. ITS EARLIEST STAGES. 153 



stars have been replaced by those of the objects of 

 the worship of our Teutonic ancestors; according 

 to their views of the correspondence of the two 

 mythologies ; and the Quakers, in rejecting these 

 names of days, have cast aside the most ancient 

 existing relic of astrological as well as idolatrous 

 superstition. 



Sect. 8. The Circles of the Sphere. 



THE inventions hitherto noticed, though undoubt- 

 edly they were steps in astronomical knowledge, 

 can hardly be considered as purely abstract and 

 scientific speculations; for the exact reckoning of 

 time is one of the wants, even of the least civilized 

 nations. But the distribution of the places and 

 motions of the heavenly bodies by means of a 

 celestial sphere with imaginary lines drawn upon 

 it, is a step in speculative astronomy, and was occa- 

 sioned and rendered important by the scientific 

 propensities of man. 



It is not easy to say with whom this notion 

 originated. Some parts of it are obvious. The 

 appearance of the sky naturally suggests the idea 

 of a concave Sphere, with the stars fixed on its 

 surface. Their motions during any one night, it 

 would be readily seen, might be represented by 

 supposing this Sphere to turn round a Pole or 

 Axis ; for there is a conspicuous star in the heavens 

 which apparently stands still (the Pole-star); all the 

 others travel round this in circles, and keep the 



