HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



learnt, for instance, at what times the sun rose and set, for 

 upon this their day's work depended. They learnt how 

 often the moon was full, so that they could see their way 

 by moonlight; and they remaiked very early the times 

 when spring, summer, autumn, and winter came round, 

 because the sowing of their seeds and the gathering of their 

 fruits depended upon these seasons. 



In this way we find that as far back as history goes men 

 have always had some knowledge of the facts of nature ; 

 and those nations, like the Egyptians and Chinese, which 

 long ago had become highly civilised, had learnt a very 

 great deal, and must probably have known some things of 

 which we are still ignorant. 



There has been a great deal written about the science 

 of the Chinese, Indians, and Egyptians, but I shall not tell 

 you anything about them here, because their knowledge has 

 had very little to do with the science which has come down 

 to us, and it would besides be difficult to give you any real 

 idea of what they knew without writing a book on the 

 subject. 



We will start, therefore, with the Greeks, at the- time 

 when they first began to try and explain some of the 

 natural events which they saw taking place every day. 

 This was about the year 700 B.C., when Thales, one of the 

 seven wise men, was living, and you will see in the next 

 chapter that even at this time, when Greece was famous for 

 its learning, the people had still some very strange ideas 

 about the working of the universe. 



