194 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



years, which brings back the eclipses of the moon 

 in the same order ; a piece of knowledge which the 

 mere inspection of their registers would promptly 

 afford them ; but it is certain that they could 

 neither explain nor predict eclipses of the sun. 



It is from not having sufficiently understood a 

 passage of Josephus, that Cassini, and after him 

 Bailly, have imagined that they discovered in it 

 a luni-solar period of 600 years, which had been 

 known from the time of the first patriarchs *. 



Thus every thing leads us to believe that the 

 great reputation of the Chaldeans was given them 

 at a more recent period, by their unworthy suc- 

 cessors, who, under the same name, sold their ho- 

 roscopes and predictions throughout the whole 

 Roman empire, and who, in order to procure 

 themselves more credit, attributed to their rude 

 ancestors the honour of the discoveries of the 

 Greeks. 



With regard to the Indians, every body knows 

 that Bailly, believing that the epoch which is 

 used as a period of departure in some of their as- 

 tronomical tables had been actually observed, has 

 attempted to draw from thence a proof of the 

 great antiquity of the science among this people, 



* See Bailly, History of Ancient Astronomy ; and M. 

 Delambre, in his work on the same subject, vol. i. p. 3. 



