SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 



have advanced greatly, if at all, upon the Egyptians. 

 One "field in which they stand out in startling pre- 

 eminence is the field of astrology ; but this, in the esti- 

 mate of modern thought, is the very negation of 

 science. Babylonia impressed her superstitions on 

 the Western world, and when we consider the baleful 

 influence of these superstitions, we may almost ques- 

 tion whether we might not reverse Canon Rawlinson's 

 estimate and say that perhaps but for Babylonia real 

 civilization, based on the application of true science, 

 might have dawned upon the earth a score of centuries 

 before it did. Yet, after all, perhaps this estimate is 

 unjust. Society, like an individual organism, must 

 creep before it can walk, and perhaps the Babylonian 

 experiments in astrology and magic, which European 

 civilization was destined to copy for some three or 

 four thousand years, must have been made a part of 

 the necessary evolution of our race in one place or in 

 another. That thought, however, need not blind us 

 to the essential fact, which the historian of science 

 must needs admit, that for the Babylonian, despite his 

 boasted culture, science spelled superstition. 



