128 ON THE EEVOLUTIOXS OF 



epoch relative to which the position of the sun \^'ould have appeared 

 of some particular importance to be noted. 



Thus have for ever dissipated the conclusions that have been drawn 

 from some incorrectly explained monuments against the newness of 

 the continents and nations, and we might have dispensed with so much 

 detail on this point, if they were not so recently broached, and had 

 they not made sufficient impression to preserve their influence on the 

 opinions of many persons. 



The Zodiac is far from bearing in itself an assured and very 



remote Date. 



But there are writers who have asserted that the zodiac bears in 

 ritself the date of its invention, inasmuch as the names and the figures 

 given to its constellations are an index to the position of the colures • 

 at the time of its invention ; and this date, according to many, is so 

 ■evident, and so remote, that it becomes a matter of indifi'erence whe- 

 ther the representations which we possess of this circle are more or 

 less ancient. 



They pay no attention to the fact of this sort of argument involving 

 in ajself three suppositions equally uncertain : — the country in which 

 tihey admit that the zodiac was invented; the meaning which is sup- 

 posed .to have been given to the constellations which occupy it ; and 

 the position in which the colures were, relatively to each constella- 

 tion, when this meaning was given to it. 



By the explanation given to other allegories, or as these allegories 

 are allowed to have relation to the constellation of which the sun oc- 

 cupied the first degrees, or to that of which it occupied the middle, or 

 to that which it was on the point of entering ; that is to say, of which 

 it occupied the last degrees, or finally to that which was opposite to it, 

 and which rose in the evening; or, according as the invention of these 

 allegories was assigned to another climate, so must we change the date 

 of the zodiac. The possible variations in this respect may include as 

 much as half of the revolution of the fixed stars, that is, 13,000 years, 

 and even more. 



Thus Pluche, generahzing some indications of the ancients, has 

 thought that Aries announces the beginning of the sun's elevation and 

 the vernal equinox ; that Cancer announces his retrogradation to the 

 summer solstice ; that Libra, the emblem of the equality, marks the 

 autumnal equinox * ; and that Capricornus, a climbing animal, denotes 



* Varro de Ling. Lat. lib. vi. Signa quod aliqiiid significent, at Libra sequinoc- 

 tium, Mabroc. Sat. lib. I, c. cxxi. Capricornus ab infernis partibus ad superas solem 

 yeducens Caprse naturam -videtur imitari. 



