order to obtain a rational
view of the relationship between the phenomena of nature and the fate of
the individual or of the state. Again, eclipses, as a general thing,
pointed to a public disaster of some kind, and this recognized belief
lightened the task of the priest considerably in this instance. In the
case of ordinary phenomena it was much more difficult to find the
connection between cause and effect; and in the vast majority of
instances when kings and individuals sought the temples for omens, the
heavens must have presented a normal and not an abnormal appearance.

What answers were the priests to give to the questions put to them? Was
it a favorable period for undertaking a military campaign? On what day
should the king set out? Was the day fixed on by the council of war
favorable for a battle? On what day should the foundation for the temple
or palace be laid? Will the sick person recover? Should one set out on a
proposed journey? Is the day fixed for a marriage auspicious?

Recognizing by experience that the same thing undertaken at different
times turned out differently, in the one case being brought to a
successful issue, in the other followed by misfortune, the conclusion
was forced upon the popular mind (as already set forth above) that the
day on which something was done or was to be done was of great moment.

But how did one day differ from the other? That was the question for the
priests to determine. During the hours that the sun was in control, the
clouds produced constant changes in the appearance of the heavens, but
because of their irregular character, these changes impressed the
Babylonians less forcibly than the striking changes that the nights
showed. The planets and stars never appeared alike on two successive
nights. There was always some change in the position of some of the
heavenly bodies. To these changes, then, the priests directed their
attention. In the variations presented by the heavens at night they saw
a potent reason for the varying results produced by the same act
undertaken at different times.

If it made a difference at what moment something was done, that
difference could only be determined by observing the variations that one
night presented from the other. The astrologers observed that many of
the stars were, or seemed to be, fixed in their orbits; others rose and
set like the sun and moon, and appeared in different parts of the
heavens at different seasons of the year