AGRICULTURE AND MANHOOD. 17 



This star seemed to the ancients like a faithful watchdog, 

 warning them of approaching danger, therefore they called it 

 the Dogstar. And from this the Egj-ptians developed, as 

 far as it extended, a perfect system of astronomy. 



Prof. O. M. Mitchell stated in a lecture, a few years since, 

 that he had met, not long before, in the city of St. Louis, a 

 man of great scientific attainments, who, for forty j^ears, had 

 been engaged in Egypt in deciphering the hieroglyphics of the 

 ancients. This gentleman stated to him that he had lately 

 unravelled the inscriptions on the coffin of a mummy now in 

 the London Museum. The zodiac, with the exact position of 

 the planets, was delineated on this coflin, and the date to 

 which they pointed was the autumnal equinox in the year 

 1722, B. C, or nearly 3,600 years ago. 



Prof. Mitchell employed his assistants to ascertain the exact 

 positions of the heavenly bodies belonging to our system on 

 the equinox of that year, and sent him a correct diagram of 

 them, without having communicated his object for so doing. 

 In compliance with this the calculations were made, and to his 

 astonishment, on comparing the result with the statements of 

 his scientific friend, already referred to, it was found on the 

 7th of October, 1722, B. C, the moon and planets had 

 occupied the exact points in the heavens marked upon the 

 coffin in the London Museum. 



The Egyptians dated their year from the rising of the dog- 

 star, which they represented by the picture of a door-keeper 

 with his key, — the one who opened one year and closed an- 

 other. Sometimes they gave the picture two heads, — the one 

 old, representing the expiring year, and the other young, to 

 denote the new year. Thus were introduced the arts of paint- 

 ing and sculpture. Now we have already shown that the 

 science of astronomy, and the arts just mentioned, grew out 

 of demands created by the pursuit of agriculture. Because 

 the farmer in Egj'pt needed to know the exact courses of the 

 heavenly bodies, men were set apart and supported at public 

 expense to study astronomy and keep people informed of 

 their movements. At the same point commenced the office 

 of the priest, for those thus set apart were ultimately looked 

 upon as the priests of the power of Heaven. 



But I shall not dwell upon the ancient bearings of this sub- 



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