The Scorpion, Archer, and Sea-Goat,
The Man that holds the watering-pot,
And Fish with glittering tails.

Charles. We come now to the characters placed before the planets.

Tutor. These, like the former, are but a kind of short-hand characters, which it is esteemed easier to write than the names of the planets at length. They are as follow:

With the other characters you have no need to trouble yourselves, till you come to calculate eclipses, and construct astronomical tables, a labour which may be deferred for some years

to come.

Turn to the eighth page of

the Ephemeris.

James. Have we no concern with the intermediate pages between the second and eighth ?

Tutor. They do not contain any thing that requires particular explanation. In the eighth page, after the common almanack for January, the first columns point out the exact time of the sun's rising and setting at London: thus on the 10th day of January he rises at 58 minutes after 7 in the morning, and sets at 2 minutes past 4 in the afternoon. The third column gives the declination of

the sun.

James. What is that, sir?

Tutor. The declination of the sun, or of any heavenly body, is its distance from the imaginary circle in the heavens, called the equinoctial.

Thus you observe that the sun's declination on the 1st of January is 23° 3′ south; or, it is so many degrees south of the imaginary equator. Turn to March 1822, and you will see that between the 20th and 21st' days it is in the equator, for at 12 o'clock at noon on the 20th it is only 16' south, and at the same hour on the 21st it is 8' north of that line: and when it is in the equator, then it has no declination.

Charles. Do astronomers always reckon from 12 o'clock at noon?

Tutor. They do; and hence the astronomical day begins 12 hours later than the day according to common reckoning; and therefore the declination, longitude, latitude, &c., of the sun, moon, and planets, are always put down for 12 o'clock at noon of the day to which they are opposite.

Thus, the sun's declination for the 17th of January at 12 o'clock is 20° 48' south.

Charles. Is that because it is the commencement of the astronomical day, though in common life it be called 12 o'clock?

Tutor. It is, The three next columns contain the moon's declination, the time of her rising and setting, and the time of her southing, or when she comes to the meridian or south part of the heavens..

Charles. Does she not come to the south at noon as well as the sun?

Tutor. No; the moon never comes to the meridian at the same time as the sun, but at the time of new moon. And this circumstance takes place, nearly, at every new moon, as you may see by casting your eye down the several columns in the

Ephemeris which relate to the moon's southing.

The glory, the changes, and the motion of the moon, are beautifully described in the following lines:→→→

By thy command the Moon, as day-light fades,
Lifts her broad circle in the deep'ning shades;
Array'd in glory, and enthron'd in light,
She breaks the solemn terrors of the night;
Sweetly inconstant in her varying flame,
She changes still, another, yet the same!
Now in decrease, by slow degrees she shrouds
Her fading lustre in a veil of clouds :

Now of increase her gath'ting beams display
A blaze of light, and give a paler day;

Ten thousand stars adorn her glitt'ring train,
Fall when she falls, and rise with her again;
And o'er the deserts of the sky unfold

Their burning spangles of sidereal gold: Through the wide heav'ns she moves serene. bright,

Queen of the gay attendants of the night;
Orb above orb in sweet confusion lies,

And with a bright disorder paints the skies.

BROOME