ASTRONOMICAL MYTHS.
ASTRONOMICAL MYTHS,
BASED ON
FLAMMARION'S
"HISTORY OF THE HEAVENS."
BY
JOHN F. BLAKE.
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1877.
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL,
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET.
PREFACE.
The Book which is here presented to the public isfounded upon a French work by M. Flammarion whichhas enjoyed considerable popularity. It contained anumber of interesting accounts of the various ideas, sometimesmythical, sometimes intended to be serious, thathad been entertained concerning the heavenly bodies andour own earth; with a popular history of the earliest commencementof astronomy among several ancient peoples.It was originally written in the form of conversationsbetween the members of an imaginary party at the[Pg viii]seaside. It was thought that this style would hardly beso much appreciated by English as by French readers, andtherefore in presenting the materials of the French authorin an English dress the conversational form has beenabandoned. Several facts of extreme interest in relationto the early astronomical myths and the development ofthe science among the ancients having been brought tolight, especially by the researches of Mr. Haliburton, aconsiderable amount of new matter, including the wholechapter on the Pleiades, has been introduced, which makesthe present issue not exactly a translation, but rather abook founded on the French author's work. It is hopedthat it may be found of interest to those who care toknow about the early days of the oldest of our sciences,which is now attracting general attention again by themagnitude of its recent advances. Astronomy also, in earlydays, as will be seen by a perusal of this book, was somixed up with all the affairs of life, and contributed somuch even to religion, that a history of its beginnings isfound to reveal the origin of several of our ideas andhabits, now apparently quite unconnected with the science.There is matter of interest here, therefore, for those whowish to know only the history of the general ideas ofmankind.
The Annual Revolution of the Earth round the Sun, with the
Signs of the Zodiac and BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!
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