none ever sought his aid, or conciliated his enmity, without receiving prompt assistance and immediate reconciliation. Hispurse as well as his talents was ever at the service of the poor, the oppressed, and all who stood in need of assistance, and often he suffered considerable losses in supporting the rights of those who were unable to maintain their own. Active, intelligent, and superior in all things, he was a dangerous enemy, but an unshaken ally; and the most bitter foe had only to seek his amity and he immediately became his friend. His mind was full of generosity, kindness, and sensibility, and if he had faults, they were the errors of his age and not of his own heart. In his latter days his liberality in assisting others embarrassed his own affairs; but in every trial, his conduct was distinguished by honour and integrity. Amidst his misfortunes he was deprived of his wife, after which he went little into society, but in his old age spent many of his days, like the ancient hunters, alone on the hills of Gaick or the corries of Beann-Aller with no other companion than his cuilbheir and his grey dogs! Such was one of the last true deer-stalkers of the old race of gentlemen-a man who, if we lived a hundred years, we should not see his like again."

Need we or can we say more?

"The shout of the chase he heeds not,
The glad voice of morning he hears not
In his sunless and starless bed,

Never more shall the battle-cry rouse him."

Kingussie, Christmas 1899.

THE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS OF LITERARY MEN.

By G. W. NIVEN..

"They kissed the Virgin and filled her with dread,.

They popped the Scorpion into her bed;

They broke the pitcher of poor Aquarius,

They stole the arrows of Sagittarius,
And they skimmed the Milky Way.

WE

They filled the Scales with sulphur full,
They hallooed the Dog-Star on at the Bull,
And pleased themselves with the noise.
They set the Lion on poor Orion;、

They shaved all the hair off the Lesser Bear;
They kicked the shins of the Gemini Twins-
Those heavenly Siamese Boys!-

Never was such confusion and wrack

As they produced in the Zodiac!"

-Ingoldsby Legends.

E do not know if it would be correct to say that the study of astronomy has been more neglected than that of other branches of science; but it is certain that a good deal of misconception is current regarding planetary motions and generally of things astronomical.

If we take our popular authors as reflecting the knowledge of the average reader, we cannot be impressed either with its extent or accuracy, for we become acquainted with more surprising astronomical phenomena in their writings than we may ever expect to witness in Nature.

Although the moon is not now supposed to affect the sanity of ordinary mortals, she certainly still appears to cause some perturbation in many authors' minds. Ever since Joshua, "quite inadvertently," as an old commentator explained, made the moon assist the sun in giving the Israelites more light, literary men have experienced great difficulty in managing our satellite when introduced into their works of fiction. Thus in "Our Mutual Friend," by an intended reference to the moon's motion, Dickens, by implication, makes the earth move round the sun once a month: The earth moved round the sun a certain number of times," wrote the novelist; "the ship upon the ocean made her voyage safely, and brought a baby Bella home."

In Artemus Ward's Diorama of Utah, which he exhibited in London, there was a scene representing Salt Lake by moonlight. Perhaps as an excuse for getting a refresher, Artemus, on its appearance, always retired behind the scenes, "to work the moon himself, as he was a man short," he was wont to explain. The moon was then seen to move about in

a most erratic manner, to the amusement of the audience. On his return, A. W. would say: "I shall be most happy to pay a good salary to any respectable boy of good parentage and education who is a good moonist."

It is a pity Rider Haggard's services were not then available, for judging from "King Solomon's Mines," that popular author might have proved a desirable moonist. In the novel referred to, our satellite is made to go through a series of acrobatic evolutions that would take a diorama operator all his skill to imitate. Among other curious phenomena too numerous to mention in detail, we are told that the crescent moon rose after sunset one night and shone for several hours. On the next day, at half-past one P.M., a total eclipse of the sun took place!

Many examples could be given where the author describes a star as shining between the horns of the crescent moon. A tale that appeared in the Cornhill Magazine some years ago, entitled "The Portent," may be instanced. If this phenomena were really to be seen, it would indeed be a portent that something serious was about to happen, if indeed the catastrophe had not already taken place. Apropos of portents, we may mention that the Rev. Mr. Fullarton, one of the late Mr. Spurgeon's colleagues, has expressed the belief that the death of that distinguished preacher, and the appearance the same night of a new star in the constellation Auriga, had an intimate connection!

If the moon caused alarm to anyone in Joshua's day by waiting to illumine the battle, she certainly created some momentary consternation on two occasions to our army in Egypt by discreetly hiding her face in the earth's protecting shadow from a contemplated scene of bloodshed. Previous to the Egyptian campaign of about eight or nine years ago, Sir Garnet Wolseley requested the Astronomer Royal to supply him with tables showing the phases and periods of moonshine for the latitude of Egypt. This information was accordingly supplied. In the course of the campaign, on two different occasions when the tables foretold that it was to be full moon, the camp was astir making preparations for a midnight raid,

when suddenly, to the surprise of all, a black shadow was seen beginning to overspread the moon's bright disc, and in a short time it became apparent that an eclipse of the moon was on, and the attack on the enemy had consequently to be declared off.

Of course, the War Office had something to say to the Observatory, but the latter had the best of the argument, the Astronomer Royal maintaining that he had not been asked for any information regarding eclipses. In future we may be certain the lunar eclipses, if any occur, will be included in all ephemeris supplied for war purposes.

It sometimes happens in the experience of a humorist that the illusion of having perpetrated a good joke is rudely dispelled on fuller information being acquired. An example of this is to be found in an illustrated page in "Fun Almanack" of a few years ago. Several events are there foretold to happen on such dates as January 32nd, March 45th, and so on. These dates may have to many a very odd and ludicrous appearance. On referring to that invaluable and, one would expect, sober production, the "Nautical Almanack," one finds such dates as January 32nd, February 30th, and December 36th, occurring as a matter of course. In fact, none of the months appear to be of the orthodox length. The tabulated matter, however, entered opposite January 32nd will be found on the following page against February 1st. Fun's little joke has consequently missed fire.

If, as we have attempted to show, some of our novelists are seldom correct in their astronomical allusions, we cannot expect our newspaper-writers to be any better informed. In recording the position of a newly discovered minor planet or comet, they, or the printer, have a Malapropian habit of spelling "declination" as "declension."

In reporting Dr. Wm. Huggins' Presidential Address to the British Association at Cardiff a few years ago, all the newspapers made him begin by referring to the introduction in 1860 of the "Electroscope" into the Astronomical Observatory, and the important discoveries made since then with that instrument. Farther on, the reporters caught up the

word "Spectroscope," and thereafter stuck to it manfully and truthfully throughout the rest of the report. It apparently did not afterwards occur to the reporters that the former word was erroneous.

It is encouraging to read, even in fiction, of the determined pursuit of the study of astronomical phenomena in spite of difficulties. Fenimore Cooper, in Satanstoe," makes Cornelius Littlepage say that at Nassau College “ We had a telescope. . . . I can testify of my own knowledge, having seen the moons of Jupiter as often as ten times with my own eyes, aided by its magnifiers. We had a tutor who was expert among the stars, and who, it was generally believed, would have been able to see the rings of Saturn could he have found the planet, which, as it turned out, he was unable to do!"

When the Huron, the hero of one of Voltaire's delightful philosophical romances, found himself immured in the Bastille, he was induced by a fellow-prisoner to send for a celestial globe, and to begin the study of astronomy for the first time, but under rather unsatisfactory conditions, as he could not view the heavens.

“What a hard fate it is," exclaimed he, " to begin to know something of the heavens only after having been robbed of the privilege of beholding them!"

With so much apparent fault-finding, it would be ungracious not to acknowledge the scientific accuracy of that prince of romancers, Jules Verne. One of his later works, describing the attempt of the Yankee firm of Barbicane & Co. to shift the axis of the earth's rotation, conveys some useful astronomical knowledge to his juvenile readers. In his description of the interior arrangements of the great projectile fired at the moon he undoubtedly anticipated the invention of the Fleuss Diving Apparatus; and the influence his romance of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" has had in stimulating the invention of submarine vessels is quite apparent.

In this connection we may note the remarkable anticipation of the discovery of the two satellites of Mars, Deimos