s 6 ]

A Compendious View of theAstronomy of Comets.

sip H E antient Egyptians and Chaldeans , on the

L Testimony of Diodorns Siculus *, had learned,by a long Series of Observations, to soretel the ap-pearing of Comets ; but as they are mentionedforeseeing Tempests and Earthquakes by the fameSkill, it is beyond doubt, that their knowledge inthese things might be more properly attributed toAstrology and Fortune-telling, than to any Astro-nomical Theory of their Motions; and in truththe Greeks , who subdued both -j- these Nations,scarce found any other literature among them,insomuch that the Astronomy which the Modernshave lo much improv’d, may be said to have beeninvented by the Greeks themselves, especially thegreat Hipparchus p.

Yet

* Diodorous wrote in Greek 40 Books, containing the af-fairs of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Mecles, Persians, Greeks, Ra-mans, Carthagenians and others, 15 of which have only cometo oor Hands ; he was born at Agyrium in Sicily, and lived inthe time of Julius and Augujlus Caesar , 6oYears before Christ.

+ Alexander the Great subdued all Asia, having defeatedDarius Cedomannus, about 325 Years before Christ, and about

•v 60 Years before the first War between the Romans and Cartha-

C emails.

Hipparchus, a Rhodian, was the first among the Greeks

•f

who made a Catalogue of the Stars; he lived about 120 Yeatsbefore Chrsl , and his Observations are preserved by Ptolemy, in

his