EARLY KNOWLEDGE METHOD OF RESEARCH. 5 



not, as many people imagine, powerful agents of scientific 

 growth ; their function and importance in that respect are 

 completely dwarfed by the smallest discovery ; their influence 

 is quite insignificant in comparison with the establishment of 

 the simplest scientific principle. Of this fact we shall have 

 ample evidence in the course of this record. 



Science came into existence in the East. GEOMETRY, 

 so far as we know, seems to have originated in EGYPT to 

 measure each tiller's land after the yearly inundation of the 

 Nile ; ASTRONOMY originated possibly in CHALD^EA, but 

 more probably in Egypt to regulate the dates of religious 

 festivals. This last science appears to have been closely, nay 

 indissolubly, bound with Chaldaean and Egyptian mythology, 

 and seems to have been pushed very far in Egypt, since 

 numerous sculptures and inscriptions in reference to it are to 

 be found in every part of the Pharaohs' empire, some sym- 

 bolical only, others as plainly expressed as we could ex- 

 pect. But to speak of few things only, the Egyptians had 

 determined the ECLIPTIC that is the sun's apparent course 

 through the heavens ; they had divided this course into 

 twelve parts (corresponding to the months of the year), each 

 being a constellation, and called the whole circle of constella- 

 tions ZODIAC (i.e. circle of animals) because each bore the 

 name of an animal. These signs of the Zodiac are still 

 recognised and accepted among us, although, owing to the 

 precession of the Equinoxes, they do not agree at present 

 with the constellations which bear the same name. The 

 Egyptians had apparently a complete knowledge of the 

 SOLSTICES and the EQUINOXES, and the exact time of their 

 occurrence ; and more, they were acquainted, by centuries of 

 continuous daily and nightly OBSERVATIONS, for the purpose 

 of which most of the TEMPLES WERE BUILT, with the facts 

 brought about by the precession of the Equinoxes, and the 

 changes brought in the position of the stars by this phe- 

 nomenon, although they had not discovered the precession 

 itself. They only knew of its effects. But there is evidence 

 that all this was only a portion though undoubtedly the 

 chief portion of what they knew, as we may have occasion 

 to show. 



