cannot see them even with the aid of a strong opera-glass. There is a superstition that they can be seen with a looking-glass, but it is only ghostly reflections that are thus perceived--perhaps as real as any other ghosts. Saturn, although as bright as a first-magnitude star, is somewhat disappointing as a naked-eye object, owing to the relative dulness of its light. Like Jupiter, it shines with great steadiness, and a practised eye could not mistake it for a fixed star. But its appearance without a telescope gives no hint of the unearthly beauty with which it astonishes the beholder when its rings are rendered visible. Not to have seen those rings at least once in a lifetime, as they appear in a powerful telescope, is to have missed one of the supreme spectacles of creation. Mars is never very brilliant except during favorable oppositions, when, approaching within less than 40,000,000 miles of the earth, it hangs in the midnight sky, gleaming red like a portent of disaster. The aspect of Mars at such times is truly alarming. It is surprising to see what a quantity of stained sunlight a world only about four thousand miles in diameter is able to reflect across so vast a gap of space. The reason why the ancients connected Mars with the god of war is plain enough when he puts on his color. Close conjunctions of the bright planets are exceedingly interesting phenomena. Mars and Jupiter seen together when the former is near one of its favorable oppositions make a scene of strange beauty. After long intervals of time several of these great planets sometimes assemble in the same quarter, and such conjunctions are always memorable occurrences. The stars are forgotten in the presence of this new constellation, and yet the tiniest of the sparks that seems to hide its light in the depths beyond would master these great planets and make gravitational slaves of them, as the sun does.