ASPHALTUS-ASS, WILD. of a candle, it soon burns and yields an intolerable stench. | Naphtha, petroleum, mineral tar, &c., seem to be, in fact, but one substance in different conditions. They are all remarkable for their inflammable character. Neither the inventions of art nor the researches of science have discovered any other substance so well adapted to exclude water, and to repel the injuries of worms, as the mineral pitch or bitumen. The ancients used it instead of mortar, and the walls of Babylon were cemented by it, See BITUMEN. 133 of an ancient and venerable Hebrew custom. Dr. Doddridge observes, that asses in the East are larger and much finer than ours, and that our Lord's triumphant entry was not degraded by indignity; though humble, it was not mean. A modern traveller states, that "the white ass mentioned in the song of Deborah and Barak, is by no means uncommon in Western Arabia. They are usually in most respects the finest of their species and sell at a much higher price; those who make a livelihood by hiring out these animals, always expect better pay for the white ass than for any of the others. The superior estimation in which they are held is indicated by the superior style of their furniture and decorations; and in passing through the streets, the traveller will not fail to notice the conspicuous appearance which they make in the line of asses which stand waiting to be hired. The worsted trappings are of gayer colours, the beads and small shells are more abundant and fine, and the ornaments of metal more bright. But above all, their white hides are fanCalmet supposes it to be connected with the Lake As-tastically streaked and spotted with the red stains of the phaltites. ASPHAR, the name of a pool mentioned in 1Mace. 9. 33, whither Jonathan and his brother Simon fled. The She Ass used as a beast of burden by the Egyptians. The ass was considered unclean by the law, because it did not chew the cud. To draw with an ox and an ass together was prohibited. (Levit. 11. 26.) Le Clerc observes that the Israelites not being allowed to keep horses, the ass was not only made a beast of burden, but used on journeys, and that even the most honourable of the nation rode on asses. Jair of Gilead had thirty sons who rode on as many asses, and commanded in thirty cities. (Judges 10. 4.) We also find that David rode on a mule, and ordered Solomon to use it at his coronation, (1 Kings 1. 33,34,) that afterwards, when Solomon and succeeding princes multiplied horses, they were rebuked for it, (Isai. 2. 7; 31. 1; Hosea 14. 3,) that the removal of horses is promised in the days of the Messiah. (Hosea 1. 7; Micah 5. 10.) From these facts we may infer that the action of Our Lord in riding into Jerusalem upon an ass, is to be viewed, not only as the accomplishment of a prophecy, but also as a revival henna plant." Niebuhr says, "Christians cannot repine at being forbidden to ride on horseback in the streets of Cairo, for the asses are there very handsome, and are used for riding by the greater part of the Mahometans, and by the most distinguished men of the country." The Jews were accused by the pagans of worshipping the head of an ass; but from this calumny they have been thus vindicated by M. Schumacher. this slander. He affirmed that the Jews kept the head "Apion, the grammarian, seems to be the author of of an ass in the Sanctuary; that it was discovered there when Antiochus Epiphanes took the Temple and entered into the most holy place. He added that one Zabidus, having secretly got into the Temple, carried off the ass's head, and conveyed it to Dora. Suidas says, that Damocritus or Democritus, the historian, averred that the Jews adored the head of an ass, made of gold. Plutarch and Tacitus were imposed upon by this calumny. They believed that the Hebrews adored an ass out of gratitude for the discovery of a fountain by one of these creatures in the wilderness, at a time when the army of their nation was parched with thirst and extremely fatigued. Numerous conjectures have been offered in explanation of the origin of this accusation, but their explications, though ingenious, are not solid. M. Le Moine says, that in all probability, the golden urn, containing the manna, which was preserved in the Sanctuary, was taken for the head of an ass; and that the word omer of manna might have been confounded with the Hebrew word hhamor, which signifies an ass. Another suggestion has been offered, that as the Jews worshipped Jehovah under the name of 'O wv, I am that I am, (Exod. 3. 14,) their enemies might have changed this into o ovos, an ass." ASS, WILD, Tiny orad. This animal, mentioned in the Book of Job, and by the prophets Jeremiah and Hosea, is a much handsomer and more dignified animal than the common ass. Martial gives the epithet "handsome," to the wild ass, ("Pulcher est onager," lib. xiii. Epig. 100,) and Oppian describes it as "handsome, large, vigorous, of stately gait, and his coat of a silvery colour, having a black band along the spine of his back; and on his flanks patches as white as snow;" but in a figure given by Sir Robert Ker Porter, the colour is a bright bay. The wild ass was termed onager by the Greeks, and was sometimes employed in war, as appears from a passage in Herodotus, where that writer says, "The Indian The chase of this animal is thus described by Xenophon, in detailing the march of Cyrus through the Arabian desert: "Of wild creatures, the most numerous were wild asses, and not a few ostriches, besides bustards and roe-deer, which our horsemen sometimes chased. The asses, when they were pursued, having gained ground of the horses, stood still, (for they exceeded them much in speed,) and when these came up with them, they did the same thing again; so that our horsemen could take them by no other means but by dividing themselves into relays, and succeeding one another in the chase. The flesh of those that were taken was like that of red deer, but more tender." Mr. Morier ' says, We chase to two wild asses, gave which had so much the advantage of speed of our horses, that when they had got at some distance, they stood still and looked behind at us, snorting with their noses in the air as if in contempt of our endeavours to catch them." Sir Robert Ker Porter, in his Travels in Persia, also describes the wild ass, and informs us that the mode of hunting it is the same as it was in the days of Xenophon. ASS'S HEAD. It is stated in the second Book of Kings, 6. 25, that "there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver." This price, if shekels be allowed in the estimate according to the Targum, would be equivalent to nearly ten pounds of our money. Much ingenious speculation has been advanced to prove that the corn measure called homer, and not the head of an ass, hhamor, is here intended. But there are many difficulties in such an interpretation, for what necessity could there be for reference to the head of a corn measure? The unclean character of the animal could be no objection, when parents were reduced to such dreadful extremities as to eat their own children. (2Kings 6. 26-29.) ASSARON, or properly by OMER, a measure used for dry articles. (Exod. 16. 16; 18. 36.) This was the portion of manna assigned to each individual in the wilderness for his daily food. Josephus calls the measure issaron; and Jahn says it corresponded to the you of the Greeks, and held five pints and one tenth English corn measure. See OMER. ASSEMBLY, EKKληola, a term used in the New Testament to denote a convocation or congregation of persons legally called out or summoned. (Acts 19. 39.) Asia Minor, in the time of the Apostles, was divided into several districts, each of which had its own legal -ASSYRIA. assembly. Some of these are referred to by Cicero, and others by Pliny, particularly the one at Ephesus. The regular periods of such assemblies, it appears, were three or four times a month; although they were convoked extraordinarily for the dispatch of any urgent business. In the Jewish sense, the word implies a congregation, or an assembly of the people; (Matt. 18. 17;) and in the Christian sense, an assembly of Christians; (1Cor. 11. 18;) hence a church, the Christian church, and is used of any particular church, as that at Jerusalem, (Acts 8. 1,) and Antioch. (Acts 11. 26.) ASSEMON. See AzмON. ASSIDEANS, by some writers termed Chasideans, from on chasidim, "merciful, pious," were a kind of religious society among the Jews, whose chief and distinguishing character it was to maintain the honour of the Temple, and observe punctually the traditions of the elders. They therefore not only paid the usual tribute for the maintenance of the house of God, but charged themselves with extraordinary expenses on that account; for, on every day except that of the great expiation, in addition to the daily oblation, they sacrificed a lamb, which was called the sin-offering of the Assideans. They practised great austerities, and their common oath was, "By the Temple;" for which our Saviour reproves the Pharisees, who had sprung from them, and had adopted that oath. (Matt. 23.16.) The Assideans are represented as being numerous, and distinguished for their valour, as well as zeal for the the law. (1 Macc. 2. 42.) A company of them resorted to Mattathias to fight for the law of God and the liberties of their country. This sect arose either during the captivity, or soon after the restoration of the Jews; and were, probably, in the commencement, a truly pious part of the nation; they at length became superstitious. Watson. ASSOS, a sea-port town in Asia Minor, situated on a bay of the Ægean Sea, south of Troas, and near the isle of Lesbos. Strabo describes it as well fortified both by nature and art. St. Luke went by sea from Troas to Assos; but St. Paul went by land thither, and meeting at Assos, they went together to Mitylene. (Acts 20. 13,14.) It occupied a commanding situation, being built on a hill. A theatre, and the remains of several temples and other edifices, still attest its ancient splendour. Cramer's Asia Minor. ASSUMPTION. A festival of the Romish church in honour of the pretended miraculous ascent of the Virgin Mary into heaven. It was established in the seventh century, and is celebrated on the 15th of August. The Greek church also keep this festival on the same day. There were two apocryphal books, which were received by some of the early heretics, entitled the Assumption of Moses, and the Assumption of the Virgin. ASSYRIA, N an ancient kingdom or empire of Asia, which derived its name from Assur or Asshur, the second son of Shem, (Gen. 10. 22,) or from a tribe designated after him. 2. The kingdom and the empire of Assyria had widely different limits, and from the want of a proper distinction between them great confusion has arisen. Strabo and other geographers include under the name of Assyria or Aturia, all the Asiatic countries south of Taurus, except Ariana or Persia, Arabia Proper, and Palestine; while, on the other hand, Ptolemy describes ASSYRIA. Assyria as being bounded on the north by part of Armenia from Mount Niphates to Lake Van, on the west by the Tigris, on the south by Susiana, and on the east by part of Media and the mountains Choatras and Zagros; and Rosenmüller states that it nearly corresponded with the modern Koordistan. The first, probably, is a correct view of the great Assyrian empire under Nebuchadnezzar; the second may represent the kingdom founded by Asshur or Nimrod. The generally received account of the origin of the Assyrian empire, founded on the text of the Mosaic narrative, (Gen. 10. 11,) is, that Asshur or Assur, the second son of Shem, driven out by the tyranny of Nimrod, the son of Cush, from the land of Shinar, migrated from that region with a body of adventurers, to the country to which he gave his name, and founded Nineveh, not long after Nimrod had established the Chaldæan monarchy at Babylon, and fixed his residence in that city. Bochart adopts, however, the marginal translation of Gen. 10. 11, which implies that Nimrod invaded and conquered the new monarchy of Assyria, and built the city of Nineveh, which he called after his son Ninus. This view is supported by the Targums of Onkelos and Jerusalem, Theophilus of Antioch, and Jerome, among the ancients; the writers of the Universal History, Hyde, Marsham, Wells, Lowth, and Faber, among the moderns: the converse being supported by Michaëlis and Bryant. It is, however, of little importance, whether Asshur or Nimrod founded Nineveh; for it is evident that the former gave his name to the country, and it appears probable that Ninus united the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon. 3. The chronology of the Assyrian empire is at least as doubtful as its boundaries, and many learned men have endeavoured in vain to reconcile the loose and probably fabulous histories of Ctesias and Berosus with the Sacred Narrative. Dr. Prideaux, Stackhouse, and others attribute high antiquity to the empire, while Sir Isaac Newton conceives that it arose only in the days of Pul. Probably this question, like the former, is in reality one of time only, and the two statements may be reconciled by the supposition that the kingdom of Asshur or Nimrod, although not mentioned in Scripture for twelve hundred years, subsisted during that time, and that Pul, who first pushed the arms of Assyria beyond the Euphrates, and thus brought them in contact with the Jews, was in reality the founder of the empire in its extended sense. This latter view seems to derive considerable support from Scripture, where we read that, during the reign of Jeroboam, nearly twenty years before the reign of Pul, the Lord instructed the prophet Amos to threaten Israel that He would "raise up against them a nation,” which would afflict them "from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness," (Amos 6. 14,) Hamath being the northern border of their country, and the "river," or valley, as it is in the margin, being the same with the "river of Egypt," the boundary of Judæa on the south. (Gen. 15. 18.) Events have proved that the Assyrians were the nation which God was to raise up, and as Pul reigned immediately after this prophecy of Amos, Sir Isaac Newton alleges that he may be justly reckoned the first conqueror and founder of the empire; and agreeably to this view he understands the words in Nehem. 9. 32, "since the time of the kings of Assyria," to mean, since the time of Pul, observing, “Pul and his successors afflicted Israel, and conquered the nations round about them, and upon the ruin of many small and ancient kingdoms, erected their empire, conquering the Medes as well as other nations.” The comparatively recent date of the Assyrian empire 135 is also ably supported by the Rev. Charles Crosthwaite, who, in his recently published Synchronology, asserts that Belus and Ninus, its first two monarchs according to profane history, were kings of Lydia, by whom Assyria was wrested from the Egyptians in the ninth century before the Christian era. The satisfactory identification of such of the Assyrian monarchs as are mentioned in Scripture, is perhaps hopeless, as no two writers are agreed upon the names, the length of reign, or the order of succession of those recorded in profane history; but in the following summary we shall give the views entertained by the usually received authorities. 4. The commencement of the reign of Ninus is fixed by Archbishop Usher to B.C. 1267, and he reigned, according to Diodorus Siculus, seventeen years, but according to others, 122 years. He was succeeded by his queen Semiramis, who reigned forty-two years. She enlarged the empire, which she left in a flourishing state to her son Ninyas, A.M. 2831, B.C. 1173. The Scriptures are totally silent concerning the subsequent history of this celebrated monarchy, and the successors of Ninyas, until the time of the prophet Jonah, B.C. 825, and even then it is not stated who was the monarch that filled the Assyrian throne. It is evident, however, that Nineveh was at that time a city of immense extent. Upon this point, which may be supposed to militate against his theory, Mr. Crosthwaite remarks: "It may be asked, upon the supposition that the Assyrian greatness began about 840 to 860 years before the Christian era, how Nineveh could be so great and extensive in the time of Jonah? The answer is to be found in the state of society, and the nature of an Eastern government. A monarch like Belus, or Ninus, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Sesostris, returned from the conquest of several kingdoms, with a mountain of spoil and a host of captives, was not long in erecting a city of whatever size he pleased, on a navigable river, to facilitate the carriage of materials from places however distant." 5. About fifty years after the time of Jonah, the Scriptures mention a king of Assyria, named Phul or Pul, who is supposed by Dr. Prideaux to have been the father of Sardanapalus. He greatly enlarged the boundaries of his kingdom, which existed from his time until the Babylonians and Medes destroyed Nineveh. Some writers assert that Pul conquered Babylon, the sovereignty of which he gave to his youngest son Nabonassar, while his eldest son, Tiglath-pileser, succeeded him in his kingdom of Assyria. Dr. Prideaux asserts that Arbaces, governor of Media, under Sardanapalus, the last of the ancient Assyrian kings, is the Tiglathpileser of Scripture; and that Belesis, the viceroy of Babylon at that period, is the same with Nabonassar, who is called in Scripture, Baladan, (Isai. 39. 1,) being the father of Merodach, who sent an embassy to King Hezekiah, to congratulate him on his recovery from his sickness. 7. The empire of Tiglath-pileser, the successor of Pul, (2Kings 15. 29; 16. 7-9; 2Chron. 28. 20,) appears to have been the ruling power in the East about B.C. 750. Ahaz, king of Judah, sent to request his assistance against Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Israel. Accordingly, Tiglath-pileser advanced with a numerous army, defeated Rezin, captured Damascus, and put an end to the kingdom erected there by the Syrians, thus fulfilling the predictions of Isaiah (8. 4,) and Amos (1. 5.) He also entered the kingdom of Israel, conquered Pekah, and carried away part of the ten tribes beyond the river Euphrates. But Ahaz had soon cause to regret this unhallowed alliance; for Tiglath-pileser exacted from him such immense sums of money, that he was obliged writers, Asseraddon, Asordan, Assaradon, or Sarchedon, He ravaged the territories of the captive Ten Tribes and the kingdom of Syria, and transplanted the remainder of the Israelites into Assyria, and then marched against Judah, now governed by Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, whom he sent in chains to Babylon. He died after a reign, it is alleged, of thirty-nine years, and was suc to restore Manasseh to his kingdom, that prince having, 6. In the midst of his career of victory Tiglath-pileser died, and was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser or Sal-ceeded by his son Saosduchinus, who was moved by God manassar, who, according to Stackhouse, is the monarch called Enemessar in the apocryphal book of Tobit, 1. 2. This prince prosecuted the conquests which his father had begun; he invaded the kingdom of Israel in the reign of IIoshea, the successor of Pekah, about the year B.C. 729, and imposed an annual tribute upon Hoshea, who, "became his servant," (2Kings 17. 3,) and he next desolated the country of the Moabites, as foretold by Isaiah. (16. 1.) Hoshea, after a while, withheld his tribute, and applied to Egypt for assistance, upon which Shalmaneser attacked and reduced Samaria. Hoshea was taken captive, loaded with chains, and thrown into prison; the inhabitants of the city, as also the seven tribes west of the Jordan, were carried into Media, whither his predecessor Tiglath-pileser had previously transferred the tribes east of Jordan; and thus, in the course of nineteen years, were those prophecies uttered by Amos and other prophets literally fulfilled, and the captivity of the revolted ten tribes completed. Shalmaneser after subduing the king of Israel overran all Syria and Phoenicia, and many cities in the latter country belonging to the Tyrians submitted to his authority, and claimed his protection. He next engaged in a war with the king of Tyre, whom the ancient historians call Eluleus, and besieged the city of Tyre. The siege continued five years, during which the inhabitants were reduced to the greatest extremities, particularly from the want of water; and they were only at last relieved by the death of Shalmaneser. 7. Sennacherib, called Sargon by Isaiah, ascended the throne of Assyria, A.M. 3287, B.C. 717, and was immediately involved in war both in Asia and in Egypt. While he was thus engaged, Hezekiah shook off the yoke of the Assyrians, and refused any longer to pay the tribute which his father Ahaz had agreed to do. Sennacherib immediately invaded Judæa with a mighty army, and captured the principal cities, when Hezekiah gave him three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, to induce him to withdraw. The Assyrian monarch accepted the money, but refused to grant peace, being resolved to subvert the kingdom of Judah, as soon as he had overcome the Egyptians, who were advancing to succour Hezekiah. Isaiah, however, encouraged the king by promises of Divine interposition and deliverance, and announced that the enemy would soon be obliged to return into his own country. (2Kings 19. 20,34.) Accordingly, when Sennacherib, after having defeated the allied forces of the king of Egypt, and of Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had returned into Judæa and renewed the siege of Jerusalem, the Divine vengeance overtook him. "The angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians, one hundred four-score and five thousand (185,000); and when they arose, (that is, those who survived this dreadful mortality, for they were not all slain, a small number being preserved, among whom was Sennacherib himself,) early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." (2Kings 19. 35.) Sennacherib returned to Nineveh with the wreck of his army, where two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sherezer cr Seraser, assassinated him in the temple of Nisroch. (2Kings 19. 37.) 8. Esar-haddon, his third son, who succeeded him in the kingdom of Assyria, B.C. 710, is called by various 9. The Nabuchodonosor mentioned in the apocryphal Book of Judith, as "reigning in Nineveh the great city," (1. 15,) is by some writers supposed to be Saosduchinus, but Sir Isaac Newton believes him to have been Chyniladon, in whose time the Ninevite empire was overthrown; and to account for his conduct at various periods, he supposes him to have been an active conqueror in the early part of his life and afterwards to have sunk into sloth and inactivity. Following up the successes of his predecessors, Chy niladon reduced many of the cities in Media, and levelled Ecbatana with the ground, after which he returned in triumph to Nineveh. No sooner were the rejoicings for this victory ended, than he resolved to punish the nations of "the west country" who had refused to assist him in his war against the Medes; and for that purpose sent Holofernes, the general of his army, to destroy by fire and sword all that should oppose him, whilst those that submitted were to be made captives. The command was executed with cruelty, and the march of Holofernes was marked by desolation and blood. The brave inhabitants of Bethulia first dared to oppose his progress. Fired with indignation, he invested the city, cut off the supply of water, and reduced the place to the utmost distress. The beauty and the intrepidity of Judith, if we may give credit to the book which bears her name, saved her city and country from impending destruction. Approaching the hostile camp, she ingratiated herself into the affections of Holofernes; and in the dead of the night, when her watchful eye observed him buried in sleep and overcome by wine, severed his head from his body with his own sword, and escaped to her friends. The death of the leader struck the army with consternation, and in their sudden flight they lost their baggage, and were pursued with great slaughter. Chyniladon appears not long to have survived the destruction of his army, for having rendered himself obnoxious to his subjects by his effeminacy, and the little care he took of his dominions, Nabopolassar, satrap of Babylon, and Cyaxares, the son of Astyages, king of Media, leagued together against him. He was besieged in Nineveh, and his dominions were partitioned amongst his enemies; Nabopolassar becoming master of Nineveh and Babylon, and Cyaxares obtaining Media and the adjacent provinces. The predictions of the prophets Isaiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah, were thus fulfilled, and the Assyrian kingdom was subverted. With the fall of Nineveh commenced the successes of Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxares, who laid the foundations of the collateral empires of the Babylonians and Medes, previously included in the Assyrian. Sir Isaac Newton refers the destruction of Nineveh and the fall of the Assyrian empire, to about the third year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, B.C. 607. 10. The empire of Assyria being thus subverted, the province from which it had derived its name has since in succession formed a part of the Persian empire, the ASSYRIA ASTROLOGY, ASTRONOMY. empire of Alexander, the Grecian kingdom of Syria, has been often the battle-field of the Romans and Parthians, the Greeks and the Sassanides, and now, under the name of Kourdistan, belongs to the modern kingdom of Persia, and is remarkable for little except the robberies of the Kurds, who have infested its mountainous parts for centuries. These tribes pursue a nomade life and the rearing of cattle, of which there are vast flocks, the owners living in tents like the Arabs. There are a few towns and villages, but the houses are dispersed at some distance from each other. Mr. Ainsworth, in his recent Researches in Babylonia, Assyria, and Chaldæa, speaking of its physical features, says, "Assyria including Taurus is distinguished by its structure, its configuration, and its natural productions, into three zones or districts. By structure, into a district of plutonic or metamorphic rocks; a district of sedimentary formations, and a district of alluvial deposits. By configuration, into a district of mountains, a district of stony or sandy plains, and a district of low watery plains. By natural productions, into a country of forests and fruit-trees, of olives, wine, corn, and pasturage, or of barren rocks; a country of mulberry, cotton, maize, sesame, tobacco, or of hardy labiate and composite plants, or barren clay, sand, pebbly or rocky plains; and into a country of date trees, rice and pasturage, or a land of saline plants, liquorice, reeds, sedges, and rushes.” 19. Of the government, laws, religion, learning, customs, &c., of the ancient Assyrians, nothing absolutely certain is recorded, but we learn from Strabo, that the people were distributed into a certain number of tribes whose occupations or professions were hereditary; and that they had several distinct councils and tribunals for the regulation of public affairs. In the earliest ages of Christianity there were some Christians in Assyria, but none are known in modern times. Assyria is the subject of a prophecy by Isaiah, (19. 23,24,25,) which some writers consider as yet to be fulfilled. Usher; Prideaux; Rollin; Calmet; Horne. ASTAROTII, ASTARTE. See ASHTAROTH. ASTROLOGY, ASTRONOMY. "Astronomy," says an able writer of the present day, "considered as a science, was only in its infancy among the ancients. The stupendously sublime principles by which the heavenly bodies are moved and regulated in such exquisite harmony, were utterly unknown to them; for they were ignorant of the most simple fact belonging to the science, the diurnal motion of the earth on its own axis." But although thus ignorant of the theory, their practical knowledge of astronomy, the mere result of constant and diligent observation, was by no means contemptible or inefficient. It was an inestimable addition to their security at sea, and contributed many advantages on land, before the introduction of calendars and other regular tables; and we also find that an attempt was made, at a very early period, to regulate the year by the annual revolution of the sun, in the fact that the Jewish months consisted of thirty days each. (Gen. 7. 11; 8. 4.) 2. The great longevity of the Antediluvian patriarchs was doubtless exceedingly favourable to astronomical observations and discoveries; and Josephus goes so far as to say that "God afforded them a longer time of life on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have afforded the time of foretelling the periods of the stars, unless they had lived six hundred years; for the great year is completed in that interval." On this passage, a writer observes, "By this 137 remarkable expression is probably meant the period in which the sun and moon came again into the same situation in which they were at the beginning of it, with regard to the nodes, apogee of the moon, &c." "This period," says Cassini, "of which we find no intimation in any monument of any other nation, is the finest period that ever was invented; for it brings out the solar year more exactly than that of Hipparchus and Ptolemy, and the lunar months within about one minute of what is determined by modern astronomers. If the Antediluvians had such a period of six hundred years, they must have known the motions of the sun and moon more exactly than their descendants knew them for many ages after the flood." Josephus also mentions pillars with astronomical inscriptions existing in his time, which, he says, were the work of the Antediluvians; a notion that hardly deserves a serious refutation; they might, however, be some of those set up by Sesostris to mark his Indian expedition, or, as Montucla conjectures, erected by the Chaldæan priests in an early age. 3. Astronomy is connected with the earliest departure of men from the worship of the true God. In their painful wanderings after the Dispersion, men were forcibly struck by the beauty, the splendour of the heavenly bodies, the harmony of their movements, the influence which they had on universal nature, and above all by the benefit which their light conferred on them in their journeyings from the plains of Shinar to their distant abodes, and paying to the creature the homage they owed to the Creator, they soon fell into the first and most widely-spread form of idolatry, called originally Sabaism, or the worship of the planetary system, to the existence of which all antiquity testifies. In the Book of Job we have allusions to the prevalence of this worship. (31. 26,27,28.) 4. As to the astronomical knowledge of the Jews, the Scriptures are silent, except that some of the constellations are mentioned in the Book of Job, (9.9; 38.31,32,) for we are not informed that our great progenitor received any scientific information from the Almighty. See CONSTELLATION; STAR. 5. It was a happy circumstance for the ancients that, with regard to the phenomena of the sun and fixed stars, the practical application was not at all affected by the gross fundamental error under which their theory laboured. As the diameter of the earth's orbit is a quantity comparatively evanescent, in regard to our distance from the fixed stars, the celestial sphere, and every thing connected with it, bears to us precisely the same appearances and notions, whether the earth be considered as the permanent centre of the universe, and all the heavenly bodies making their daily circuit round us, or if we consider the earth as a little planet whose revolutions cause the same changes of phenomena to its inhabitants. With respect to the planets and comets the case was far otherwise. A system so opposite to truth involved these bodies and their motions in great and unaccountable confusion. They considered them as Astra errantia, πλavηтat, wanderers, whose irregular motions and changing aspects were beyond the reach of philosophical inquiry, but had a fearful influence upon the destinies of nations and individuals. The shipmasters, the shepherds, the philosophers, and the priests, were all, in their own various ways, practical astronomers; and this last class, by the addition of judicial astrology, contrived to make the heavenly bodies efficient auxiliaries, both as to power and emolument. The invention of asterisms, or constellations, those mnemonics of the sky, was an important advantage to T |