SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 



nian prophets made free use of their opportunities in 

 this direction also. But before we turn from the field 

 of astronomy, it will be well to inform ourselves as to 

 what system the Chaldean astronomer had invented in 

 explanation of the mechanics of the universe. Our 

 answer to this inquiry is not quite as definite as could 

 be desired, the vagueness of the records, no doubt, co- 

 inciding with the like vagueness in the minds of the 

 Chaldeans themselves. So far as we can interpret the 

 somewhat mystical references that have come down 

 to us, however, the Babylonian cosmology would seem 

 to have represented the earth as a circular plane sur- 

 rounded by a great circular river, beyond which rose 

 an impregnable barrier of mountains, and resting upon 

 an infinite sea of waters. The material vault of the 

 heavens was supposed to find support upon the outly- 

 ing circle of mountains, But the precise mechanism 

 through which the observed revolution of the heavenly 

 bodies was effected remains here, as with the Egyptian 

 cosmology, somewhat conjectural. The simple fact 

 would appear to be that, for the Chaldeans as for the 

 Egyptians, despite their most careful observations of 

 the tangible phenomena of the heavens, no really sat- 

 isfactory mechanical conception of the cosmos was 

 attainable. We shall see in due course by what falter- 

 ing steps the European imagination advanced from 

 the crude ideas of Egypt and Babylonia to the relative- 

 ly clear vision of Newton and Laplace. 



CHALDEAN MAGIC 



We turn now from the field of the astrologer to the 

 closely allied province of Chaldean magic a province 



69 



