John Herschel Quote

The constellations seem to have been almost purposely named and delineated to cause as much confusion and inconvenience as possible. Innumerable snakes twine through long and contorted areas of the heavens, where no memory can follow them; bears, lions and fishes, large and small, northern and southern, confuse all nomenclature.

Outlines of Astronomy: By Sir John F. W. Herschel, Part I, Chapter V (p. 253, fn 2), American Home Library Co. 1901