ccession of the seasons and the months of the year. It
was indispensable to know, in the first place, the course of the sun,
who, in his zodiacal revolution, shows himself the supreme agent of
the whole creation; then, of the moon, who, by her phases and periods,
regulates and distributes time; then, of the stars, and even of the
planets, which by their appearance and disappearance on the horizon and
nocturnal hemisphere, marked the minutest divisions. Finally, it was
necessary to form a whole system of astronomy,* or a calendar; and from
these works there naturally followed a new manner of considering these
predominant and governing powers. Having observed that the productions
of the earth had a regular and constant relation with the heavenly
bodies; that the rise, growth, and decline of each plant kept pace with
the appearance, elevation, and declination of the same star or the same
group of stars; in short, that the languor or activity of vegetation
seemed to depend on celestial influences, men drew from thence an idea
of action, of power, in those beings, superior to earthly bodies; and
the stars, dispensing plenty or scarcity, became powers, genii,** gods,
authors of good and evil.

* It continues to be repeated every day, on the indirect
authority of the book of Genesis, that astronomy was the
invention of the children of Noah. It has been gravely
said, that while wandering shepherds in the plains of
Shinar, they employed their leisure in composing a planetary
system: as if shepherds had occasion to know more than the
polar star; and if necessity was not the sole motive of
every invention! If the ancient shepherds were so studious
and sagacious, how does it happen that the modern ones are
so stupid, ignorant, and inattentive? And it is a fact that
the Arabs of the desert know not so many as six
constellations, and understand not a word of astronomy.

** It appears that by the word genius, the ancients denoted
a quality, a generative power; for the following words,
which are all of one family, convey this meaning: generare,
genos, genesis, genus, gens.

"As the state of society had already introduced a regular hierarchy
of ranks, employments and conditions, men, continuing to reason by
comparison, carried their new notions into their theology, and formed a
complicated system of divinities by gradation of rank, in which the sun,
a