tispiece as an angel with wings; that is to say, from the triangular shape of India, or more particularly, from its southern angle, ayyɛños. It may be further worth while to remark, that our technical name of spinster, to designate a virgin or unmarried person, seems to be drawn from the name of this sign as representing India, a country which in all ages has been singularly remarkable for the exercise of its industry in the spinning and manufacture of linen, or rather cotton, cloths. Virgo is copied from her prototype in the map, in

Fig. 155.

Libra. This next sign, I apprehend, to have its prototype in a vast tract of sea and land, situate to the west of that of the sign Virgo. This tract comprizes the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea, with the land and rivers interven

ing; the whole of which together, has a strong resemblance to a pair of scales, of which the handle is formed by the gulf of Bothnia; the beam, by the Baltic, as extending from Denmark to Petersburg; the scales, by the Black Sea, and the Caspian; and the lines that connect the scales with the beam, by the rivers that fall severally into the two last mentioned seas; the whole agreeing with

Fig. 156.

as drawn from such its prototype. And if the reader is put in mind that Tornea, in the gulf of Bothnia, (which, so situate, comes exactly at the top of the handle of the beam,) is close to the solstitial circle, and that it is from that circle as its limit that the sun returns back again towards the southern solstice, he will admit, probably, the aptness of a pair of scales to express, as a symbol, the libration of the earth attendant

apon such motion of the sun, which takes place in that sign.

Scorpio. By a still further progress to the westward, we shall come to the prototype of the sign Scorpio, as comprizing Italy, France, and the Bay of Biscay, with a portion of Spain; the interval between the two arms of the Scorpion corresponds with the semicircular outline of the Bay of Biscay, the borders of which bay constitute those arms; that on the left terminating in the double harbour of Toulon and Corunna, in Spain, and so answering to the left claw of the Scorpion; and the right, in the double harbour of Brest, and the contiguous little bay of Douarnenez in France, answering to its right claw; the body of the Scorpion is formed by France itself, and the tail by Italy, turning up in a curve, at its extremity in Calabria, the whole as commonly drawn in the sign, and represented in

ི་་

Fig. 157.

which is taken from a general view of the prototype. The legs of the Scorpion are formed by the Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney, on the right, and by the Balearic Isles, and those of Corsica and Sardinia on the left.

Sagittarius. The sun having now completed his apparent circuit of the globe from east to west (at least, according to the prototypes above assigned to Aries and Scorpio), we can now no longer have such his progress for our guide in investigating the origin of the remaining signs. It would seem, however, after what has been stated, to be natural that we should look for their prototypes in those portions of the globe which have not been appropriated to the other signs. It will be admitted, I think, accordingly, that the Sagittary derives his origin from the great inland sea called the Mediterranean. The Sagittary is a centaur or fictitious animal made up of half a man and half a bull; and if the east end of the Mediterranean be placed uppermost, the resemblance to such an animal will be distinctly visible: the head at the upper end of it, with the outline of the face formed by the coast of Asia Minor as extending from Latichea to Rhodes, and the eye formed by the isle of Cyprus; the back and shoulders are at the gulph of Tripoli in Africa; and it may be seen that the outline of the remaining part of Northern Africa

on the one side, and of the coasts of France and Spain on the other, have an exact resemblance to the foreleg of a bull, of which the fetlock will be at Gibraltar and the hoof (cleft by the straits) in the circular gulf between the coasts of Africa and Spain on the outside of the Straits. The whole together, as drawn in

Fig. 158,