742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



How intimate was the connection between their science and their 

 religion is proved by the fact that " in every temple there was 

 . . . an astronomer who had to observe the heavens; "and how 

 their science was an outgrowth of their religion is shown by the 

 remark of Duncker, that their writings, at first containing tradi- 

 tional invocations of the gods and ceremonial rules, " grew into 

 a liturgical canon and ecclesiastical codex of religious and moral 

 law, and a comprehensive collection of all the wisdom known to 

 the priests." But, as is remarked by Bunsen, "the Egyptians 

 never arrived at a systematic dialectically-conducted philosophy " 

 a fact of much significance ; for I may remark in passing that 

 among oriental peoples at large, and other peoples long habitu- 

 ated to despotic control, thinking and teaching are entirely dog- 

 matic : absolute authority characterizes at once external govern- 

 ment and internal government. It is only on passing to partially- 

 free societies that we meet with appeals to individual judgments 

 a giving of reasons for beliefs. 



Apparently because Greece was a congeries of independent 

 states often at variance with one another, and because these states 

 had their respective religious worships akin but not identical, 

 there never arose in Greece a priestly hierarchy; and apparently 

 the lack of one impeded some of the professional developments. 

 Partly, perhaps, for this reason, but chiefly for the reason that 

 scientific progress in Egypt and Assyria preceded Greek civiliza- 

 tion, science in as lightly developed state was imported. Sir G. C. 

 Lewis repeats the testimonies of sundry ancient authors to the 

 effect that the Egyptian priests 



"regarded their astronomical science as an esoteric and mysterious doc- 

 trine, and that they disclosed it to curious strangers with reluctance (Strab. 

 xvii, 1. 29). . . . Similar statements are made with respect to Assyrian 

 astronomy (Plat. Epinom. 7, p. 987). This derivation does not rest 

 merely on general declarations, but it is fortified by detailed accounts 

 of visits of Greek philosophers to Egypt, to Assyria, and to other orient- 

 al countries, made for the purpose of profiting by the lessons of the 

 native priests and sages.' 1 Thus Thales, Pherecydes of Syros, Pythag- 

 oras, Democritus, CEnopides of Chios, Eudoxus, Solon, Anaxagoras, Plato 

 are said to have visited Egypt, and to have received instruction from 

 the priests. 



And from his work may be added this further passage : " Aris- 

 totle . . . says that mathematical science originated in Egypt, on 

 account of the leisure which the priests enjoyed for contempla- 

 tion." Respecting which statement may be interposed the remark 

 that whether the name "geometry" was a translation of the 

 Egyptian equivalent word or was independently originated, we 

 equally see, in the first place, that this concrete half of mathe- 

 matics germinated from the practical needs for measuring out 

 the Earth's surface, and we see, in the second place, that since 



