124: THE GREEK ASTRONOMY. 



the solar calendar of the Mexicans, and the lunar calendar of the 

 Greeks), contain the only record now extant of discoveries which must 

 have required a great deal of observation, of thought, and probably of 

 time. The later improvements in calendars, which take place when 

 astronomical observation has been attentively pursued, are of little 

 consequence to the history of science ; for they are generally founded 

 on astronomical determinations, and are posterior in time, and inferior 

 in accuracy, to the knowledge on \vhicli they depend. But cycles of 

 correction, which are both short and close to exactness, like that of 

 Meton, may perhaps be the original form of the knowledge which they 

 imply ; and certainly require both accurate facts and sagacious arith- 

 metical reasonings. The discovery of such a cycle must always have 

 the appearance of a happy guess, like other discoveries of laws of 

 nature. Beyond this point, the interest of the study of calendars, as 

 bearing on our subject, ceases : they may be considered as belonging 

 rather to Art than to Science ; rather as an application of a part of our 

 knowledge to the uses of life, than a means or an evidence of its 

 extension. 



Sect, G. The Constellations. 



SOME tendency to consider the stars as formed into groups, is inevit- 

 able when men begin to attend to them ; but how men were led to 

 the fanciful system of names of Stars and of Constellations, which we 

 find to have prevailed in early times, it is very difficult to determine. 

 Single stars, and very close groups, as the Pleiades, were named in the 

 time of Homer and Hesiocl, and at a still earlier period, as we find in 

 the book of Job. 25 



Two remarkable circumstances with respect to the Constellations are, 

 first, that they appear in most cases to be arbitrary combinations ; the 

 artificial figures which are made to include the stars, not having any 

 resemblance to their obvious configurations; and second, that these 

 figures, in different countries, are so far similar, as to imply some com- 

 munication. The arbitrary nature of these figures shows that they 



89 Job xxxviii. 31. " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Chima (the .Plei- 

 ades), or loose the bands of Kesil (Orion)? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth 

 (Sirius) in his season ? or canst thou guide Ash (or Aisch) ( Arcturus) with his sons ?" 



And ix. 9. " Which maketli Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers 

 of the south." 



Dupuis, vi. 545, think? that ^ isch was !', the goat and kids. See Hyde, Uluqk- 

 SeigA. 



