the signs and the constellations were in accord; it follows, then, that about 23,800 years in the future, they will be in accord again. In the meanwhile the signs will have backed entirely round the circle of the ecliptic. The attentive reader will perceive that the precession of the equinoxes, with its attendant revolution of the celestial poles round the poles of the ecliptic, must affect the position of the North Star. We have already said that that star only _happens_ to occupy its present commanding position in the sky. The star itself is motionless, or practically so, with regard to the earth, and it is the north pole that changes its place. At the present time the pole is about 1° 10, from the North Star, in the direction of the Great Dipper, and it is slowly drawing nearer so that in about 200 years it will be less than half a degree from the star. After that the precessional motion will carry the pole in a circle departing farther and farther from the star, until the latter will have entirely lost its importance as a guide to the position of the pole. It happens, however, that several other conspicuous stars lie near this circle. One of these is Thuban, or Alpha Draconis (not now as bright as it once was), and this star at the time when it served as an indicator of the place of the pole, some 4600 years ago, was connected with a very romantic chapter in the history of astronomy. In the great pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, there is a long passage leading straight toward the north from a chamber cut deep in the rock under the centre of the pyramid, and the upward slope of this passage is such that it is believed to have been employed by the Egyptian astronomer-priests as a kind of telescope-tube for viewing the then pole star, and observing the times of its passage over the meridian—for even the North Star, since it is not _exactly_ at the pole, revolves every twenty-four hours in a tiny circle about it, and consequently crosses the meridian twice a day, once above and once beneath the true pole. About 11,500 years in the future, the extremely brilliant star Vega, or Alpha Lyræ, will serve as a pole star, although it will not be as near the pole as the North Star now is. At that time the North Star will be nearly 50° from the pole. In about 21,000 years the pole will have come round again to the neighbourhood of Alpha Draconis, the star of the pyramid, and in about 25,800 years the North Star will have been restored to its present prestige as the apparent hub of the heavens.