y in twelve lessons for amateurs, will not make astronomers or
mathematicians of my readers--much less prigs or pedants. They are
designed to show the constitution of the Universe, in its grandeur and
its beauty, so that, inhabiting this world, we may know where we are
living, may realize our position in the Cosmos, appreciate Creation as
it is, and enjoy it to better advantage. This sun by which we live, this
succession of months and years, of days and nights, the apparent motions
of the heavens, these starry skies, the divine rays of the moon, the
whole totality of things, constitutes in some sort the tissue of our
existence, and it is indeed extraordinary that the inhabitants of our
planet should almost all have lived till now without knowing where they
are, without suspecting the marvels of the Universe.

* * * * *

For the rest, my little book is dedicated to a woman, muse and
goddess--the charming enchantress Urania, fit companion of Venus,
ranking even above her in the choir of celestial beauties, as purer and
more noble, dominating with her clear glance the immensities of the
universe. Urania, be it noted, is feminine, and never would the poetry
of the ancients have imagined a masculine symbol to personify the
pageant of the heavens. Not Uranus, nor Saturn, nor Jupiter can compare
with the ideal beauty of Urania.

Moreover, I have before me two delightful books, in breviary binding,
dated the one from the year 1686, the other from a century later, 1786.
The first was written by Fontenelle for a Marquise, and is entitled
Entretiens sur la Pluralite des Mondes. In this, banter is pleasantly
married with science, the author declaring that he only demands from his
fair readers the amount of application they would concede to a novel.
The second is written by Lalande, and is called Astronomie des Dames. In
addressing myself to both sexes, I am in honorable company with these
two sponsors and esteem myself the better for it.

CHAPTER I

THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE HEAVENS

The crimson disk of the Sun has plunged beneath the Ocean. The sea has
decked itself with the burning colors of the orb, reflected from the
Heavens in a mirror of turquoise and emerald. The rolling waves are gold
and silver, and break noisily on a shore already darkened by the
disappearance of the celestial luminary.

We gaze regretfully after the star of day, that poured its cheerful rays
anon so generousl