THEORY OF THE EAIITH. 191 



have deigned to avail himself of any of the obser- 

 vations of the Egyptians ? * 



Farther, Herodotus, who lived so long with 

 them, says nothing of those six hours which they 

 added to the sacred year, nor of that great So- 

 thian period which resulted. On the contrary, 

 he says expressly that the Egyptians, making 

 their year of 365 days, the seasons returned to 

 the same point, so that in his time the necessity 

 of this quarter of a day does not appear to have 

 been suspected, f Thalles, who had visited the 

 priests of Egypt, less than a century before He- 

 rodotus, did not, in like manner, make known to 

 his countrymen, any other than a year of 365 

 days only .J And, if we reflect that all the co- 

 lonies which migrated from Egypt, fourteen or 

 fifteen centuries before, Christ, the Jews and the 

 Athenians, carried with them the lunar year, it 

 will perhaps be inferred that the year of 365 

 days itself had not existed in Egypt in these re- 

 mote ages. 



I am aware that Macrobius gives the Egyp- 

 tians a solar year of 365^ days ; but this author, 



* See the Preliminary Discourse of the History of the 

 Astronomy of the Middle Age, by M, Delambre, p. viii. 

 et seq. 



t Euterpe, chap. iv. % Diog. Laert, lib. i. in Thalet. 



Saturnal. lib. i. cap. xv. 



