Excerpt from Researches Into the Origin of the Primitive Constellations of the Greeks, Phoenicians and Babylonians, Vol. 1
The time has at length arrived when by the aid of modern investigation of the history and literature of the ancient nations of Western Asia, it is possible to commence a scientific research into the origin of the classical Constellation-figures. The very fact that these mysterious forms were the common property of the greater part of the earlier civilized world, as they have been accepted and adopted by the whole of modern civilization, invests them with a special and peculiar interest. Such an enquiry is no mere matter of musty antiquarian exploration; it constitutes an important study of the mind of the man of bygone ages. It introduces us alike to the history of great centres of civilization, and to the triumphs and achievements of individual genius. It makes us ponder on some of those first steps upon the path of knowledge which were so hard to take, but which form the foundation of our present vast acquisitions. It reveals to us the religious idea in many variant and most interesting phases. And by the light of cuneiform decipherment, we are enabled to exchange crude conjecture and arbitrary fancies for general certainty and harmonious historical transmission and development.
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