Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/353

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 331 observations of two thousand years tlie priests and astronomers of Babylon ^^ deduced the eternal laws of nature and providence. They adored the seven gods or angels who directed the course of the seven planets and shed their irresistible influence on the earth. The attributes of the seven planets, with the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twenty-four constellations of the northern and southern hemisphere, were represented by images and talismans ; the seven days of the week were dedicated to their respective deities ; the Sabians prayed thrice each day ; and the temple of the moon at Haran was the term of their pilgrimage."*^ But the flexible genius of their faith was always ready either to teach or to learn ; in the tradition of the creation, the deluge, and the patriarchs, they held a singular agreement with their Jewish captives ; they appealed to the secret books of Adam, Seth, and Enoch ; and a slight infusion of the gospel has transformed the last remnant of the Pol)'theists into the Christians of St. John, in the territory of Bassora.^ The altars The Magians of Babylon were overturned by the Magians; but the injuries of the Sabians were revenged by the sword of Alexander ; Persia groaned above five hundred years under a foreign yoke ; and the purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry, and breathed with their adversaries the freedom of the desert.*'^ Seven hundred years before the death of Mahomet, The Jews the Jews were settled in Arabia ; and a far greater multitude was expelled from the Holy Land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The industrious exiles aspired to liberty and power : they erected synagogues in the cities and castles in the wilder- ness, and their Gentile converts were confounded with the ^Simplieius (who quotes Porphyry) de Cfelo, 1. ii. com. xlvi. p. 123, lin. i8, apud Marsham, Canon. Chron. p. 474, who doubts the fact, because it is adverse to his systems. The earliest date of the Chaldean observations is the year 2234 before Christ. After the conquest of Babylon by .lexander, they were communi- cated, at the request of Aristotle, to the Mstronomer Hipparchus. What a moment in the annals of science ! ™Pocock (.Specimen, p. 138-146), Hottinger (Hist. Oriental, p. 162-203), Hyde (de Religione Vet. Persarum, p. 124, 128, &c. ), d'Herbelot {Sa/>i, p. 725, 726), and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 14, 15), rather excite than gratify our curiosity ; and the last of these writers confounds Sabianism with the primitive religion of the Arabs. 1 D'.Anville (I'Euphrates et le Tigre, p. 130-147) will fix the position of these ambiguous Christians ; Assemannus (Bibliot. Oriental, torn. iv. p. 607-614) may ex- plain their tenets. Hut it is a slippery tnsk to ascertain the creed of an ignorant people, afraid and ashamed to disclose their secret traditions. ^The Magi were fixed in the province of Bahrein (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 114) and mingled with the old .Arabians (Pocock, Specimen, p. 146-130).