Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/541



group of stars known to astronomy has excited such universal attention as the little cluster of faint stars we know as "the Pleiades." In all ages of the world's history they have been admired and critically observed. Great temples have been reared in their honour. Mighty nations have worshipped them, and people far removed from each other have been guided in their agricultural and commercial affairs by the rising and setting of these six close-set stars.

Mrs. Martin thus charmingly alludes to them:

"The magic of their quivering misty light has always made a strong appeal to men of imagination. Minstrels and poets of the early days sang of their bewitchment and beauty, and many of the great poets from Homer and the author of Job down to Tennyson and the men of our own day have had their fancy livened by them and in one form or another have celebrated their sweetness and mystery and charm."

Many have been the metaphors inspired by this famous cluster. They have been compared to a rosette of diamonds, to a swarm of fireflies or bees, and the shining drops of dew. More prosaic minds have regarded these stars as a hen surrounded by her chickens, and some have thought that they represented the seven virgins.

"Even with people who do not know them by sight and have not felt the sweet influences of the Pleiades, there is a vague memory of some story about a lost Pleiad that stirs