more majestic motion, and to mark accurately his track, from star to star, as he heaved upward to meet the coming constellations, was not so readily accomplished. Night after night, as he sunk below the horizon, the attentive watcher marked the bright stars near the point of setting which first appeared in the evening twilight.-These gradually sunk towards the sun on successive nights, and thus was he traced from constellation to constellation, until the entire circuit of the heavens was performed, and he was once more attended by the same bright stars, that had watched long before, his sinking in the west. Here was revealed the measure of the Year. The earth had been verdant with the beauties of spring, glowing with the maturity of summer,—rich in the fruits of autumn,—and locked in the icy chains of winter, while the sun had circled round the heavens. His entrance into certain constellations marked the coming seasons, and man was beginning to couple his cycle of pursuits on earth with the revolutions of the celestial orbs.

E

mighty stream of discovery, which has grown broader and deeper, as successive centuries have rolled away, gathering in strength and intensity, until it has embraced the whole universe of God; I am carried backward through thousands of years, following this stream, as it contracts towards its source, till finally its silver thread is lost in the clouds and mists of antiquity. 1 would fain stand at the very source of discovery, and commune with that unknown god-like mind which irst conceived the grand thought, that even these mysterious stars might be read, and that the bright page which was nightly unfolded to the vision of man, needed no interpreter of its solemn beauties, but human genius. There is to my mind, no finer specimen of moral grandeur, than that presented by him who first resolved to read and comprehend the heavens. On some lofty peak he stood, in the stillness of the midnight hour, with the listening stars as witnesses of his vows, and there, conscious of his high destiny, and of that of his race, resolves to commence the work of ages. "Here," he exclaims, "is my watch-tower, and yonder bright orbs, are henceforth my solitary companions. Night after night, year after year, will I watch and wait, ponder and reflect, until some ray shall pierce the deep gloom which now wraps the world.”

Thus resolved the unknown founder of the science of the stars. His name and his country are lost forever. What matters this, since his works, his discoveries, have endured for thousands of years and will endure, as long as the moon shall continue to fill her silver horn, and the planets to roll and shine.

Go with me, then, in imagination, and let us stand

beside this primitive observer, at the close of his career of nearly a thousand years, (for we must pass beyond the epoch of the deluge, and seek our first discoveries among those sages, whom, for their virtues, God permitted to count their age, not by years, but by centuries,) and here we shall learn the order in which the secrets of the starry world slowly yielded themselves, to long and persevering scrutiny. And now let me unfold, in plain and simple language, the train of thought, of reasoning and research, which marked this primitive era of astronomical science. It is true that history yields no light, and tradition even fails, but such is the beautiful order in the golden chain of discovery, that the bright links which are known, reveal with certainty, those which are buried in the voiceless past. If then it were possible to read the records of the founder of astronomy, graven on some column of granite, dug from the earth, whither it had been borne by the fury of the del uge, we know now what its hieroglyphics would reveal, with a certainty scarcely less than that which would be given by an actual discovery, such as we have imagined. We are certain that the first discovery ever recorded, as the result of human observation, was on the moon.

The sun, the moon, the stars, had long continued to rise, and climb the heavens, and slowly sink beneath the western horizon. The spectacle of day and night, was then as now, familiar to every eye; but in gazing there was no observation, and in mute wonder there was no science. When the solitary observer took his post, it was to watch the moon. Her extraordinary phases had long fixed his attention. Whence came

these changes? The sun was ever round and I rilliant -the stars shone with undimmed splendor-while the moon was ever waxing and waning, sometimes a silver crescent hanging in the western sky, or full orbed, walking in majesty among the stars, and eclipsing their radiance, with her overwhelming splendor. Scarcely had the second observation been made upon the moon, when the observer was struck with the wonderful fact, that she had left her place among the fixed stars, which on the preceding night he had accurately marked. Astonished, he again fixes her place by certain bright stars close to her position, and waits the coming of the following night. His suspi cions are confirmed-the moon is moving; and what to him is far more wonderful, her motion is precisely contrary to the general revolution of the heavens, from east to west. With a curiosity deeply aroused, he watches from night to night, to learn, whether she will return upon her track; but she marches steadily onward among the stars, until she sweeps the entire circuit of the heavens, and returns to the point first occupied, to recommence her ceaseless cycles.

An inquiry now arose, whether the changes in the moon, her increase and decrease, could in any way depend on her place among the fixed stars. To solve this question, required a longer period. The group of stars among which the new moon was first seen was accurately noted, so as to be recognized at the following new moon, and doubtless our primitive astronomer hoped to find that in this same group the silver crescent, when it should next appear, would be found. But in this he was disappointed; for when the moon became first faintly visible in the western