HISTORY OF SCIEA'CE. 



their day's work depended. They learnt at what time in the 

 month the moon was full, so that they could see their way 

 by moonlight ; and they remarked very early the times when 

 spring, summer, autumn, and winter came round, because 

 the sowing of their seeds and the gathering of their fruits 

 depended upon these seasons. 



In this way we find that as far back as history goes men 

 have always had some knowledge of the facts of nature ; and 

 those nations, like the Egyptians and Chinese, which long 

 ago had become highly civilized, had learnt a very great 

 deal, and must probably have known some things of which 

 we are still ignorant. 



There has been a great deal written about the science of 

 the Chinese, Indians, and Egyptians, but I shall not tell you 

 anything about them here, because their knowledge has had 

 very little to do with the science which has come down to 

 us, and it would besides be difficult to give you any real idea 

 of what they knew without writing a book on the subject. 



We will start, therefore, with the Greeks, at the time when 

 they first began to try and explain some of the natural 

 events which they saw taking place every day. This was 

 about the year 700 B.C., when Thales, one of the seven wise 

 men, was living, and you will see in the next chapter that 

 even at this time, when Greece was famous for its learning, 

 the people had still some very strange ideas about the 

 working of the universe. 



