MYTHS AND MARVELS OF ASTRONOMY BY thony RICHARD A. PROCTOR 66 AUTHOR OF ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH,” THE EXPANSE OF HEAVEN,” ETC., ETC. 66 TRANSFERRED TO À NEW EDITION LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1886 BTC PREFACE. The chief charm of Astronomy, with many, does not reside in the wonders revealed to us by the science, but in the lore and legends connected with its history, the strange fancies with which in old times it has been associated, the half-forgotten myths to which it has given birth. In our own times also, Astronomy has had its myths and fancies, its wild inventions, and startling paradoxes. My object in the present series of papers has been to collect together the most interesting of these old and new Astronomical myths, associating with them, in due proportion, some of the chief marvels which recent Astronomy has revealed to us. To the former class belong the subjects of the first four and the last five essays of the present series, while the remaining essays belong to the latter category. Throughout I have endeavoured to avoid technical expressions on the one hand, and ambiguous phraseology (sometimes resulting from the attempt |