dawning in the West. Their first historic writings belong to remotest times—perhaps as early as the twenty-second century B.C. They seem to have divided their epochs into dynasties, for the building of 'The Wall' is placed in the fourth Imperial Dynasty.[1] But there is evidence that from 163 B.C. the methods of dates was to count the years from each accession. Cycles of sixty lunar years were also in vogue, and the latest of such cycles ended in 1864 A.D.[2] The first of such epochs is now computed to have commenced in Anno Mundi 2173, that is, 2636 B.C. This is the first historic cycle. It is a pity that the Chinese neglected the study of astronomy, for the interdependent data and synchronisms would now be of great service. Compared with this, their reputed discovery of the magnetic pole, in pre-Advent ages, is a secondary consideration.
11. The vague Egyptian year was 'so called because it consisted of 365 days, without any intercalculation. As the length of the solar year is nearly 365¼ days, the Egyptian year was, astronomically speaking, too short. In every 400 years it lost 97 days. Thus, in the period of 1504 equinoctial years, an entire solar year was gained by the Egyptian reckoning; and the first of the month of Thoth occurred on each of the 365 days of the solar year in turn.' (B. E., vol. iii., p. 332.) Unlike the Chinese, the Egyptians were earnest students of the stars, and, indeed, invented dances to represent the stellar motions.
12. As to Assyria, there are conjectures that they also were fairly well advanced in astrology; and that at times they chose 360 as the diurnal basis for the year. Now, as
