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BOOK IX.

A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OFASTRONOMY.

It is not our intention, in the present Book , to enter into aregular history of astronomy : that would occupy more spacethan we could afford, more especially as there are severalworks, now extant in the English language, on the subject;all therefore we shall do, will be to lay before the reader achronological summary of the rise and progress of the sciencefrom the earliest period. 1

It is difficult to assign any exact date for the origin ofastronomy, so ancient and so lost in obscurity is it; we shalltherefore not attempt to go further back than —b. c.

720. Occurrence of an eclipse of the Moon , observed at Baby-lon, and recorded by Ptolemy .

719. Occurrence of 2 eclipses of the Moon , also observed atBabylon, and recorded by Ptolemy .

600. Thales founds the Ionian school.

585. Eclipse of the Sun, said to have been predicted byThales.

500. Pythagoras founds the school of Croton, and suspects themotion of the Earth .

1 The first time any astronomer’s name occurs, it is printed in Italicletters, but not subsequently.