Sun-god, in the midst of heaven, At thy setting May the latch of the glorious heavens Speak thee peace. May heaven’s door to thee be gracious, May the Director, thy beloved messenger, direct thee. Lord of E-bara, may the road of thy path be prosperous, Sun-god, cause thy highway to prosper, Going the everlasting road to thy rest. Sun-god, thou art he who is judge of the land, Causing her decisions to be prosperous. From a lecture by T. G. PINCHES. (_Nature_, Dec. 31, 1891). _III. GREEK ASTRONOMY._ FIRST PERIOD. B.C. 900 TO B.C. 350. “Great men! elevated above the common standard of human nature by discovering the laws which celestial occurrences obey, and by freeing the wretched mind of man from the fears which eclipses inspired! Hail to you and to your genius, interpreters of heaven, worthy recipients of the laws of the universe, authors of the principles which connect gods and men!” PLINY (_Apostrophe to Thales and Hipparchus._) 1. HOMERIC GREECE. To turn from the astronomy of Egypt and Assyria to the astronomy of the Greeks is like coming to a sudden bend in a river which has flowed through level country for many miles in a slow majestic course, and finding beyond the bend a series of rapids and waterfalls. Instead of patient age-long accumulation of observations, instead of a mystical adoration of stars, supposed to be beyond man’s power to understand, we find that the Greek’s first instinct is to inquire into the meaning and the origin of what he saw, even before he had taken time to investigate. Behind the varied splendours of earth and skies which fascinated his bodily eyes, his intellect divined laws and forces which held the whole together in a wonderful harmony. Then, as fresh facts, or a fresh point of view, thrust itself upon him, a new explanation must be attempted, and thus many complete systems of the universe were evolved. Not the name only, the idea of Cosmos was Greek. [Sidenote: Homer _c._ 900 B.C.] [Sidenote: Hesiod _c._ 800 B.C.]