found the stars Canopus and Alpha Centauri, and also the most brilliant
portion of the Milky Way. It is believed to be to this grand celestial
region that allusion is made in the Book of Job (ix. 9), under the title
of the "Chambers of the South." The "Cross" must have been still a
notable feature in the sky of Palestine in the days when that ancient
poem was written.

There is no star near enough to the southern pole of the heavens to earn
the distinction of South Polar Star.

The Galaxy, or _Milky Way_ (see Plate XX., p. 296), is a broad band of
diffused light which is seen to stretch right around the sky. The
telescope, however, shows it to be actually composed of a great host of
very faint stars--too faint, indeed, to be separately distinguished with
the naked eye. Along a goodly stretch of its length it is cleft in two;
while near the south pole of the heavens it is entirely cut across by a
dark streak.

In this rapid survey of the face of the sky, we have not been able to do
more than touch in the broadest manner upon some of the most noticeable
star groups and a few of the most remarkable stars. To go any further is
not a part of our purpose; our object being to deal with celestial
bodies as they actually are, and not in those groupings under which they
display themselves to us as a mere result of perspective.

[29] Attention must here be drawn to the fact that the name of the
constellation is always put in the genitive case.

[30] The early peoples, as we have seen, appear to have been attracted
by those groupings of the stars which reminded them in a way of the
figures of men and animals. We moderns, on the other hand, seek almost
instinctively for geometrical arrangements. This is, perhaps,
symptomatic of the evolution of the race. In the growth of the
individual we find, for example, something analogous. A child, who has
been given pencil and paper, is almost certain to produce grotesque
drawings of men and animals; whereas the idle and half-conscious
scribblings which a man may make upon his blotting-paper are usually of
a geometrical character.

[31] Because the line joining them _points_ in the direction of the Pole
Star.

CHAPTER XXIV

SYSTEMS OF STARS

Many stars are seen comparatively close together. This may plainly arise
from two reasons. Firstly, the stars may happen to be almost in the same
line of sight; that is to say, seen in nearly the same direction; and
though one star m