There is one, 61 Cygni, of the Swan, with one-third of a second; and, therefore, three times the distance of the _alpha_ Centaur. There is a star in the Lyre which is one-fifth of a second. Grand Arcturus is one-eight. The North Polar Star is one-tenth. Pretty Capella, of the Kid, is one-twentieth; that is, twenty times farther back than _a_ Centaur. As it looks one of the brightest stars, it must be very large. What of old Sirius? The angle he makes with our orbit diameter is one-fourth of a second; so that he is about 80,000,000,000,000 miles. Thank you, dear father, for these terrible long figures. Their great distance may give us a good guess of their great size. I know the size of the sun to be half-a-degree in the heavens, at a distance of ninety-five millions of miles, and yet it is really eight hundred and eighty-six thousand miles diameter, I have been told. When, then, a star is millions of millions of miles away, I am sure it must be a big one to be seen at all. It is so. If the sun were thrust back as far as the star _a_ Centaur, it is calculated that it would not shine with more than one-third of the light that star now gives us; it must, therefore, be not more than one-third its size. But you said Sirius was four times farther off than the Centaur, father. Yes; and it gives four times as much light. It is, then, probably four times as large. It must be, therefore, many times larger than the sun. I am sure it ought to have more planets turning round it than the sun has, or else have them much larger in size.” CONSTELLATIONS. It was a calm, still, moonless night, which closed in with raven wings a glorious sunset in the South Atlantic ocean. The gay clouds, in brilliant dress, that hung about the sun as he glowed to his evening rest, had gradually changed their garments for those of more sombre hues; and then, as gradually, had changed from mountain shapes to feathery forms, till softening night dissolved them into invisible vapour. The stars came stealthily forth; a few bolder ones rushing first to the front, while the more modest stars feared to show themselves till the last sign of daylight fled. First, second, third, fourth, and other magnitudes thus successively gleamed from the cloudless arch, above and around the boy. After a time he said-- “Why were the Ram, Bull, Lion, Scorpion and others so called? I have often wondered at their odd names, and have tried to make out a bear in the Great Bear, or a dog about the stars near Sirius, but never could see any resemblance to the animals. I don’t wonder at your surprise. Some learned astronomers of our day pretend that the ancients by the Nile and Euphrates had no meaning in the names they gave to the constellations. This is not likely, especially as we know that the signs of the Zodiac were pictured in their temples. But who gave the names to the other stars that are not signs of the Zodiac?