top in a platform, on which the priests made their celestial observations. The figure of the Babylonian temple of astronomy was probably different, though it is possible that Nebuchadnezzar altogether modified the proportions of the original temple. We may infer the nature of the earlier use of such temples from later usages. We learn from Diodorus Siculus that, in the midst of Babylon, a great temple was erected by Semiramis, and dedicated to Belus or Jupiter, and that on its roof or summit the Chaldean astronomers contemplated, and exactly noted, the risings and settings of the stars.' If we consider the manner in which the study of science, for its own sake, has always been viewed by Oriental nations, we must admit that these great buildings, and these elaborate and costly arrangements for continued observation, were not intended to advance the science of astronomy. Only the hope that results of extreme value would be obtained by observing the heavenly bodies could have led the monarchs of Assyria and of Older Egypt to make such lavish provision of money and labour for the erection and maintenance of astronomical observatories. So that, apart from the evidence we have of the astrological object of celestial observations in ancient times, we find in the very nature of the buildings erected for observing the stars the clearest proof that men in those times hoped to gain results of great value from such work. Now, we know that neither the improvement of navigation aimed at by those who built those ancient observatories: the only conceivable object they can have had was the discovery of a perfectly trustworthy system of prediction from the study of the motions of the heavenly bodies. That this was their object is shewn with equal clearness by the fact that such a system, according to their belief, was deduced from these observations, and was for ages accepted without question. Closely associated with astrological superstitions was the wide-spread form of religion called Sabaism, or the worship of the host of heaven (Sabaoth). It is not easy to determine whether the worship of the sun, moon, and planets, preceded or followed the study of the heavens as a means of divination. It is probable that the two forms of superstition sprang simultaneously into existence. The shepherds of Chaluma, who 'Watched from the centres of their sleeping flocks Carrying through æther in perpetual round, Decrees and resolutions of the gods, can hardly have regarded the planetary movements as indicating, without believing that those movements actually influenced, the fate of men and nations; in other words the idea of planetary power must from the very beginning, it would seem, have been associated with the idea of the significance of planetary motions. Be this as it may, it is certain that in the earliest times of which we have any historical record, belief in astrology was associated with the worship of the host of heaven. In the Bible record we find the teachers and rulers of the Jewish nation compelled continually to struggle against the tendency of that people to follow surrounding nations in forsaking the worship of the God of Sabaoth for the worship of Sabaoth, turning from the Creator to the creature. They would seem even, as the only means of diverting the people from the worship of those false gods, to have adopted all the symbols of Sabaism, explaining them, however, with sole reference to the God of Sabaoth. Moses adopted in this way the four forms of sacrifice to which the Jewish people had become accustomed in Egypt -the offerings to the rising and setting sun (Numbers xxviii. 3, 4); the offerings on the day dedicated to the planet Saturn, chief of the seven star-gods (Numbers xxviii. 9); the offerings to the new moon (Numbers xxviii. 11); and the offerings for the luni-solar festival belonging to the first month of the sun's annual circuit of the zodiacal constellations (Numbers xxviii. 16, 17). All these offerings were in a sense sanctified by the manner in which he enjoined them, and the new meaning he attached to them; but that the original offerings were Sabaistic is scarcely open to question. The tenacity, indeed, with which astrological ceremonies and superstitions have maintained their position, even among nations utterly rejecting star-worship, and even in times when astronomy has altogether dispossessed astrology, indicates how wide and deep must have been the influence of those superstitions in remoter ages. Even now the hope on which astrological superstitions were based, |