oth the way for astronomy, its successor. In
order to profit by the indications of the stars, it was necessary to
foresee the positions they would occupy in the sky on a given day or hour.
There are many undertakings which succeed only when they are carefully
matured. If some great risk is to be run, it is not of much use to receive
the advice and warnings of the stars at the last moment, when the decisive
step has, perhaps, been made, and no retreat is possible. It would then be
too late to think about the chances of success, and a sudden withdrawal
from an action already begun or an equally sudden acceptance of a task for
which no sufficient preparation had been made, would be the too frequent
result.

There was only one mode of escaping such a danger or embarrassment as this,
and that was, first, to arrive by repeated observation at an exact
knowledge of the route followed by the stars across the sky, and of the
rapidity of their march; secondly, to distinguish them one from another, to
know each by its own name, to recognize its physiognomy, character, and
habits. The first duty of the astrologer was to prepare such an inventory,
and to discover the principle of these movements; then, and then only,
would he be in a position to give a satisfactory answer to one asking where
any particular star would be at the end of any specified number of days,
weeks, or months. Thanks to such information, his client could fix upon
some happy conjunction of the heavenly bodies, or at least avoid a moment
when their influence would be on the side of disaster. In every undertaking
of any importance the most favourable hour could be selected long before by
the person chiefly concerned, the hour in which his star would be in the
best quarter of the sky and in the most propitious relations with its
neighbours.

The phenomena produced in Chaldaea by these studies have been repeated more
than once in the history of civilization; they embody one of those
surprises to which humanity owes much of its progress. The final object of
all this patient research was never reached, because the relations upon
which a belief in its feasibility was based were absolutely chimerical, but
as a compensation, the accessory and preliminary knowledge, the mere means
to a futile end, have been of incalculable value. Thus, in order to give an
imposing and apparently solid basis to their astrological doctrines, the
Chaldaeans invented such a numeration as would