Emerson once said: "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!"<br><br>But the stars are so common; we may look at them on every clear night, so the most of us pay them small heed. In all ages, however, there have been observing and thoughtful ones who have sought to read in the stars the answers to various questions about the Universe, until at the present time the world is dotted with observatories equipped with a great variety of instruments for studying the celestial bodies, and astronomy has come to be regarded as the golden chain between the Earth and the heavens. Indeed, so closely does it bind the two, that the one is mapped by means of the other. By the wise guidance of the stars, fleets and caravans are sent over wastes of sea and sand which would otherwise be trackless and impassable.