gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the
more are we capable of seeing.

"Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned,--_not to
see_ what is not.

"If we read in to-day's paper that a brilliant comet was seen last night
in New York, we are very likely to see it to-night in Boston; for we
take every long, fleecy cloud for a splendid comet.

"When the comet of 1680 was expected, a few years ago, to reappear, some
young men in Cambridge told Professor Bond that they had seen it; but
Professor Bond did not see it. Continually are amateurs in astronomy
sending notes of new discoveries to Bond, or some other astronomers,
which are no discoveries at all!

"Astronomers have long supposed the existence of a planet inferior to
Mercury; and M. Leverrier has, by mathematical calculation, demonstrated
that such a planet exists. He founded his calculations upon the supposed
discovery of M. Lesbarcault, who declares that it crossed the sun's
disc, and that he saw it and made drawings. The internal evidence, from
the man's account, is that he was an honest enthusiast. I have no doubt
that he followed the path of a solar spot, and as the sun turned on its
axis he mistook the motion for that of the dark spot; or perhaps the
spot changed and became extinct, and another spot closely resembling it
broke out and he was deceived; his wishes all the time being 'father to
the thought.'

"The eye is as teachable as the hand. Every one knows the most prominent
constellations,--the Pleiades, the Great Bear, and Orion. Many persons
can draw the figures made by the most brilliant stars in these
constellations, and very many young people look for the 'lost Pleiad.'
But common observers know these stars only as bright objects; they do
not perceive that one star differs from another in glory; much less do
they perceive that they shine with differently colored rays.

"Those who know Sirius and Betel do not at once perceive that one shines
with a brilliant white light and the other burns with a glowing red, as
different in their brilliancy as the precious stones on a lapidary's
table, perhaps for the same reason. And so there is an endless variety
of tints of paler colors.

"We may turn our gaze as we turn a kaleidoscope, and the changes are
infinitely more startling, the combinations infinitely more beautiful;
no flower garden presents such a variety and such delicacy of shades.

"But beautiful as this variety is, it i