Mm 
astronomy. 
tree, from 12 to SO feet in height, abound- 
ing every where in a slightly glutinous tere- 
binthine juice. After the fruits in the fe- 
male, and the flowers in the male plant have 
fallen off, new branches are put forth. The 
flowers are small and red, the calyxes are 
expanded into stars, nearly an inch in dia- 
meter. It is native in the woods about Car- 
thagena in New Spain. 
ASTRONOMY is the science which 
treats of the motions, periods, eclipses, 
magnitudes, &c. of the heavenly bodies, of 
the laws by which these are regulated, and 
of the causes on which they depend. It is 
unquestionably the most sublime ot all the 
sciences. No subject has been longer or 
more successfully studied. Although it 
may be interesting to take a brief sketch 
of the history of this science, yet there can 
be no comparison drawn between the wide 
observations of the earlier observers, and 
the precision and general views of modern 
astronomers. To ascertain the realmotions 
of the heavenly bodies was a difficult task, 
and required the united observations ot 
many ages. To ascertain the laws and 
causes of these motions, demanded the exer- 
tions of powers almost beyond the reach 
of the human faculties. This has however 
been accomplished, and it has been demon- 
strated that the most minute movements of 
the heavenly bodies depend upon the same 
general law with the rest, and to be the 
consequence of it. Astronomy has there- 
fore been highly regarded, as exhibiting 
one of the most remarkable instances of the 
extent and powers of the reasoning facul- 
ties. It has moreover conferred upon man- 
kind the greatest benefits, in many res- 
pects, as will be shewn in the course of the 
present work, and may be properly con- 
sidered as the teacher and guide of the art 
of navigation. 
The early history of astronomy admits 
of no regular elucidation. It is probable 
that some knowledge of the kind must have 
been nearly coeval with the human race, 
as well from motives of curiosity, as from 
the connection which it has with the com- 
mon concerns of life. Traces of it have 
accordingly been found among various na- 
tions remote from each other, which shew 
that tile most remarkable phenomena must 
have been observed, and a knowledge ot 
them disseminated at a very remote period. 
But in what age or country the science first 
originated, or by whom it was in those 
early times methodized and improved, is 
not now known. Such, however, as wish 
for every information that the subject ad- 
mits of, we refer to the learned and very 
elaborate history of ancient and modern 
astronomy, by M. Badly, a man of the 
highest reputation in the scientific world, 
and who was basely and cruelly murdered 
in the zenith of his celebrity, by the blood- 
thirsty Robespierre, whose savage ambi- 
tion was to efface from the earth every 
thing great, virtuous, and excellent, 
M. Badly endeavours to trace the origin 
of astronomy among the Chaldeans, Egyp- 
tians, Persians, Indians, and Chinese, to a 
very early period. From the researches 
which he has made on this subject, he is 
led to conclude that the knowledge com- 
mon to the whole of those nations has been 
derived from the same original source; 
namely, a most ancient and highly culti- 
vated people of Asia, of whose memory 
every trace is now extinct ; but who have 
been the parent instructors of all around 
them. The situation of this ancient people 
he conjectures to have been in Siberia about 
the 50th degree of north latitude. Among 
various other coincidences, he observes, that 
many of the European and Asiatic nations 
attribute their origin to that quarter, where 
the civil and religious rites, common to 
each, were probably first formed. 
Without going farther back, we may ob- 
serve, that the Eg\ ptians were early culti- 
vators of this science, and that among the 
Greeks, Thales, who travelled into Egypt, 
and who was the founder of the Ionian 
sect, appears to have been the first who 
taught his. countrymen the globular figure 
of the earth, the obliquity of the ecliptic, 
and tlie causes of solar and lunar eclipses ; 
which latter phenomena he is also said to 
have been able to predict. Thales had for 
his successors Anaximander, Anaximenes, 
and Anaxagoras, to the first of whom is 
attributed the invention of the gnomon, 
and geographical charts ; but for which he 
was probably indebted to the Egyptians. 
He is also said to have maintained that the 
sun was a mass of fire as large as the earth, 
which, though far below the truth with re- 
spect to size, was an opinion, for those early 
times, that does its author much credit, 
though to him, as in the case of Galileo, the 
truths he had discovered were the cause of 
persecution. Both himself and his chil- 
dren were proscribed by the Athenians, for 
his attempting to subject the works of the 
gods to immutable laws ; and his life would 
have paid the sacrifice of his temerity, but 
for the care of Pericles, his friend and dis- 
