NOTES. 



241 



hundred years, varied thirteen days. We know too 

 little of the astronomy of the Egyptians, to form an 

 unfavourable judgment of it from the silence of the 

 Greeks, and that of Manetho, who was as little skilled 

 in the accurate sciences, as he was in the laws of 

 versification. This subject, so important to the history 

 of the progress of the human mind, will be soon dis- 

 cussed anew by Mr. Fourier, whose learned researches, 

 so impatiently expected, will be published in the 

 Description of the Ancient Monuments of Egypt. 



The high antiquity of the Balance advanced by 

 Abb6 Pluche in the middle of the last century, though 

 lately contested by two distinguished antiquaries, 

 Testa and Hager, has been demonstrated by the re- 

 searches of Ideler and Butmann f. I imagine it may 

 be agreeable to those scientific persons, who are engag- 

 ed in the study of ancient astronomy, to find here 

 a reference to all the passages, that relate to the con- 

 stellation of the Balance, and which I have carefully 

 verified : Hipparchi Comm. in Arat., lib. 3, c. 2 (Pe- 

 tavii Uranolog., ed. 1703, p. 134); Geminus, Elem. 



precession of the equinoxes, the rising of Sirius remained for 3000 years 

 -attached to the same day of the Julian calendar." (Ideler, p. 88 

 and 90.) 



f Ideler, Hist. Untersuch., 1806, p. 371 ; Sternnamen, p. 175 ; 

 Pluche, Hist, du Ciel (ed. de 1740), torn. 1, p. 21 ; Montucla, Hist, 

 ties Mathem., P. 1, lib. 2, § 7, p. 79; Bailly, Hist, de l'Astr., vol. 1, 

 p. 499 and 501 ; Schmidt, de Zod. Origine, p. 54 ; Asiat. Researches, 

 vol. 2, p. 302; and voj. 9, p. 347 ; Dupuis, dans la Revue Philos., 

 1806, Mai, p. 311 ; Swartz, Rech. sur l'Origine de la Sphere, p. 99 ; 

 Schaubach, Gesch. der Griech. Astron. p. 242, 296, and 370 ; Hager, 

 Illustraz. d'uno Zodiaco, p. 25— 35 ; Anquetil, Zend-Avesta, torn. 2, p. 

 549; Testa, Dissertaz. Sopra due Zodiaci dell' Egitto, 1802. p. 20, 39, 

 and 42 ; Delambre, Astronomie, torn. 1. p. 478. 



VOL. XIV. R 



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