hrist, it appears that 16,984 years have elapsed since the
origin of the Zodiac. The vernal equinox coincided with the
first degree of Aries, 2,504 years before Christ, and with
the first degree of Taurus 4,619 years before Christ. Now
it is to be observed, that the worship of the Bull is the
principal article in the theological creed of the Egyptians,
Persians, Japanese, etc.; from whence it clearly follows,
that some general revolution took place among these nations
at that time. The chronology of five or six thousand years
in Genesis is little agreeable to this hypothesis; but as
the book of Genesis cannot claim to be considered as a
history farther back than Abraham, we are at liberty to make
what arrangements we please in the eternity that preceded.
See on this subject the analysis of Genesis, in the first
volume of New Researches on Ancient History; see also Origin
of Constellatians, by Dupuis, 1781; the Origin of Worship,
in 3 vols. 1794, and the Chronological Zodiac, 1806.

** M. Balli, in placing the first astronomers at
Selingenakoy, near the Bailkal paid no attention to this
twofold circumstance: it equally argues against their being
placed at Axoum on account of the rains, and the Zimb fly of
which Mr. Bruce speaks.

"It was, then, on the borders of the upper Nile, among a black race of
men, that was organized the complicated system of the worship of the
stars, considered in relation to the productions of the earth and the
labors of agriculture; and this first worship, characterized by their
adoration under their own forms and natural attributes, was a simple
proceeding of the human mind. But in a short time, the multiplicity of
the objects of their relations, and their reciprocal influence, having
complicated the ideas, and the signs that represented them, there
followed a confusion as singular in its cause as pernicious in its
effects."

III. Third system. Worship of Symbols, or Idolatry.

"As soon as this agricultural people began to observe the stars with
attention, they found it necessary to individualize or group them; and
to assign to each a proper name, in order to understand each other in
their designation. A great difficulty must have presented itself in
this business: First, the heavenly bodies, similar in form, offered
no distinguishing characteristics by which to denominate them; a