A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



of the shadow of the Earth) they agree with the 

 Grecians. 



" Their Rules and Notions concerning the Eclipses of 

 the Sun are but weak and mean, which they dare not 

 positively foretel, nor fix a certain time for them. 

 They have likewise Opinions concerning the Earth 

 peculiar to themselves, affirming it to resemble a Boat, 

 and to be hollow, to prove which, and other things re- 

 lating to the frame of the World, they abound in Argu- 

 ments ; but to give a particular Account of 'em, we con- 

 ceive would be a thing foreign to our History. But 

 this any Man may justly and truly say, That the Chal- 

 deans far exceed all other Men in the Knowledge of 

 Astrology, and have study'd it most of any other Art 

 or Science : But the number of years during which the 

 Chaldeans say, those of their Profession have given them- 

 selves to the study of this natural Philosophy, is incred- 

 ible ; for when Alexander was in Asia, they reckon 'd up 

 Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand Years since they 

 first began to observe the Motions of the Stars." 



Let us now supplement this estimate of Babylonian 

 influence with another estimate written in our own 

 day, and quoted by one of the most recent historians 

 of Babylonia and Assyria. 24 The estimate in question 

 is that of Canon Rawlinson in his Great Oriental Mon- 

 archies Of Babylonia he says: 



" Hers was apparently the genius which excogitated 

 an alphabet ; worked out the simpler problems of arith- 

 metic; invented implements for measuring the lapse 

 of time ; conceived the idea of raising enormous struct- 



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