proper more fully to consider it. For Comets may be regarded as the connecting link between solar systems; hence it is in order to notice them before leaving

our own.

The cut on the next page is a representation of the course of the Comet Biela, whose expected appearance not long since excited such intense interest. The part of the heavens in which it is here seen moving, is denominated the constellation Leo; which leads us to a particular description of it in this place.

THE CONSTELLATION LEO, THE LION. THE LION is with the moderns, as with the ancients, a symbol of the month of July, and was placed among the Egyptian hieroglyphics to represent their hot season. The Greek poets tell us this sign was the Nemean Lion that dropped from the Moon, and was slain by HERCULES, and was afterwards elevated to the heavens by JUNO.

THIS celebrated "wonder of science" was construct-ing off to the confines of the universe, it would be ed by Sir W. Herschel, in his grounds at Slough, near Windsor. Its proportions were prodigious:--The length of the tube is thirty-nine feet four inches, it measures four feet ten inches in diameter, and every part of it is of rolled or sheet iron, which has been joined together without rivets, by a kind of seaming well known to those who make iron funnels for stoves. The concave face of the great mirror is forty-eight inches of polished surface in diameter! The thickness, which is equal in every part of it, is about three inches and a half, and its weight when it came from the cast was 2,118 pounds, of which it must have lost a small part in polishing. The method of observing by the telescope is by what Herschel called the front view; the observer being placed in a seat suspended at the end of it, with his back towards the object he views. There is no small speculum; but the magnifiers are applied immediately to the first focal image. From the opening of the telescope near the place of the eye-glass, a speaking-pipe runs down to the bottom of the tube, where it goes into a turning-joint; and after several other inflexions, it at length divides into two branches, one going into the observatory, and the other into the work-room; and thus the communications of the observer are conveyed to the assistant in the observatory, and the workman is directed to perform the required motions. The foundation of the apparatus by which the telescope is suspended and moved, consists of two concentric circular brick wells, the outermost of which is twenty-two feet in diameter,, and the inside one twenty-one feet. They are two feet six inches deep under ground, two feet three inches broad at the bottom, and one foot two inches at the top, and are capped with paving stones, about three inches thick, and twelve and three quarters broad. The bottom frame of the whole rests upon these two walls by twentry concentric rollers, and is movable upon a pivot, which gives a horizontal motion to the whole apparatus, as well as to the telescope.Cabinet of Curiosities.

This constellation is remarkable for its many bright stars, and is easily discovered by its being seated south of the Great Bear.

In the western part of this constellation is a beautiful star of the first magnitude called Regulus or Kelb, near the heart of the LION; a little above this are four bright stars forming the neck and head; on the hind quarters are two stars of the third magnitude; and in the tail a star of the second magnitude, called Denebola, forming a triangle with the two former.

LEO contains one star of the first magnitude, two of the second, five of the third, eleven of the fourth, fourteen of the fifth, and forty-three of the sixth. Regulus is situated on the ecliptic. This star is sometimes called Cor Leonis (the Lion's Heart.)

The constellation Leo is chiefly situated north of the ecliptic, passing over the countries situated in the north part of the Torrid Zone, where this animal is generally found; in Zoology, it is a species of Felis, or cat kind, and considered the most ferocious of quadrupeds. We have already treated to some extent on the sub- Many extraordinary accounts are reported of the aniject of Comets. Before leaving it, however, and stretch-mal. (See plate.)

THE above engraving represents the beautiful con- | stellation LEO, the Lion, and also shows a portion of the path of the periodical COMET discovered on the 27th of February, 1826, by M. Biela, of Josephstadt.

The above Comet performs its revolution round the Sun in about six years and three quarters.

sions.

thagorean schools; for they held them to be so far of the nature of planets, that they had their periodical times of appearing; that they were out of sight for a long time, while they were carried aloft at an immense distance from the EARTH, but became visible when they descended into the lower regions of the air, and thus were nearer to us.

This is the Comet concerning which such dire forebodings were entertained on the continent, many indi- ARISTOTLE, however, maintained, that they were viduals firmly believing that in 1832 it would come in nothing more than meteors, or exhalations raised into contact with the EARTH, and prove its destruction. the upper regions of the atmosphere, where they blazed This alarm appears to have originated in Paris, which out for a while, and disappeared when the matter of seems especially accessible to these terrific apprehen- which they were formed was consumed. SENECA, on the contrary, strongly argued against those who supCONJECTURES AND CONCLUSIONS RESPECTING COM-posed them meteors, and declared his belief that they ETS. Of all the celestial bodies, there are none that were not fire suddenly kindled, but the eternal produchave given rise to so many speculations and conjectures tions of NATURE. He points out, also, the only way to as the COMETS. Their strange appearances, in all ages, come at a certainty on this subject, viz. by collecting have been matter of terror to the vulgar, who uniform- a number of observations concerning their appearance, ly have looked upon them as bad omens, and forerun- in order to discover whether they return periodically or ners of war, pestilence, &c. Others less superstitious not. "For this purpose," says he, "one age is not supposed them to be meteors raised in the higher re- sufficient; but the time will come when the nature of gions of the air. Comets and their magnitudes will be demonstrated, and Some part of the modern doctrine concerning them, the routes they take, so different from the planets, exhowever, was received into the ancient Italic and Py-plained. Posterity will then wonder that the preceding

ages should be ignorant of matters so plain and easy to

be known.

*

The prediction of SENECA, however, seemed for a long time very unlikely to be fulfilled. The great authority which ARISTOTLE maintained for many ages, determined them to be nothing but meteors casually lighted up in the air; though they were manifestly at a great height, not only above the clouds, but subject to the diurnal revolution of the Earth. In the dark and superstitious ages, they were held to be the harbingers of every kind of calamity, and were supposed to have different degrees of malignity according to the shape they assumed; from whence also they were differently denominated. Thus, some were said to be bearded, some haired; some to represent a bean, a sword, or a spear; others a target, &c.; whereas, modern astronomers acknowledge only one species of Comets, and account for their different situations and distances from the Sun and Earth.

a period of seventy five years. The second appeared in 1532 and 1661, being a revolution of one hundred and twenty-nine years. The third, and most noted of all the Comets yet observed, is that before-mentioned, which appeared in 1680, and its period was calculated by Sir Isaac Newton to be 575 years; therefore it may be expected again in 2255. This Comet, at its greatest distance from the Sun, is about 11,200,000,000 of miles; and at its least distance from the Sun's centre, it is only 49,000 miles, being only about one-third of the Sun's semi-diameter from his surface. In that part of its orbit nearest to the Sun, it flies at the amazing rate of 880,000 miles an hour, as observed above; and the Sun, as seen from it, appears thirty thousand times larger than he does to us. The astonishing length that this Comet runs out into empty space, suggests to our minds the vast distance of the fixed stars, and hence of the UNIVERSE, where regions appear beyond regions. However difficult to narrow minds like ours to find out the destination of these orbs, this is an undoubted truth: that wherever the DEITY exerts his power, there he also manifests his wisdom and goodness.

The first Comet on record was observed by Nicephorus Gregorius, of Constantinople, in June, 1337, whose course he describes very accurately.

Long did astronomers maintain many absurd opinions concerning them. The first astronomer who placed them in their true rank in the creation was TYCHо BRAHE; but the first who discovered their true motion was Sir ISAAC NEWTON, from the observations he made on the great Comet of 1680. This descended almost perpendicularly towards the Sun with a prodigious ve- Comets do not all move from west to east, like the locity; ascending again with a motion retarded, as much planets. Some have a direct and some a retrograde as it had been before accelerated. It was seen in the motion. Their orbits are not comprehended within a morning by a great number of astronomers in different | narrow zone of the heavens, like those of the principal parts of Europe, from the 4th to the 25th of Novem- planets; they vary through all degrees of inclination. ber, on its way towards the Sun; and in the evening, There are some whose plane is nearly coincident with from the 12th of December to the 9th of March follow-that of the ecliptic, and others have their planes pering. The many exact observations made on this Com- pendicular to it. Indeed, a slight inclination of the et, enabled Sir Isaac Newton to determine that they are orbit is no longer deemed an essential characteristic a kind of planets, which move in very eccentric ellipses; even of the planets, for the small planets lately discovand this opinion is now considered as an established ered have great inclinations. It may be remarked, also, truth; and further, that they are opaque bodies, enin this connexion, that the orbits of the satellites c^ lightened by the Sun. Uranus are nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic.

It is further to be observed, that the Tails of COMETS begin to appear as the bodies approach near the Sun; their length increases with this proximity; and they do not acquire their greatest extent till after passing their perihelion. Their direction is always to the Sun.

Comets are of very different magnitudes, which may be conjectured from their apparent diameter and brightness. The TAILS of COMETS have given rise to various conjectures; though it is acknowledged by all that they depend on the Sun in some way or other, as they are always turned from him, but in what manner this is accomplished we cannot easily determine. Sir Isaac OF THE STARRY FIRMAMENT, ITS CHIEF DIVISIONS Newton was of opinion, that the tail of a Comet is a very thin vapour, which the head sends out by the reason of its heat. BOWRING objects to Newton's theory, from the great velocity of the Comet's motion: that of some of the Comets is said to be after the rate of no less than 880,000 miles an hour.f

With respect to the use of the Comets in the universe, it is no more a question than that of any other Orb. They show, by their rapid motions, and the period of the revolutions of those which have been calculated, the vast extent of the starry firmament. With respect to their situation, whether belonging to the Solar System, or as links that join SYSTEMS, thereby keeping up a harmony or union of Systems, it seems more a consideration, and is perfectly consistent with the analogy and connexion that are found among objects where the researches of human sagacity have been able to pene

trate.

A comet exhibits three varieties, according to its position, as seen from the Earth. I. Bearded, when eastward of the Sun, and its light marches before. II. Tailed, when westward of the Sun, and the tail or train follows it. III. Haired, when diametrically opposite to the Sun, having the Earth between them, and all its tail hid except a few scattered rays.

But of all the Comets on record, only four of their periods are known to any degree of certainty. The first of these appeared in 1592, 1707, and 1682, making

AND CONSTELLATIONS.

THE stars, on account of their apparent magnitudes, are distributed into several classes or orders. Those which appear largest to the eye are denominated STARS of the first magnitude; the next to them in lustre, stars of the second magnitude; and so in this progressive manner to those of the sixth magnitude, which are the smallest that are vissible to the naked eye. Those that are less than the sixth magnitude, are termed telescopic stars, because not visible without the aid of that instrument.

The whole starry firmament contains ninety-four constellations, and is commonly divided into three chief parts, as follows:

I. The ZODIAC, which contains twelve constellations, commonly called the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The Zodiac is sixteen degrees broad.

II. All that space between the Zodiac and the north pole containing the thirty-five northern constellations. III. The regions south of the Zodiac, containing forty-seven constellations.

A constellation is a convenient portion or number of stars which lie contiguous to one another, and for the purpose of distinction is named after some animal or object, which if there delineated would fill up that space, as it appears to the eye.

By this decision, the STARS are so distinguished from one another, that any particular star may be readily found in the heavens by means of a celestial globe or This idea is noticed by Homer, Tasso, and Milton. map, on which the constellations are so delineated that This is the same as Newton calculated the motion of the the most remarkable stars are placed in such parts of

Comet of 1680 to be.

the figures as are most easily distinguished.

THIS vile impostor, who pretended she could live | Rev. Leigh Richmond, and followed by several other without food, was born at Royston, near Ashborn, in the county of Derby, in the year 1761. Her parents were poor, and of the name of Peg. At the age of twenty-seven, she married James Moore, a labourer, with whom she soon parted, after which she had two children by her master, a boy and a girl.-About the beginning of 1807, when residing at Tutbury, a village in Staffordshire, she first excited public attention by declaring she could live without food. An assertion so repugnant to reason and nature was of course rejected. She therefore offered to prove the truth of her assertion by submitting to be watched for a considerable time.

THE MYSTERIOUS MUSIC OF THE OCEAN.
FROM WALSH'S NATIONAL GAZETTE.

"And the people of this place say, that at certain seasons beautiful sounds are heard from the ocean.'

Louis XV. when before the walls of Menin, in Flan-single subscriber, cannot conveniently be sent by mail, it will be As the sum of $1 50, which is the price of the Magazine to a ders, was told that if he chose to risk an attack, the necessary that two subscribers at least send payment in a letter place would be taken four days sooner than it otherwise together. would be. Let us take it then," replied he, "four days later. I would rather loose these four days than loose one of my subjects."