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 carefullv 
verified : Hipparchi Comm, in Arab, lib. 3, c. 2 (Pe- 
tavii Uranolog., ed. 1703, p. 134); Geminus, Elem. 
precession of the equinoxes, the rising of Sirius refnained for 3000 years 
attached to the same day of the Julian calendar.” (Ideler, p. 88 
and 90.) ' 
Ideler, Hist. Untersuch., 1806, p. 371 ; Sternnamen, p. 175 ; 
Pluche, Hist, du Ciel (ed. de 1740), tom. 1, p. 21; Montucla, Hist, 
des Mathem., P. 1, lib. 2, § 7, p. 79; Bailly, Hist, de I’Astr., vol. 1, 
p. 499 and 501; Schmidt, de Zod. Origine, p. 54; Asiat. Researches, 
vol. 2, p. 302 ; and vol. 9, p. 347 ; Dupuis, dans la Revue Philos., 
1806, Mai, p. 311; Swartz, Rech. sur POrigine 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, tom. 2, p . 
549 ; Testa, Dissertaz. Sopra due Zodiaci dell’ Egitto, 1802. p. 20, 39, 
and 42 ; Delambre, Astronomic, tom. 1. p. 478. 
VOL.XIV. R 
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