4 Astronomy and Geology compared. PT. i. 



glories of Nineveh and Babylon ; we must picture to 

 ourselves the astronomers of that period watching 

 the celestial firmament in the clear, dark blue skies, 

 and through the transparent atmosphere, of Southern 

 Asia. Nor let us too hastily depreciate, or too scorn- 

 fully despise, the labours of these early pioneers on 

 the road of Astronomical science. True, they sup- 

 posed the earth the great centre of the universe, 

 and conceived that sun, moon, and stars made a 

 diurnal revolution round the earth, for the sole pur- 

 pose of warming and enlightening us. True, their 

 conceptions of the mechanism of the heavens, or of 

 the relative magnitude of the great bodies which 

 people the void, were utterly erroneous. Still we 

 must remember that science advances step by step ; 

 they were very accurate observers of all they saw ; 

 they noted with great truth and precision all the 

 apparent phenomena of the heavens ; they mapped 

 out very distinctly all the constellations which spangle 

 the vault of heaven ; they noticed very correctly all 

 the signs of the zodiac ; and to this day, although 

 we know how to interpret all the motions for which 

 they wanted the key, yet still we are contented to 

 adopt their fanciful map of the constellations, and 

 to use their nomenclature. Sir Greorge Cornewall 



