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 after all the Fame of these Chaldæans, we may be sure they had not gone far in this Science; and though Callisthenes be said by Porphyry to have brought from Babylon to Greece, Observations above MDCCCC Years older than Alexander, yet the proper Authors making no Mention, or Use of any such, renders it justly suspected for a Fable. What the Egyptians did in this Matter is less evident, no one Observation made by them being to be found in their Countryman Ptolemee, excepting what was done by the Greeks of Alexandria, under CCC Years before Christ. So that whatever was the Learning of these Two ancient Nations as to the Motions of the Stars, it seems to have been chiefly Theorical, and I will not deny but some of them might very long since be apprized of the Sun's being the Center of our System, for such was the Doctrine of Pythagoras, and Philolaus, and some others who were said to have travelled into these Parts.

From hence it may appear, That the Greeks were the first practical Astronomers, who endeavoured in earnest to make themselves Masters of the Science, and to whom we owe all the old Observations of the Planets, and of the