198 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



my into China is attributed. He is represented, 

 in the Chou-king, as sending astronomers toward 

 the four cardinal points of his empire, to examine 

 what stars presided over the four seasons, and to 

 regulate the operations to be carried on at each 

 period of the year *, as if their dispersion was ne- 

 cessary for such an undertaking. About 200 

 years later, the Chou-king speaks of an eclipse of 

 the sun, but accompanied with ridiculous circum- 

 stances, as in all the fables of this kind ; for the 

 whole Chinese army, headed by a general, is made 

 to march against two astronomers, because they 

 had not properly predicted itf; and it is well 

 known that, more than 2000 years after, the Chi- 

 nese astronomers possessed no means of accurately 

 predicting the eclipses of the sun. In 1629 of 

 our era, at the time of their dispute with the Je- 

 suits, they did not even know how to calculate the 

 shadows. 



The real eclipses, recorded by Confucius in his 

 Chronicle of the kingdom of Lou, commence only 

 1400 years after this, in the 776th before Christ, 

 and scarcely half a century earlier than those of 

 the Chaldeans related by Ptolemy. So true is it, 

 that the nations which escaped at the same time 



* Chou-king, p. 6 and 7- 

 t Idem, p. 66. et seq. 



