CHAP. XI. EARLY STUDY OF ASTRONOMY. 11 



on the appearance of a scanty supply of water, 

 being far more sensibly felt than in countries which 

 depend on rain for their harvest, where future 

 prospects not being so soon foreseen, hope con- 

 tinues longer ; the Egyptian, on tlie other hand, 

 being able to form a just estimate of his crops even 

 before the seed is sown, or the land prepared for 

 its reception.* 



Other remarkable effects may likewise be par- 

 tially attributed to the interest excited by the 

 expectation of the rising Nile ; and it is pro- 

 bable that the accurate observations required for 

 fixing the seasons, and the period of the an- 

 nual return of the inundation, wliich was found to 

 coincide with the heliacal rising of Sothis, or the 

 Dog-star, contributed greatly to the early study of 

 astronomy in the valley of the Nile. The precise 

 time when these and other calculations were first 

 made by the Egyptians, it is impossible now to de- 

 termine ; but from the height of the inundation 

 being already recorded in the reign of Moerist, we 

 may infer that constant observations had been made, 

 and Nilometers constructed, even before that early 

 period; andastronomyt, geometry, and other sciences 

 are said to have been known in Egypt in the time of 

 the hierarcliy which preceded the accession of their 

 first king, Menes. 



* Seneca says, " Nemo aratronim "' (in iEgypto) " adspicit caelum;" 

 and quotes this from Ovid, " nee pluvio supplicat herba Jovi." He 

 adds, " Quantum crevit Nilus, tantum spei in annum est, nee compu- 

 tatio fallit agricolam ; adeo ad mensuram fiumini.s res[)ondet, quam fer- 



tilem f'acit Nilus; majorque est laititia gcntibus, quo minus 



terrarum sucirum indent." Quaest. Nat. iv. 2. 



f Herodot ii. 13. 



j Diodor. i. 16., and Clem. Ale.x, Strom. G. 



