It may well boast of being celebrated. If, notwithstanding its universal notoriety, some of our readers have not yet made its acquaintance, the following is a description by which they may recognize it. [Illustration: Fig. 2] Turn yourself toward the north—that is to say, opposite to the point where the sun is found at noon. Whatever may be the season of the year, the day of the month, or the hour of the night, you will always see there a large constellation formed of seven fine stars, of which four are in a quadrilateral, and three at an angle with one side; all are arranged as we see in Fig. 2. You have all seen it, have you not? It never sets. Night and day it watches above the northern horizon, _turning slowly_ in twenty-four hours round a star of which we shall speak directly. In the figure of the Great Bear, the three stars of the extremity form the tail, and the four in the quadrilateral lie in the body. In the Chariot, the four stars of the quadrilateral form the wheels, and the other three the pole, the horses, or the oxen. Above the second of these latter stars, ζ, good sight distinguishes quite a little star named Alcor, which is also called the Cavalier. It serves to test the power of the sight. Each star is designated by a letter of the Greek alphabet: α and β mark the first two stars of the quadrilateral, γ and δ the two following, ε, ζ, η, the three of the pole. Arabic names have also been given to these stars, which we will pass in silence, because they are generally obsolete, with the exception, however, of that of the second horse—Mizar. With reference to the Greek letters, many persons think that it would be preferable to suppress them and to replace them by numbers. But this would be impossible in the practice of astronomy; and, moreover, inevitable confusion would result, on account of the numbers which the stars bear in the catalogues. The Latins gave to plowing oxen the name of _triones_; instead of speaking of a chariot and three oxen, they came to call them the seven oxen (_septemtriones_). From this is derived the word septentrion, and there are now doubtless but few persons who, in writing this word, know that they are speaking of seven oxen. It is the same, however, with many other words. Who remembers, for example, in using the word _tragedy_, that he speaks of a song of a goat: _tragôs-ode_?