A nomenclature thought of and devised,
And forms sufficient found.
······
So thought he good to make the stellar groups,
That each by other lying orderly,
They might display their forms. And thus the stars
At once took names and rise familiar now.
Aratos.
The origin of the constellations is still open to conjecture, for though all nations since the dawn of history have recognised these ancient stellar configurations, and at one period or another employed them in some symbolic or representative capacity, the fact remains that the researches of archaeologists have failed to yield definite proof as to who first designed them and where they were first known.
There is little doubt that the constellations were the result of a deliberate plan, as La Place affirms. Possibly they were an endeavour on the part of some patriarch of the ancient world to grave an imperishable record of a great event, or a series of noteworthy occurrences in the world's history, for all posterity to read, and although no Rosetta stone has been found as yet to enable the present race of man to decipher their meaning, still the problem attacked by the ablest savants of all nations has yielded theories respecting the origin and purposes of the constellations that cannot be far from the truth.
In the very dawn of the world, when human instinct first inspired observation, primitive man began to look about him and take stock of his environment. The daily wants of
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