a consideration of the physical matters which are

reserved.

Cancer. Behind America, westward, comes next in succession that vast portion of the terraqueous globe, called the Pacific Ocean, and this, I apprehend to be represented by the set of stars composing the sign Cancer, or the Crab. The head of the animal is to be conceived as fronting the south, with its eyes situate at the openings between the different groupes of islands in that sea, the Society, the Friendly, and the Marquesas islands. Its legs are formed by the outlines of the different projections in the coasts of Tartary and China, (such as Kamschatka, Corea, the Isles of Japan, and the rest,) on the one side; and by those of the islands on the north-west coast of America, and the promontory of California, on the other; while, on this last side its left claw, or pincher, will be formed by South America, as cleft in two by the river Plate; and its right claw, more open, by the great island Van Diemen, (or New Holland,) which, on its southern side opens itself into two pointed promontories. As the line of the tropical circle crosses the upper part of the Pacific, or the body of the watery space thus pointed out as resembling a crab; so, in conformity thereto, is Cancer the sign in which the sun comes to the tropic in the heavens. This

sign, as drawn from a general view of the Pacific, is exhibited in

Fig. 153.

عالم

Leo. In proceeding still westward, the con

stellation called Leo, the next station of the sun in the heavens, seems clearly to have been designed to represent China and its dependencies; since that country is situate directly to the westward of the prototype of the last sign, and may be seen to resemble a lion, in half profile, fronting the Pacific. Its left eye may be conceived to be formed of the circular or oval sea of Corea, as lying between Japan and Tartary; the left cheek, in profile, by the Isles of Japan; the right eye by

the gulf of Pekin; the nose by the Province of Corea; the mouth, by the Yellow Sea; and the beard by the groupes of the Lequeo and Formosa Isles. The body of the lion will be made up of China proper; the two fore legs, by the Philippine Islands, and the haunches, upon which the animal may be supposed to be sitting, of the countries of Cochin China, and Malay. The figures of China lions, in the posture just now described, are familiar to every body; and it was probably from the circumstance of that country being the. prototype of the sign Leo, that those figures are such general ornaments there, and decorate the Fig. 154.

apartments of the emperor, and the inside and outside of many of the public buildings. The globular balls with which they are frequently furnished in their mouths, may allude to the sun, which, in the tropic of Cancer, comes up to the Isle of Formosa, near to, or at, the lion's mouth. Fig. 154 gives a view of the sign or constellation of the Lion, as drawn from such its prototype in the map.

Virgo. Westward of China lies the peninsula of India, with the Isle of Ceylon. In the zodiac, the frontispiece of this volume, the sign Virgo is represented with her back towards us, and looking backwards; and if the map of the countries last named be turned upside down, so as to be viewed backwards, (or in other words, with the south uppermost,) it will be found that they together exhibit a very plain likeness of a female kneeling down. The head and face are formed by the Isle of Ceylon, and front the east; the shoulders, stooping, are at Cape Comorin; the hands and arms seem to be folded upon her breast, under a robe, and to extend from Madras to Tanjore; the robe appears to fall forwards before her, about Bengal; while her foot, with the heel upwards, as of a person kneeling, is formed by the peninsula of Guzerate. This nun-like figure I take to haye been the original prototype of the sign

Virgo; its attitude well corresponding with that religious piety for which the Bramins, and indeed the Indians in general, have in all ages been remarkable. In the calendar at the beginning of an old missal, at the head of the month corresponding with the sign Virgo, I remember having seen a female figure in this attitude; but in the zodiac in front of this volume, there are but two circumstances that seem to lead to the conclusion, that the prototype of Virgo is to be found in India; first, that she has an ear of Indian corn in one of her hands, and secondly, that her other hand is in the attitude of pointing to, or indicating something; this last circumstance, (for reasons collateral only to the present inquiry,) I apprehend to allude to the general resemblance which India, viewed upside down, bears to the shape of a quadrant, or sextant, the instrument used for the indication of longitudes at sea. After the proofs offered in a former volume, to shew that the ancients were well acquainted with the telescope, the conclusion will be liable to somewhat less of doubt, that they had a knowledge of the quadrant, or sextant, also; but I do not enter upon that question now, further than to mention that such a conclusion would give an interpretation of the term ayyɛños, and so explain the reason why this sign is drawn in the zodiac in the fron