Among the innumerable army of stars which sparkle in the infinite night, the gaze is especially arrested by the most brilliant lights and by certain groups which vaguely present a mysterious bond between the worlds of space. These groups have been noticed at all epochs, even among the rudest races of men, and from the earliest ages of humanity they have received names, usually derived from the organic kingdom, which give a fantastic life to the solitude and the silence of the skies. Thus were early distinguished the seven stars of the North, or the Chariot, of which Homer speaks; the _Pleiades_, or the “_Poussinière_”; the giant _Orion_; the Hyades in the head of Taurus; _Boötes_, near the Chariot or Great Bear. These five groups were already named more than 3,000 years ago, and so were the brightest stars of the sky, _Sirius_ and _Arcturus_, etc. The epoch of the formation of the constellations is unknown, but we know that they were established successively. The centaur Chiron, Jason’s tutor, has the reputation of having first divided the sky on the sphere of the Argonauts. But this is mythology; and, besides, Job lived before the epoch at which Chiron is supposed to have flourished, and Job had already spoken of Orion, the Pleiades, and the Hyades 3,000 years ago. Homer also speaks of these constellations in describing the famous shield of Vulcan. “On its surface,” says he, “Vulcan, with a divine intelligence traces a thousand varied pictures. He represents the earth, the heavens, the sea, the indefatigable sun, the moon at its full, and all the stars which wreath the sky: the Pleiades, the Hyades, the brilliant Orion, the Bear, which they also call the Chariot, and which revolves round the pole; this is the only constellation which does not dip into the ocean waves” (_Iliad_, chapter xviii.). Several theologians have affirmed that it was Adam himself, in the terrestrial paradise, who gave their names to the stars; the historian Josephus assures us that it was not Adam, but his son Seth, and that in any case astronomy was cultivated long before the Deluge. This nobility is sufficient for us. Attentive observation of the sky also noticed from the beginning the beautiful stars _Vega_ of the Lyre, _Capella_ of Auriga, _Procyon_ of the Little Dog, _Antares_ of the Scorpion, _Altair_ of the Eagle, _Spica_ of the Virgin, the _Twins_, the _Chair_ of Cassiopeia, the Cross of the White _Swan_, stretched in the midst of the _Milky Way_. Although noticed at the epoch of Hesiod and Homer, these constellations and stars were probably not yet named, because doubtless men had not yet felt the necessity of registering them for any application to the calendar, to navigation, or to voyages.[7]