282 AN ESSAY ON THE 



the right; bat the Greeks, says Pliny, on these 

 occasions, turn to the left : and, among the Greeks 

 and Remans, in their races in the circus, they 

 drove round the Spina, or ridge in the middle, 

 keeping it all the while on their left. The Hindus 

 seem to have always considered the four cardinal 

 points in the same light ; but various systems ap- 

 peared at ditlerent times, in other parts of the 

 world. Empedocles, according to Plutarch, 

 maintained, that the summer solstice happened in 

 the right, or North; and the winter solstice in the 

 left, or South. This system prevailed once in the 

 West, and of course the West was before, and the 

 East behind, or aparam, aperena, ^x*. from that 

 time the winter solstice was called by the LatianSy 

 Hibernum, which cannot be derived from hyems, 

 winter. This last comes from the Sanscrit hima; 

 and, in a derivative form, haima and haimas, snow; 

 and hyems implies the snowy season: and mount 

 Haimos, or Hcemus, in Thrace, signifies the snowy 

 mountain ; and as the West was then before, it 

 was called Sa-para or Zephyrus, Sc-phar and Se- 

 pyrrus, like that famous range of mountains in the 

 East, mentioned by Ptolemy, and in the Bible. 

 King JuBA, a famous antiquary, was also of opi- 

 nion, that the North is on the right ; and this is 

 confirmed by Achilles Tat i us. The Egypt ia?is, 

 says Plutarch, placed the North on the right, 

 and the South on the left. These alterations must 

 have occasioned feuds amons' au2;urs and astrolo- 

 gers; and were, probably either admitted or rcr 

 jected at different times, according to the power 

 and influence of prevailing factions. This hap- 

 pened no less than four times in Egypt; and, of 

 course, four times the points wherein the sun rises 

 and sets, were considered* in different points of 

 view, and received different denominations; and 

 well they might say to Herodotus, that the sun 



