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those of the Hindoos, as he, like them and Pythagoras, 
considered the earth to revolve upon its axis. To him also 
is ascribed " the invention of the zodiac, the discovery of 
the obliquity of the ecliptic, of the tropical revolution of 
the sun, and the principal circles of the celestial sphere." 
But it has already, as appears to me, been justly observed, 
that " many things seem to prove that the science of 
Thales was of Eastern origin, and that what have been 
called his discoveries, were doctrines borrowed from 
Chaldea or Egypt." This is sufficiently evident from the 
Grecian zodiac being the same as the Egyptian, Chal- 
dean, and Indian ; the last remarkable, as having its twelve 
signs taken from among the twenty-seven lunar mansions. 
To his followers is also ascribed the fixing of the obliquity 
of the ecliptic, like the Hindoos, at 24°; so also the 
invention of the gnomon, which Herodotus, however, says, 
was borrowed from the Babylonians. But Thales having, 
after his travels, been able to predict an eclipse of the 
sun, (referred by Mr. Bailly to the year 610 B.C.,) appears 
quite decisive of the subject, as of the fact there can 
hardly be a doubt. He could not have done so without a 
long series of observations ; and these had been made by 
the nations among whom he travelled, and who had long 
been able to foretell eclipses. He is reported, indeed, to 
have learnt the mode from the Egyptians, and to have 
taught them how to ascertain the height of the pyramids 
by the length of their shadows. 
In addition to this may be mentioned the mode, according 
to Apuleius, which Thales adopted for determining the 
apparent diameter of the sun, as this is conformable to the 
Hindoo practice of expressing the radius in parts of the 
circumference (v p. 163); for Thales, according to Apuleius, 
determined the magnitude of the sun, in parts of its own 
orbit : " now ? i 5 part (which it was stated to be by another 
