osition of the shadow of the Earth) they agree with the
Grecians.

"Their Rules and Notions concerning the Eclipses of the Sun are but weak
and mean, which they dare not positively foretel, nor fix a certain time
for them. They have likewise Opinions concerning the Earth peculiar to
themselves, affirming it to resemble a Boat, and to be hollow, to prove
which, and other things relating to the frame of the World, they abound
in Arguments; but to give a particular Account of 'em, we conceive would
be a thing foreign to our History. But this any Man may justly and truly
say, That the Chaldeans far exceed all other Men in the Knowledge of
Astrology, and have study'd it most of any other Art or Science: But
the number of years during which the Chaldeans say, those of their
Profession have given themselves to the study of this natural
Philosophy, is incredible; for when Alexander was in Asia, they reckon'd
up Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand Years since they first began to
observe the Motions of the Stars."

Let us now supplement this estimate of Babylonian influence with another
estimate written in our own day, and quoted by one of the most recent
historians of Babylonia and Assyria.(24) The estimate in question
is that of Canon Rawlinson in his Great Oriental Monarchies.(25) Of
Babylonia he says:

"Hers was apparently the genius which excogitated an alphabet; worked
out the simpler problems of arithmetic; invented implements for
measuring the lapse of time; conceived the idea of raising enormous
structures with the poorest of all materials, clay; discovered the art
of polishing, boring, and engraving gems; reproduced with truthfulness
the outlines of human and animal forms; attained to high perfection
in textile fabrics; studied with success the motions of the heavenly
bodies; conceived of grammar as a science; elaborated a system of law;
saw the value of an exact chronology--in almost every branch of science
made a beginning, thus rendering it comparatively easy for other nations
to proceed with the superstructure.... It was from the East, not from
Egypt, that Greece derived her architecture, her sculpture, her science,
her philosophy, her mathematical knowledge--in a word, her intellectual
life. And Babylon was the source to which the entire stream of Eastern
civilization may be traced. It is scarcely too much to say that, but for
Babylon, real civilization might not yet have dawned upon the earth."

Considering