Incidentally, it may be mentioned that much most interesting work may
be done even with an opera glass, as a few minutes' systematic
observation on any fine night will prove. Newcomb and Holden assure us
that "if Hipparchus had had even such an optical instrument, mankind
need not have waited two thousand years to know the nature of the
Milky Way, nor would it have required a Galilei to discover the phases
of Venus or the spots on the sun." To amplify the thought, if that
mighty geometer and observer and some of his contemporaries had
possessed but the "common telescope," is it not probable that in the
science of astronomy the world would have been to-day two thousand
years in advance of its present position?

* * * * *




ARCHÆOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES AT CADIZ.


Those who have had the good fortune to visit Andalusia, that
privileged land of the sun, of light, songs, dances, beautiful girls,
and bull fighters, preserve, among many other poetical and pleasing
recollections, that of election to antique and smiling Cadiz--the
"pearl of the ocean and the silver cup," as the Andalusians say in
their harmonious and imaginative language. There is, in fact, nothing
exaggerated in these epithets, for they translate a true impression.
Especially if we arrive by sea, there is nothing so thrilling as the
dazzling silhouette which, from afar, is reflected all white from the
mirror of a gulf almost always blue.