conditions and periods of unusual prevalence of sun spots; while De la
Rue, Loewy, and Balfour Stewart[1] thought they found a connection
between sun-spot displays and the planetary positions. Thus we find
scientific men, even in our own time, responsible for the belief that
storms in the Indian Ocean, the fertility of German vines, famines in
India, and high or low Nile-floods in Egypt follow the planetary
positions.

And, again, the desire to foretell the weather is so laudable that we
cannot blame the ancient Greeks for announcing the influence of the
moon with as much confidence as it is affirmed in Lord Wolseley's
_Soldier's Pocket Book_.

Even if the scientific spirit of observation and deduction (astronomy)
has sometimes led to erroneous systems for predicting terrestrial
events (astrology), we owe to the old astronomer and astrologer alike
the deepest gratitude for their diligence in recording astronomical
events. For, out of the scanty records which have survived the
destructive acts of fire and flood, of monarchs and mobs, we have
found much that has helped to a fuller knowledge of the heavenly
motions than was possible without these records.

So Hipparchus, about 150 B.C., and Ptolemy a little later, were able
to use the observations of Chaldaean astrologers, as well as those of
Alexandrian astronomers, and to make some discoveries which have
helped the progress of astronomy in all ages. So, also, Mr. Cowell[2]
has examined the marks made on the baked bricks used by the Chaldaeans
for recording the eclipses of 1062 B.C. and 762 B.C.; and has thereby
been enabled, in the last few years, to correct the lunar tables of
Hansen, and to find a more accurate value for the secular acceleration