THE GEOCENTRIC SYSTEM OF NATURE.

In constructing their system of nature, the ancient Astronomers
constituted it of the Earth, the Firmament, the Planets, the
Constellations and the Zodiac, and we will refer to them in the order
named.


The Earth.

Believing that the earth was the only world, that it was a vast
circular plane, and that it was the fixed and immovable center around
which revolved the celestial luminaries, the ancient Astronomers, in
conformity to the requirement of the doctrine of future rewards and
punishments, as inculcated in the Egyptian Version of the Exoteric
Creed, divided it into an upper and an under, or nether world, which
they connected by a sinuous and tenebrious passage.


The Firmament.

The azure dome, called the firmament in the book of Genesis, was
believed to be a solid transparency, which we find described, in the
fourth chapter and sixth verse, of that collection of Astronomical
Allegories, called the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, "as a sea of
glass like unto crystal." It was represented as being supported by four
pillars, resting upon the earth, one at each of the cardinal points,
which were designated as "the pillars of heaven." Conceiving the idea
that there were windows in the firmament, the ancient Astronomers