SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 



attain to a perfect and distinct Knowledge in every 

 particular. 



"But the Grecians, cunningly catching at all Op- 

 portunities of Gain, make new Sects and Parties, and 

 by their contrary Opinions wrangling and quarelling 

 concerning the chiefest Points, lead their Scholars into 

 a Maze; and being uncertain and doubtful what to 

 pitch upon for certain truth, their Minds are fluctuat- 

 ing and in suspence all the days of their Lives, and un- 

 able to give a certain assent unto any thing. For if 

 any Man will but examine the most eminent Sects of 

 the Philosophers, he shall find them much differing 

 among themselves, and even opposing one another in 

 the most weighty parts of their Philosophy. But to 

 return to the Chaldeans, they hold that the World is 

 eternal, which had neither any certain Beginning, nor 

 shall have any End; but all agree, that all things are 

 order'd, and this beautiful Fabrick is supported by a 

 Divine Providence, and that the Motions of the Heav- 

 ens are not perform'd by chance and of their own ac- 

 cord, but by a certain and determinate Will and Ap- 

 pointment of the Gods. 



" Therefore from a long observation of the Stars, and 

 an exact Knowledge of the motions and influences of 

 every one of them, wherein they excel all others, they 

 fortel many things that are to come to pass. 



" They say that the Five Stars which some call Plan- 

 ets, but they Interpreters, are most worthy of Consid- 

 eration, both for their motions and their remarkable in- 

 fluences, especially that which the Grecians call Saturn. 

 The brightest of them all, and which often portends 

 many and great Events, they call Sol, the other Four 



79 



