appreciated. For many centuries they were thrown into discredit
by the authority of our existing absurd theological chronology.

It is unnecessary to adduce the arguments relied upon by the
Alexandrians to prove the globular form of the earth. They had
correct ideas respecting the doctrine of the sphere, its poles,
axis, equator, arctic and antarctic circles, equinoctial points,
solstices, the distribution of climates, etc. I cannot do more
than merely allude to the treatises on Conic Sections and on
Maxima and Minima by Apollonius, who is said to have been the
first to introduce the words ellipse and hyperbola. In like
manner I must pass the astronomical observations of Alistyllus
and Timocharis. It was to those of the latter on Spica Virginis
that Hipparchus was indebted for his great discovery of the
precession of the eqninoxes. Hipparchus also determined the first
inequality of the moon, the equation of the centre. He adopted
the theory of epicycles and eccentrics, a geometrical conception
for the purpose of resolving the apparent motions of the heavenly
bodies on the principle of circular movement. He also undertook
to make a catalogue of the stars by the method of alineations--
that is, by indicating those that are in the same apparent
straight line. The number of stars so catalogued was 1,080. If he
thus attempted to depict the aspect of the sky, he endeavored to
do the same for the surface of the earth, by marking the position
of towns and other places by lines of latitude and longitude. He
was the first to construct tables of the sun and moon.

THE SYNTAXIS OF PTOLEMY. In the midst of such a brilliant
constellation of geometers, astronomers, physicists,
conspicuously shines forth Ptolemy, the author of the great work,