222 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



of Esne, reduced the distance of the period at 

 which the solstice occurred there, to 1400 years be- 

 fore Christ. A great many other opinions have 

 appeared on the same subject. M. Rhode, for ex- 

 ample, has proposed two. The first refers the 

 zodiac of the portico of Dendera to a period of 

 591 years before Christ ; the second, to 1290 *. 

 M. Latreille has fixed the period of this zodiac 

 at 670 years before Christ ; that of the plani- 

 sphere at. 550; that of the zodiac of the great 

 temple of Esne at 2550 ; and that of the small 

 one at 1760. 



But a difficulty inherent in all the dates, which 

 proceed on the double suppositon, that the di- 

 vision marks the solstice, and that the position 

 of the solstice marks the epoch of the monument, 

 is the unavoidable consequence that the zodiac of 

 Esne must have been at least 2000, and perhaps 

 3000, years f older than that of Dendera, a con- 

 sequence which evidently involves the supposition 

 in ruin ; for no one, in any degree acquainted 

 with the history of the arts, could believe, that 



* Rhode. Essay upon the Age of the Zodiac, and the 

 Origin of the Constellations, in German. Breslau, 1809, 

 p. 78- 



t According to the tables of M. Delambre's note above, 

 the solstice has remained 3474, or at least 3307 years, in 

 the constellation of virgo, the one which occupies the great- 

 est space in the zodiac, and 2617 in that of the Lion. 



