"As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night O'er heav'ns dear water, spreads her sacred light; When not a breath disturbs the deep serene, And not a cloud o'ereasts the solemn scene: Around her throne the vivid planets roll, And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole.

The ancient shepherds, during the silent watches of the night, (as they slept in the open air) having no other objects to contemplate, than the view which the heavens above pretented, soon begin to divide " the firmament of stars into particular constellations, according as they adjoined each other, till the heavens were filled with symbolical objects, and those which could not be formed into those clusters of stars, which they brought together, were denominated " unformed stars". By this division, the stars were easily distinguished from each other; and by help of a celestial globe, on which the constellations are delineated, any particular star may be easily found in the heavens, the most remarkable stars being placed in such parts of the asterisms or constellations, as are most readily distinguished.

The heavens are thus divided into three parts. 1. - The zodiac, which is a great circle extending quite round the heavens, nearly sixteen degrees broad, so as to take in the different orbits of the planets, as well as that of the earth's satellite, the moon; in the middle of which is the Ecliptic, or the path of the sun. 2. - All that region of the heavens which is on the north side of the zodiac, containing twenty-one constellations; and 3. - The whole region on the south side, which contains fifteen constellations.

With these constellations, Astrologers confine their observations to twelve only, which are denominated the twelve signs of the zodiac.

Independent of other.Astrological symbols, these twelve signs answer to the twelve months in the year; some have indeed imagined that the figures under which they are represented, are descriptive of the different seasons, according to the path of the greater luminary; thus the first sign Aries, " denotes that about the time when Sol enters into that part of the ecliptic the lambs begin to follow the sheep: that on the sun's approach to the second asterism, Taurus, the cows usually bring forth their young. The third sign, now Gemini, was in former times represented by two kids, and signified the time of the goats bringing forth their young, which are usually two at a birth; while the former, the sheep and the cow, commonly produce only one. The fourth sign, Cancer, denoting the crab, an animal that goes sideways and backwards, was placed at the northern Solstice, where the sun begins to return back again from the north to the southward; this answers to the time of our longest days, after which the day gradually decreases, as the sun has left his greatest northern declination. The fifth sign Leo, denoting the lion, a furious animal, was thought to represent the heat and fury of the tropical sun, when he enters this sign.

The succeeding sign, the sixth in order, Virgo, the maid, received the sun at the time of the ripening corn, and the approaching harvest; and in former times, the sign was expressed by a maid attired as a female reaper, with an ear of corn in her hand. The ancients gave to the next sign, both Libra and Scorpio, two of the twelve divisions of the zodiac; as autumn, which affords fruits in great abundance, affords the means and causes of diseases : and the succeeding time, being in general the most unhealthy of the year, was expressed by this venomous animal, here, spreading out his long claws into one sign, as if threatening mischief, and in the other, brandishing his tail to denote the completion of it; The next sign, Sagittarius, denoted the fall of the leaf, and the season for ancient hunting; for which reason, the stars which marked this constellation, were represented by a huntsman, with his arrows and his club, the weapons of destruction for the large creatures he pursued. The reasons of the wild goat's being chosen to mark (the sign Capricorn) the southern solstice, when the sun has attained his greatest southern declination, and begins again to mount northward, lengthening the days, is obvious enough;the character of that animal being, that it is mostly climbing, and ascending some mountain as it browses: There yet remains two signs of the zodiac to be accounted for, with regard to their origin, viz.

Aquarius and Pisces. - As to the former, it is to be considered, that the winter is a wet and uncomfortable season; this therefore was shown by Aquarius, the figure of a man pouring out water from an urn. The last of the zodiacal constellations, Pisces, was represented by a couple of fishes tied together, that had been caught; the lesson was, " The severe season is over; your flocks do not yield their store; but the seas and rivers are open, and there you may take fish in abundance".