The prediction of the solar eclipse by Thales, 558 B. C., ignot to be relied upon; however he is the first among theGreeks who is reported to have foretold eclipses.

EDUCATION. Before the invasion of the Romans theancient Britons had among them various schools and semina-ries of learning, which were wholly under the direction of theDruids, who, it is universally acknowledged, were celebratedboth at home and abroad for their wisdom and learning, aswell as for their probity, and were held in high estimation asthe teachers both of religion and philosophy: but as theystudiously concealed their opinions from all the world but themembers of their own society, and were forbidden to commitany of their doctrines to writing; when the living repositoriesof these doctrines were destroyed by the cruel policy of theRomans, under Suetonius Paulinus , A. D. 61, all their acquire-ments perished with them, and Britain was soon afterwardsreduced to a state of complete barbarism.

The first school of which any account is given as esta-blished by the Saxons was at Crickdale, in Wiltshire , in 669;afterwards a college was founded at Rome by Ina, King of theWest Saxons, for the instruction of the British youth, whichcollege was supported by a tax of a penny, called Peter pence,from its being collected on each house throughout Englandon the day of St. Peter ad Vincula j but on the death of Ina,the Popes appropriated this tax to themselves, and continuedthe collection of it with some intermission till the time ofElizabeth.

On the accession of Alfred to the crown he found hispeople so ignorant, that there was scarcely a layman whocould read; he therefore obliged his nobles to attend to theeducation of their children, directing that none who wereilliterate should be admitted into any of the public offices, andhe afforded them the means by founding the University of Oxford , and procuring learned men from abroad to superin-