THEORY OF THE EARTH. 1 63 



groups of stars, as referring to a particular epoch 

 merely by chance ; so that nothing whatever can 

 be deduced from their significations.* 



It may be objected, that the advanced state of 

 astronomy among these ancients is a striking proof 

 of their high antiquity, and that it must have re- 

 quired a vast many centuries of observations by 

 the Chaldeans and Indians to enable them to ac- 

 quire the knowledge which they certainly possess- 

 ed nearly three thousand years ago, respecting the 

 length of the year, the precession of the equinoxes, 

 the relative motions of the sun and moon, and 

 several other important circumstances. But to ex- 

 plain all this, without the necessity of any prodi- 

 gious antiquity, it may be remarked, that a nation 

 may well be expected to make rapid progress in 

 any particular science that has no other to attend 

 to ; and that with the Chaldeans especially, the 

 perpetual serenity arid clearness of their sky, the 

 pastoral life which they led,t and the peculiar su- 



* See the dissertation by M. de Guignes respecting the zodiacs of 

 the oriental nations, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Belles Let- 

 tres,vol. XLVII. 



f It may he here noticed, that our present shepherds have infinitely 

 more practical knowledge of astronomy, merely from being so much 

 in the open air, almost unemployed, than all the other ordinary ranks 

 in society. An instance of astonishingly rapid progress in that science 

 was exhibited in our own day by the celebrated James Ferguson, who 

 constructed an accurate map of the heavens when a herd-boy, entirely 

 from his own untutored genius. Had astronomy been then a non- 

 existent science, even he might have carried it almost as far as the 

 Chaldeans in a single lifetime; and perhaps, in mapping the he.ave.Ds 

 he went farther even than all the astronomers of Chaldea. Transl. 



