144 THE GREEK ASTRONOMY. 



dar, the traces of one of the early attempts of 

 mankind to seize the law of the succession of 

 celestial phenomena, in a case where the attempt 

 was a complete failure. 



Considered as a part of the progress of our 

 astronomical knowledge, improvements in the calen- 

 dar do not offer many points to our observation, 

 but they exhibit a few very important steps. Ca- 

 lendars which, belonging apparently to unscientific 

 ages and nations, possess a great degree of accord- 

 ance with the true motions of the sun and moon, 

 like the solar calendar of the Mexicans, and the 

 lunar calendar of the Greeks, contain the only 

 record now extant of discoveries which must have 

 required a great deal of observation, of thought, 

 and probably of time. The later improvements in 

 calendars, which take place when astronomical ob- 

 servation has been attentively pursued, are of little 

 consequence to the history of science; for they 

 are generally founded on astronomical determina- 

 tions, and are posterior in time, and inferior in 

 accuracy, to the knowledge on which they depend. 

 But cycles of correction, which are both short and 

 close to exactness, like that of Meton, may perhaps 

 be the original form of the knowledge which they 

 imply; and certainly require both accurate facts 

 and sagacious arithmetical reasonings. The dis- 

 covery of such a cycle must always have the ap- 

 pearance of a happy guess, like other discoveries 

 of laws of nature. Beyond this point, the interest 



