ravans of the nomads of
Asia and Africa, having given them a knowledge of the earth from the
Fortunate Islands to Serica, and from the Baltic to the sources of the
Nile, the comparison of the phenomena of the various zones taught them
the rotundity of the earth, and gave birth to a new theory. Having
remarked that all the operations of nature during the annual period
were reducible to two principal ones, that of producing and that of
destroying; that on the greater part of the globe these two operations
were performed in the intervals of the two equinoxes; that is to
say, during the six months of summer every thing was procreating and
multiplying, and that during winter everything languished and almost
died; they supposed in Nature two contrary powers, which were in
a continual state of contention and exertion; and considering the
celestial sphere in this view, they divided the images which
they figured upon it into two halves or hemispheres; so that the
constellations which were on the summer heaven formed a direct and
superior empire; and those which were on the winter heaven composed an
antipode and inferior empire. Therefore, as the constellations of summer
accompanied the season of long, warm, and unclouded days, and that
of fruits and harvests, they were considered as the powers of light,
fecundity, and creation; and, by a transition from a physical to a moral
sense, they became genii, angels of science, of beneficence, of purity
and virtue. And as the constellations of winter were connected with long
nights and polar fogs, they were the genii of darkness, of destruction,
of death; and by transition, angels of ignorance, of wickedness, of sin
and vice. By this arrangement the heaven was divided into two domains,
two factions; and the analogy of human ideas already opened a vast field
to the errors of imagination; but the mistake and the illusion were
determined, if not occasioned by a particular circumstance. (Observe
plate Astrological Heaven of the Ancients.)

"In the projection of the celestial sphere, as traced by the
astronomical priests,* the zodiac and the constellations, disposed in
circular order, presented their halves in diametrical opposition; the
hemisphere of winter, antipode of that of summer, was adverse, contrary,
opposed to it. By a continual metaphor, these words acquired a moral
sense; and the adverse genii, or angels, became revolted enemies.**
From that moment all the astronomical history of