Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1844-01-12

TO be referred to different periods. The
kings of Egypt made use of the velocity of
IA horse urged forward at full speed. They
knew the number of furlopgs which the
horse would run in an hour: they observed
the distance no ran while tho disc Of the
sun was rising above the horizon and hence
determined the ratio between the diameter
Of that disc and the circumference of the
great circle which the sun describes in his
daily motion. After the invention of sun
dials and clepsidrn, they sometimes en-
ployed the space passed over by tho shadow
while the sun was rising, compared with the
space which it passed over in an hour
They sometimes determined by the fall of
water the same interval and the same pro-
portion. these methods were without doubt
very defective; but it is only by first at
tempts that more successful attempts are
produced. 1t is interesting to contemplate
these inciplent efforts of science !: they evnce
the same spirit which animates THE astrono-
mcr Of the present day: the means only
are different. 1t was necessary to employ
those methods in order to discover that they
were to be rejected, and if the Egyptians
had not employed them we might perhaps
be still employing them ourselves.
Sandals and clepsidre seen to have beer
Of very high antiquity in Egypt. Itappears
that the use Of the former precluded that of
the latter, from the determinations of the
suns diameter by those two INSTRUMENTS
That given by The clepsdrR is considerably
more exact than that obtained by means of
dials. The former determination was pos
tive, as well as the invention or use Of the
instrument.
M. Goguet supposes that the Egyptian
obelisks were gnomons, and if so that instru-
mcnt must have been first invented. The
idea may have been first suggested by the
shadows cast by trees, cdfces &c. and art
soon added 10 1t more convenient form to-
gelher with greater elevation. Hence
those tall. needle shaped masses of stone,
called obclisks. Indeed the choice Of this
: kind of monument seems not 10 have been
made without good reasons: one may have
given TO the pyramids the form which they
have as being the best adapted TO resist the
action of the atmosphere. and to prevent the
overthrow of the mass; but the elongated
form Of the obelisks, their narrow base,
compared with their extreme height, give
considerable wei ght to the conjecture of
Goguet. The erection Of the obelisks is
referred TO tho age Of Sesostris, who is sup
posed to have honrished in the sixteenth
century before the Christian era. The pyr-
amids, those monuments of the power and
pride Of the Egyptian kings, are likewise a
monument Of their astronomy. The largest
has its four faces exactly directed towards
the fonr cardinal points. As the direction
could not have been the result of chance it
follows that at the time when the pyramids
were constructed, the Egyptians knew how
TO trace out meridian line. This is the
most complete proof which we have of the
Egyptians observations. Those great mas
ses seem to have been elevated, and to have
resisted the ravages Of time only to a,tes,
the astronomical knowledge of those who
erected Il EN-. Diodorus SicuIus says that
T in his timt they had existed 34OO years ac-
cordlng to some writer's, and 1000 according
to others. Both Of these dates may per-
llaps be limited, by supposng them to re-
fer to the different pyramids discovered near
Memphis and Thebes, those of Thebes being
the more ancient.
The opinion generally prevalent among
the Mussnlmans is that the pyramids were
built by Gan-flen- Clan, universal monarch
of the world, before Adam. A higher an
; tiquity cannot surely be ascribcd to them,
than by referring their construction to a
time which never existed. The Copls say
that they were raised previous to the drugc,
, by IA king named Saurid, and they alcdgc
in proof of this an inscription engraved on
one Of the pyramids. All of which proves
only that they were ancient, and that they
! might indeed have had, IN the age of Diodo-
rus, an antiquity of 34O0 years.
On the summit of these pyramids was n
horizontal area, where Prochus prelends that
, the priests made their astronomical observa-
tions. But it appears little probable that in
, IA level country like Egypt, they would make
5 use of so high observatories to which the
, ascent would be so difficult. while in the
f open field or at least on buildings or edi6ces
of moderate height, the eye might easily
view the whole hemisphere Of the heavens.
, 1t cannot be supposed that they assembled so
high in order the sooner to see the rising of
, the stars, for in that mild climate where the
5 atmosphere is serene, the horizon is almost
always obscured by vapors which obstruct
The views Of those bodies until they have at
tanned some degree of elevation.
Astronomy declined among the Egyptians
about the commencement of the Christian
era. When Slrabo visited Egypt, he was
shown at Heliopolis the place where the as
tronomers had resided: but those astrono-
mers were no more: there remained only
the priests who devoted themselves exclu-
sively to the observances Of religion. Those
priests even ridiculed Cheremon, Greek
astronomer who accompanied Glius Gallus
into Egypt, so ignorant were they then, and
yet vain of that knowledge which they no
longer possessed. They remembered that
their ancestors mad been an enlightened peo-
pie, and the source of intellectual light to
the nation of Europe. They pointed out
with evident complacency the houses where
Eudoxus and Plato had resided during the
thirteen years which they here spent in the
acquisition Of knowledge.
These we're the memorials OF their pas,