The internal evidence, from the man's account, is that he was an honest enthusiast.

I have no doubt that he followed the path of a solar spot, and as the sun turned on its axis he mistook the motion for that of the dark spot; or perhaps the spot changed and became extinct, and another spot closely resembling it broke out and he was deceived; his wishes all the time being 'father to the thought.' "The eye is as teachable as the hand.

Every one knows the most prominent constellations,--the Pleiades, the Great Bear, and Orion.

Many persons can draw the figures made by the most brilliant stars in these constellations, and very many young people look for the 'lost Pleiad.' But common observers know these stars only as bright objects; they do not perceive that one star differs from another in glory; much less do they perceive that they shine with differently colored rays.
"Those who know Sirius and Betel do not at once perceive that one shines with a brilliant white light and the other burns with a glowing red, as different in their brilliancy as the precious stones on a lapidary's table, perhaps for the same reason.

And so there is an endless variety of tints of paler colors.
"We may turn our gaze as we turn a kaleidoscope, and the changes are infinitely more startling, the combinations infinitely more beautiful; no flower garden presents such a variety and such delicacy of shades.
"But beautiful as this variety is, it is difficult to measure it; it has a phantom-like intangibility--we seem not to be able to bring it under the laws of science.
"We call the stars garnet and sapphire; but these are, at best, vague terms.