Of the effect of the Precession of the Equinoxes, to which Emerson refers, we have already spoken. But it is a long time in the future that Vega will begin, or rather resume, its reign as the Star of the North. And, curiously enough, when that time comes the northern hemisphere will have its Summer Solstice when the sun is just opposite to the place which it now occupies at that season, and when Antares will be no more a summer star, but will flash its ruddy light upon the snows of a winter longer and colder than the winters that we know, while Orion will blaze above the summer landscapes. This immense revolution, some have thought, may be the measure of the “Great Year” of Plato, and if the chronology adopted for dating the early remains of civilization recently uncovered in Crete is correct, we have evidence that mankind has persisted through one of these vast periods, and that nations flourished round the Mediterranean when Vega was formerly the Pole-star. The beauty of Vega, which has been admired and commented on from the earliest times, is much enhanced when it is viewed with a telescope. Then the blueness of its light becomes evident, and one is the more astonished at the unquestionable fact that it outshines the sun a hundred times. A _sapphire_ sun, a hundred times more brilliant than ours! The proper motion of the solar system, which carries us through space about twelve miles per second, is bearing us almost directly toward Vega, so that as future ages unroll the star should become brighter and brighter with decrease of distance, until eventually it may outshine every other orb in the firmament, and put Sirius himself to shame by its overpowering splendor. The little star Epsilon (ε), the northernmost one of the pair near Vega, is a celebrated quadruple, easily seen as such with a telescope of moderate power. A little less than half way from Beta (β) to Gamma (γ) the telescope discovers the wonderful “Ring Nebula,” a delicate circle of nebulous light with a star in the centre. This star is more conspicuous in photographs than in telescopic views. This object has been regarded as a visual proof of the correctness of Laplace’s theory of the origin of the solar system from nebulous rings surrounding a central sun, but the Lick photographs show that the ring in this case is of a strangely complex constitution. Beta is both a binary and a variable star.