king will overcome whatever
he goreth," and that "when the moon is low at its appearance, the
submission (of the people) of a far country will come."(14) The
relations of the moon and sun were a source of constant observation,
it being noted whether the sun and moon were seen together above the
horizon; whether one set as the other rose, and the like. And whatever
the phenomena, there was always, of course, a direct association between
such phenomena and the well-being of human kind--in particular the king,
at whose instance, and doubtless at whose expense, the observations were
carried out.

From omens associated with the heavenly bodies it is but a step to omens
based upon other phenomena of nature, and we, shall see in a moment that
the Babylonian prophets made free use of their opportunities in this
direction also. But before we turn from the field of astronomy, it will
be well to inform ourselves as to what system the Chaldean astronomer
had invented in explanation of the mechanics of the universe. Our
answer to this inquiry is not quite as definite as could be desired, the
vagueness of the records, no doubt, coinciding with the like vagueness
in the minds of the Chaldeans themselves. So far as we can interpret
the somewhat mystical references that have come down to us, however,
the Babylonian cosmology would seem to have represented the earth as a
circular plane surrounded by a great circular river, beyond which rose
an impregnable barrier of mountains, and resting upon an infinite sea of
waters. The material vault of the heavens was supposed to find support
upon the outlying circle of mountains. But the precise mechanism through
which the observed revolution of the heavenly bodies was effected
remains here, as with the Egyptian cosmology, somewhat conjectural.
The simple fact would appear to be that, for the Chaldeans as for the
Egyptians, despite their most careful observations of the tangible
phenomena of the heavens, no really satisfactory mechanical conception
of the cosmos was attainable. We shall see in due course by what
faltering steps the European imagination advanced from the crude ideas
of Egypt and Babylonia to the relatively clear vision of Newton and
Laplace.

CHALDEAN MAGIC

We turn now from the field of the astrologer to the closely allied
province of Chaldean magic--a province which includes the other;
which, indeed, is so all-encompassing as scarcely to leave any phase of
Babylonian thoug