250 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



veritables observatoires : telle etait la celebre tour do Babylone, 

 monument consacre aux sept planetes.&quot; 



Of testimonies concerning science in Egypt, we may fitly 

 begin with one from Maspero, which contrasts Egyptian 

 views with the views of the Assyrians. 



&quot;In Egypt the majority of the books relating to science are sacred 

 works composed and revealed by the gods themselves. The Assyrians 

 do not attribute such a lofty origin to the works which teach them the 

 courses and explain the influences of the stars : they believe them to 

 have been written by learned men, who lived at different epochs, and 

 who acquired their knowledge from direct observation of the heavens.&quot; 



Basing his account on the statements of various ancient 

 writers, Sir G. C. Lewis says of the Egyptian priesthood 

 that 



&quot;they were relieved from toil, and had leisure for scientific study and 

 meditation ; and that from a remote period they habitually observed 

 the stars, recording their observations, and cultivated scientific astro 

 nomy and geometry. The Egyptian priests are moreover related to 

 have kept registers, in which they entered notices of remarkable 

 natural phenomena. (Strab. xvii, 1. 5.)&quot; 

 Similar is the description of the actions and achievements 

 of the Egyptian priests given by Diodoms: 



They &quot;are diligent observers of the course and motions of the stars; 

 and preserve remarks of every one of them for an incredible number 

 of years, being used to this study, and to endeavour to outvie one 

 another therein, from the most ancient times. They have with great 

 cost and care, observed the motions of the planets ; their periodical 

 motions, and their stated stops.&quot; 



How intimate was the connexion between their science and 

 their religion is proved by the fact that &quot; in every temple 

 there was ... an astronomer, who had to observe the 

 heavens; &quot; and how their science was an outgrowth of their 

 religion is shown by the remark of Duncker, that their 

 writings, at first containing traditional invocations of the 

 gods and ceremonial rules, &quot; grew into a liturgical canon and 

 ecclesiastical codex of religious and moral law, and a com 

 prehensive collection of all the wisdom known to the 

 priests. &quot; But, as is remarked by Bunsen, &quot; the Egyptians 



