ITS EARLIEST STAGES. 127 



from her accompanying the sun at no great distance, and thus appear- 

 ing as the morning and evening star, was very conspicuous. Pythag- 

 oras is said to have maintained that the evening and morning star 

 are the same body, which certainly must have been one of the earli- 

 est discoveries on this subject ; and indeed we can hardly conceive men 

 noticing the stars for a year or two without coming to this conclusion. 



Jupiter and Mars, sometimes still brighter than Venus, were also 

 very noticeable. Saturn and Mercury were less so, but in fine climates 

 they and their motion would soon be detected by persons observant of 

 the heavens. To reduce to any rule the movements of these lumina- 

 ries must have taken time and thought; probably before this was 

 done, certainly very earty, these heavenly bodies were brought more 

 peculiarly under those views which we have noticed as leading to 

 astrology. 



At a time beyond the reach of certain history, the planets, along 

 with the sun and moon, had been arranged in a certain recognized 

 order by the Egyptians or some other ancient nation. Probably this 

 arrangement had been made according to the slowness of their mo- 

 tions among the stars ; for though the motion of each is very variable, 

 the gradation of their velocities is, on the whole, very manifest ; and 

 the different rate of travelling of the different planets, and probably 

 other circumstances of difference, led, in the ready fancy of early times, 

 to the attribution of a peculiar character to each luminary. Thus 

 Saturn was held to be of a cold and gelid nature ; Jupiter, who, from his 

 more rapid motion, was supposed to be lower in place, was temperate ; 

 Mars, fiery, and the like. 34 



It is not necessary to dwell on the details of these speculations, but we 

 may notice a very remarkable evidence of their antiquity and generality 

 in the structure of one of the most familiar of our measures of time, 

 the Week. This distribution of time according to periods of seven 

 days, comes down to us, as we learn from the Jewish scriptures, from 

 the beginning of man's existence on the earth. The same usage is 

 found over all the East ; it existed among the Arabians, Assyrians, 



84 Achilles Tatius (Uranol. pp. 135, 136), gives the Grecian and Egyptian names 

 of the planets. 



Egyptian. Greek. 



Saturn Ncjuecrfwr Kf/Jvou aori/p <f>a(vuv 



Jupiter 'Offi'ptdos A?o? faiduv 



Mars 'HpaxXeovs 'Apios Trvf)6eis 



Venus 'A0poc T m;j cwa<f>opos 



Mercury 'A^iJAXun'oj 'Ef>//oD 



