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MRS. WALTER MAUNDER, ON ASTRONOMICAL 



gained some knowledge of them ; so that, astronomically, we 

 can both postdict and predict these relations, and if we alter 

 our time and place we can restate with very considerable 

 accuracy the corresponding changes in the sky. 



But the ancients had not our experience and knowledge, and 

 therefore had not our power of accurate astronomical computa- 

 tion. What they themselves had seen, that they could 

 describe; but they could not deduce what their ancestors 

 should have seen in different circumstances of time and place. 

 Unless then their ancestors had handed down positive records 

 of their experiences, their descendants could not infer what 

 those must have been. 



The first observations of astronomy were very simple, and 

 were for the purpose of determining direction or of measuring 

 time. They consisted in noting the positions of the sun, moon 

 and stars with respect to each other, and especially with respect 

 to the earth, that is to the horizon. The mean place of rising 

 for the sun marks the east ; its mean place of setting, the west ; 

 the south is indicated by the direction in which it " culminates," 

 that is reaches its greatest height ; the north by the point in 

 the heavens round which the circumpolar stars circle 

 unceasingly. In time, the heavenly bodies measure off the day, 

 the month, the year, and the succession of years — they furnish 

 us with the calendar ; but calendars may be devised to depend 

 upon the sun alone, or upon the sun with the stars, or upon the 

 sun with the moon. Calendars therefore differ in type, and 

 even when of the same type, they may differ in detail. These 

 differences constitute strong lines of demarcation between races 

 and religions ; indeed, the adoption of different calendars has 

 brought about bitter schisms, even between men professing the 

 same faith, or derived from the same stock. Therefore 

 astronomy in this particular application to calendar-making 

 frequently affords an all-important criterion as to the date, 

 place, and circumstances of a document under examination. 



The literature with which I deal conies under two heads — 

 the Persian sacred books, and the Jewish extra-canonical books 

 near the time of the Christian era. 1 have read and studied 

 practically the whole of the Persian writings that have been 

 translated under the editorship of Max Miiller in the series of 

 "The Sacred Books of the East," and such of the Jewish 

 " pseudepigraphicai " books as have been translated into 

 English. Of this great mass of literature, only a few books 

 have yielded any appreciable amount of material for my 

 purpose. These are : — in the Persian, the first two Fargards of 



