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the inanity of this and all other forms of divination. . . . Of what other ancient civilized nation could as much be said?"[145:1] FOOTNOTES: [136:1] R. A. Proctor, _The Great Pyramid_, pp. 274-276. [139:1] G. V. Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, p. 137. [145:1] G. V. Schiaparelli, _Astronomy in the Old Testament_, p. 52. [Illustration: _By permission of the Autotype Co._ _74, New Oxford Street, London, W.C._ ST. PAUL PREACHING AT ATHENS (_by Raphael_). "As certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring."] BOOK II THE CONSTELLATIONS CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE CONSTELLATIONS The age of Classical astronomy began with the labours of Eudoxus and others, about four centuries before the Christian Era, but there was an Earlier astronomy whose chief feature was the arrangement of the stars into constellations. The best known of all such arrangements is that sometimes called the "Greek Sphere," because those constellations have been preserved to us by Greek astronomers and poets. The earliest complete catalogue of the stars, as thus arranged, that has come down to us was compiled by Claudius Ptolemy, the astronomer of Alexandria, and completed 137 A.D. In this catalogue, each star is described by its place in the supposed figure of the constellation, whilst its celestial latitude and longitude are added, so that we can see with considerable exactness how the astronomers of that time imagined the star figures. The earliest complete description of the constellations, apart from the places of the individual stars, is given in the poem of Aratus of Soli--_The Phenomena_, published about 270 B.C. Were these constellations known to the Hebrews of old? We can answer this question without hesitation in the case of St. Paul. For in his sermon to the Athenians on Mars' Hill, he quotes from the opening verses of this constellation poem of Aratus:-- "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek
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