Whose powers o'erstep the space
That lies where eye may never hope
To pierce, or e'en to trace
The bounds of worlds which it reveals
In those illimitable fields?
These minute stars have the appearance of planets with oval disks, somewhat mottled, but approaching in vividness to actual planets. This constellation is on the meridian the 3d of March.
The Greeks assert that Cancer received its origin through the favor of Juno, who sent a sea-crab to annoy Hercules during his famous contest with the Lernean monster. The Chaldeans, however, represented the cluster by the figure of an ass, whose name, in the Chaldaic, is muddiness. It is supposed to allude to the discoloring of the Nile, which began to rise when the sun was entering Cancer.
VIA LACTEA.—
"A way there is in heaven's extended plain,