[At the head of the first half-dozen contributions under the
tide Pleiades we printed a passage from Pindar which explained the allusion. In response to a number of queries from readers who did not see those articles or are unfamiliar with Greek, we append here Orion's own introductory explanation.—En. Spectator.]
" It is likely that Orion should not move far away from the mountain Pleiades "—for Orion was a hunter, and he chased the flying Pleiades for five years over the woods and mountains of Boeotia (absit omen : Boeotia was a dull country, and even the mention of it may cast a blight on the pen), until he and they were translated to the skies, and even then he shone impending over the constellation in which they were placed. But who are the Pleiades here, and who is Orion 7 Perhaps they are the winking points of fire in the intellectual heaven, the topics that glitter, the thoughts that excite ; and perhaps he is—well, not a star, certainly not a star, but a sort of astronomer who chases stars."
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