ns" is the title of our book. We have indeed a
wondrous story to narrate; and could we tell it adequately it would
prove of boundless interest and of exquisite beauty. It leads to the
contemplation of grand phenomena in nature and great achievements of
human genius.

Let us enumerate a few of the questions which will be naturally asked by
one who seeks to learn something of those glorious bodies which adorn
our skies: What is the Sun--how hot, how big, and how distant? Whence
comes its heat? What is the Moon? What are its landscapes like? How does
our satellite move? How is it related to the earth? Are the planets
globes like that on which we live? How large are they, and how far off?
What do we know of the satellites of Jupiter and of the rings of Saturn?
How was Uranus discovered? What was the intellectual triumph which
brought the planet Neptune to light? Then, as to the other bodies of our
system, what are we to say of those mysterious objects, the comets? Can
we discover the laws of their seemingly capricious movements? Do we know
anything of their nature and of the marvellous tails with which they are
often decorated? What can be told about the shooting-stars which so
often dash into our atmosphere and perish in a streak of splendour? What
is the nature of those constellations of bright stars which have been
recognised from all antiquity, and of the host of smaller stars which
our telescopes disclose? Can it be true that these countless orbs are
really majestic suns, sunk to an appalling depth in the abyss of
unfathomable space? What have we to tell of the different varieties of
stars--of coloured stars, of variable stars, of double stars, of
multiple stars, of stars that seem to move, and of stars that seem at
rest? What of those glorious objects, the great star clusters? What of
the Milky Way? And, lastly, what can we learn of the marvellous nebulae
which our telescopes disclose, poised at an immeasurable distance? Such
are a few of the questions which occur when we ponder on the mysteries
of the heavens.

The history of Astronomy is, in one respect, only too like many other
histories. The earliest part of it is completely and hopelessly lost.
The stars had been studied, and some great astronomical discoveries had
been made, untold ages before those to which our earliest historical
records extend. For example, the observation of the apparent movement of
the sun, and the discrimination between the planets and th