Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/249

 236 W. L. DAVIDSON : grouping proceed upon a rational principle ; by which is meant a principle the opposite of frivolous, the test being that it yields us luminous results. It is possible, no doubt, to bring together things or to arrange objects in a vast variety of ways ; but when the arrangement is based upon mere fancy or simply follows our caprice, when it is absurd, ridiculous or grotesque, it is not, in any proper sense of the word, a scientific operation, and cannot claim consideration at our hands. Before it is anything beyond a mere exercise of perverted ingenuity, it must disclose a guiding and illuminating plan one that throws real light into the particular collocation. We may take as an illustration the astronomer's arrange- ment of the stars into constellations. Nothing may, at first sight, appear more arbitrary or more superficial. It requires a considerable stretch of the imagination to discern Orion or Auriga or Bootes in the groups that bear these names, while even Perseus and the Greater Bear are by no means self- evident impersonations. Yet these various clusters, although the naming of them and the conceptions attached to them may be entirely fanciful, serve a very high purpose in throw- ing method into the seemingly chaotic, and in disclosing numerous valuable correlated facts. Take, for instance, the bright star in Orion called ' a Orionis '. The very fact that this heavenly body is designated a ' star ' gives us, of course, a certain amount of information : it is thereby shown to be differentiated from planets, comets, &c., and justifies us in predicating of it two things scintillation and apparent immovability with respect to other stars. The further fact that it occurs in Orion adds still more to the signification ; for Orion is the most striking constellation in the heavens, and occupies a certain definite relation to the Hyades, the Pleiades and other surrounding bodies. When further we know that it shines on Orion's right shoulder, we have inti- mation of its exact sidereal position ; while, being a star of the first magnitude in that position, it is known to form with Procyon and Sirius an equilateral triangle of remarkable brilliancy and beauty. More would be connoted by it still, if we allowed ourselves to leave the purely astronomical ground and to take account of human superstitions and traditions. The very name Orion would carry us back to the days of ancient Greece, and might suggest to us much as to Greek mythology and the connexion of the early Greeks with astronomical studies ; or we might take the Semitic name Chesil (fool), and then we should be reminded of the fate and story of Nimrod "the mighty hunter". But,