as they are seen at NIGHT. It is in fact the Sun's path
among the fixed stars. For (really owing to the Earth's
motion in its orbit) the Sun appears to move round
the heavens once a year--travelling, always to the left,
from constellation to constellation. The exact path of
the sun is called the Ecliptic; and the band of sky on either
side of the Ecliptic which may be supposed to include
the said constellations is called the Zodiac. How then--
it will of course be asked--seeing that the Sun and the Stars
can never be seen together--were the Priests ABLE to map
out the path of the former among the latter? Into that
question we need not go. Sufficient to say that they succeeded;
and their success--even with the very primitive instruments
they had--shows that their astronomical knowledge
and acuteness of reasoning were of no mean order.

To return to our Vernal Equinox. Let us suppose that
the Equator and Ecliptic of the sky, at the Spring season,
are represented by two lines Eq. and Ecl. crossing each
other at the point P. The Sun, represented by the small
circle, is moving slowly and in its annual course along the
Ecliptic to the left. When it reaches the point P (the
dotted circle) it stands on the Equator of the sky, and then
for a day or two, being neither North nor South, it
shines on the two terrestrial hemispheres alike, and day and
night are equal. BEFORE that time, when the sun is low
down in the heavens, night has the advantage, and the
days are short; AFTERWARDS, when the Sun has travelled more
to the left, the days triumph over the nights. It will be seen
then that this point P where the Sun's path crosses the Equator