2 HISTORY OF ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERY. 



its length and breadth, its depth and height. Man has learnt to distrust and disbelieve 

 the evidence of the most perfect of his senses. He has been taught that the apparently- 

 quiescent earth is in perpetual movement ; that the real motions of the celestial bodies 

 are, in most cases, in direct antagonism to those which he daily perceives ; and that his 

 own world, instead of being the " greatest in the kingdom of heaven," having subordinates 

 under it in the sun, moon, and stars the long and fondly cherished dream of antiquity 

 is, in reality, one of the smallest provinces in the great empire of Nature. 



Astronomical inquiry goes back to a remote era, and had its origin in the East. The 

 splendour of the celestial phenomena ; the fact of periodical changes and of accompanying 

 powerful effects being produced upon the surface of the earth such as alterations in the 

 temperature of the air, the processes of vegetation, and the habits of animals, these are 

 circumstances too obvious and striking to have escaped attention, or not to have awakened 

 curiosity. Accordingly, it is only reasonable to consider their thoughtful observation as 

 coeval with the primitive age of man. We may undoubtedly regard the great levels of 

 South-western Asia the -country between the Nile and the Euphrates the cradle of 

 mankind as the birth-place of the science, and the scene of its first culture. Though no 

 original memorials have been preserved of the facts noted, nor of the progress made by the 

 earliest inhabitants of that region, yet the references made by subsequent historians show- 

 ing their devotion to the study of the heavens, and the reputation assigned to them for 

 such pursuits by the unanimous voice of antiquity, long after the downfal of the Chaldean 

 monarchy, may be accepted as sufficient proof of an inquisitive eye having been cast from 

 that quarter upon the objects and movements of the firmament. The district possesses 

 many natural advantages for observation ; a climate not subject to sudden variations, a 

 serene sky, an open horizon, and a remarkably transparent atmosphere. Upon a winter 

 night in our northern latitude, the spectacle is brilliant that is unfolded over the head 

 of the traveller by the unclouded heavens, as he emerges from the smoke of the city into 

 the clearer air of the country ; but the mild beauty of the moon, the vivid sparkling of the 

 stars, and the intense darkness of unoccupied space, present a far more glorious exhibition, 

 as seen through the purer medium of an eastern clime ; and nothing more forcibly arrests 

 the attention of the European than the magnificent canopy which the eventide unveils 

 to him, on first visiting the oriental deserts. Besides the striking garniture of the sky, 

 the occupations of man in the more primitive times the warfare of the huntsman by night 

 and by day the custody of flocks and herds, wandering in solitary places, and requiring 

 the shepherd's vigilance to protect them from the beasts of prey, together with the 

 influence of the revolving seasons, coincident with celestial changes, upon the flowers 

 of the field, the trees of the forest, and the productions of the vineyard would com- 

 bine to stimulate interrogation respecting the vault of heaven, the meaning of its visual 

 glories, and the laws of their movement. 



From the book of Job in all probability the sheikh of some pastoral tribe migrating 

 at an early period on the plains near the Euphrates we gather indications of the hea- 

 venly bodies having attracted the watchful observance of mankind. Though it may be 

 doubtful whether our version rightly renders the asterisms named by Arcturus, Orion, 

 and the Pleiades, it is obvious, from the tenour of the passages in which they are intro- 

 duced, that principal constellations or single stars are intended. The temple of Belus at 

 Babylon, coeval with the foundation of the city, whose ruins are identified with those now 

 extant of Birs Nimrood, was devoted to an astronomical use, as well as to that of a 

 base and polluting idolatry. Its reported construction would seem to intimate this, being 

 of a pyramidal form, with its four faces opposed to the four cardinal points of the horizon : 

 upon the summit, according to the Greek historian, the Chaldean priests contemplated 

 and exactly noted the risings and settings of the stars. 



