126 THE GREEK ASTRONOMY. 



thus the balance (which is conceived to designate the equality of days 

 and nights) was placed among the stars which rose in the evening 

 when the spring began : this would fix the origin of these signs 2500 

 years before our era. 



It is clear, as has already been said, that Fancy, and probably 

 Superstition, had a share in forming the collection of constellations. 

 It is certain that, at an early period, superstitious notions w r ere asso- 

 ciated with the stars. 32 Astrology is of very high antiquity in the 

 East. The stars were supposed to influence the character and destiny of 

 man, and to be in some way connected with superior natures and powers. 



We may, I conceive, look upon the formation of the constellations, 

 rad the notions thus connected with them, as a very early attempt to 

 find a meaning in the relations of the stars ; and as an utter failure. 

 The first effort to associate the appearances and motions of the skies 

 by conceptions implying unity and connection, was made in a wrong- 

 direction, as may very easily be supposed. Instead of considering the 

 appearances only with reference to space, time, number, in a manner 

 purely rational, a number of other elements, imagination, tradition, 

 hope, fear, awe of the supernatural, belief in destiny, were called into 

 action. Man, still young, as a philosopher at least, had yet to learn 

 what notions his successful guesses on these subjects must involve, and 

 what they must exclude. At that period, nothing could be more nat- 

 ural or excusable than this ignorance ; but it is curious to see how 

 long and how obstinately the belief lingered (if indeed it be yet 

 extinct) that the motions of the stars, and the dispositions and fortunes 

 of men, may come under some common conceptions and laws, by 

 which a connection between the one and the other may be established. 



We cannot, therefore, agree with those who consider Astrology in the 

 early ages as " only a degraded Astronomy, the abuse of a more 

 ancient science." 33 It was the first step to astronomy by leading to 

 habits and means of grouping phenomena ; and, after a while, by 

 showing that pictorial and mythological relations among the stars had 

 no very obvious value. From that time, the inductive process went on 

 steadily in the true road, under the guidance of ideas of space, time, 

 and number. 



Sect. I.—The Planets. 



While men were becoming familiar with the fixed stars, the planets 

 must have attracted their notice. Venus, from her brightness, and 



32 Dupuis, vi. 546. *» Tb. vi. 546. 



