sing,' says Herschel, 'over
the stars Iota of the Altar, Theta and Iota of the Scorpion, etc., to
Gamma of the Archer, where it suddenly collects into a vivid oval mass,
so very rich in stars that a very moderate calculation makes their
number exceed 100,000.' Nothing could accord better with the
descriptions of Aratus and Manilius.

But there is another constellation which shows in a more marked way than
either the Centaur or the Altar that the date when the constellations
were invented must have been near that which I have named. Both Ara and
Centaurus look now in suitable latitudes (about twenty degrees north) as
they looked in higher latitudes (about forty degrees north) 4000 years
ago. For, the reeling motion of our earth has changed the place of the
celestial pole in such a way as only to depress these constellations
southwards without much changing their _position_; they are nearly
upright when due south now as they were 4000 years ago, only lower down.
But the great ship Argo has suffered a much more serious displacement.
One cannot now see this ship _like_ a ship at any time or from any place
on the earth's surface. If we travel south till the whole constellation
comes into visibility above the southern horizon at the proper season
(January and February for the midnight hours) the keel of the ship is
aslant, the stern being high above the waist (the fore part is wanting).
If we travel still further south, we can indeed reach places where the
course of the ship is so widened, and the changes of position so
increased, that she appears along part of her journey on an even keel,
but then she is high above the horizon. Now 4000 years ago she stood on
the horizon itself at her southern culmination, with level keel and
upright mast.

In passing I may note that for my own part I imagine that this great
ship represented the Ark, its fore part being originally the portion of
the Centaur now forming the horse, so that the Centaur was represented
as a man (not as a man-horse) offering a gift on the Altar. Thus in this
group of constellations I recognise the Ark, and Noah going up from the
Ark towards the altar 'which he builded unto the Lord; and took of every
clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the
altar.' I consider further that the constellation-figures of the Ship,
the Man with an offering, and the Altar, painted or sculptured in some
ancient astrological temple, came at a later time t