ned." To the
indications of the heavenly bodies, the Chaldaeans added the portents
which could be deduced from atmospheric phenomena: if it thundered on
the 27th of Tammuz, the wheat-harvest would be excellent and the produce
of the ears magnificent; but if this, should occur six days later, that
is, on the 2nd of Abu, floods and rains were to be apprehended in a
short time, together with the death of the king and the division of
his empire. It was not for nothing that the sun and moon surrounded
themselves in the evening with blood-red vapours or veiled themselves
in dark clouds; that they grew suddenly pale or red after having been
intensely bright; that unexpected fires blazed out on the confines of
the air, and that on certain nights the stars seemed to have become
detached from the firmament and to be falling upon the earth. These
prodigies were so many warnings granted by the gods to the people
and their kings before great crises in human affairs: the astronomer
investigated and interpreted them, and his predictions had a greater
influence than we are prepared to believe upon the fortunes of
individuals and even of states. The rulers consulted and imposed upon
the astronomers the duty of selecting the most favourable moment for
the execution of the projects they had in view. From an early date each
temple contained a library of astrological writings, where the people
might find, drawn up as in a. code, the signs which bore upon their
destinies. One of these libraries, consisting of not less than seventy
clay tablets, is considered to have been first drawn up in the reign
of Sargon of Agade, but to have been so modified and enriched with new
examples from time to time that the original is well-nigh lost. This was
the classical work on the subject in the VIIth century before our era,
and the astronomers-royal, to whom applications were accustomed to be
made to explain a natural phenomenon or a prodigy, drew their answers
ready-made from it. Astronomy, as thus understood, was not merely the
queen of sciences, it was the mistress of the world: taught secretly
in the temples, its adepts--at least, those who had passed through the
regular curriculum of study which it required--became almost a
distinct class in society. The occupation was a lucrative one, and
its accomplished professors had numerous rivals whose educational
antecedents were unknown, but who excited the envy of the experts in
their trading upon the creduli