have seen, existed in Egypt and even more notably in Babylonia.
That these records were the source of the information which
established the reputation of Thales is an unavoidable inference.
In other words, the magical prevision of the father of Greek
thought was but a reflex of Oriental wisdom. Nevertheless, it
sufficed to establish Thales as the father of Greek astronomy. In
point of fact, his actual astronomical attainments would appear
to have been meagre enough. There is nothing to show that he
gained an inkling of the true character of the solar system. He
did not even recognize the sphericity of the earth, but held,
still following the Oriental authorities, that the world is a
flat disk. Even his famous cosmogonic guess, according to which
water is the essence of all things and the primordial element out
of which the earth was developed, is but an elaboration of the
Babylonian conception.

When we turn to the other field of thought with which the name of
Thales is associated--namely, geometry--we again find evidence of
the Oriental influence. The science of geometry, Herodotus
assures us, was invented in Egypt. It was there an eminently
practical science, being applied, as the name literally suggests,
to the measurement of the earth's surface. Herodotus tells us
that the Egyptians were obliged to cultivate the science because
the periodical inundations washed away the boundary-lines between
their farms. The primitive geometer, then, was a surveyor. The
Egyptian records, as now revealed to us, show that the science
had not been carried far in the land of its birth. The Egyptian
geometer was able to measure irregular pieces of land only
approximately. He never fully grasped the idea of the
perpendicular as the true index of measurement for the triangle,