What can you say of its origin?

Its origin has been ascribed to several persons, as well as to different nations and ages.  Belus, King of Assyria; Atlas, King of Mauritania; and Uranus, King of the countries situated on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, are all recorded as the persons to whom the world is indebted for this noble science.  Its origin is generally fixed in Chaldea.  Some choose, however, to attribute it to the Hebrews; others to the Egyptians,—­from whom, they say, it passed to the Greeks.

What country is meant by Mauritania?

Mauritania is the name formerly given to a country in the northern part of Africa.  Chaldea is the ancient name for Babylonia, now called Irak Arabi, a district of Asiatic Turkey.

By whom were the heavenly bodies first divided into Constellations or groups?

By the ancients.  The phenomena of the heavens were studied in very early ages by several nations of the East.  The Chaldeans, the Indians, the Chinese and the Egyptians have all left evidence of the industry and ingenuity with which their observations were conducted.

     Phenomena, appearances.

     Ingenuity, skilfulness.

What progress did they make in Astronomy?

They built observatories,—­invented instruments for observing and measuring with correctness,—­separated the stars into different groups or constellations, for the more easily finding any particular star,—­gave particular names to most of the moving stars or planets, and noted the periods which each took to move through its apparent path in the heavens; and in many other ways the ancients helped to lay the foundations of that mass of astronomical knowledge which men of later ages have brought to more maturity.

     Constellation, a cluster of fixed stars; an assemblage of
     stars.

     Observatory, a place so built as to command a view of the
     heavens.

Who first taught the true system of the Universe?

Pythagoras, one of the most distinguished philosophers of antiquity.  He is thought to have been a native of Samos, an island in the Archipelago; he flourished about 500 years before Christ, in the time of Tarquin, the last King of Rome.  Pythagoras was the first among the Europeans who taught that the Earth and Planets turn round the Sun, which stands immovable in the centre;—­that the diurnal motion of the Sun and Fixed Stars is not real, but apparent,—­arising from the Earth’s motion round its own axis, &c.  After the time of Pythagoras, Astronomy sunk into neglect.

     Philosopher, one who studies philosophy.

     Philosophy, all knowledge, whether natural or moral.  The
     term is derived from the Greek, philos, lover, and
     sophia, wisdom.

By whom was it revived?

By the family of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, who founded a school of astronomy at Alexandria, which produced several eminent astronomers, particularly one named Hipparchus.  The Saracens, on their conquest of Egypt, became possessed of the knowledge of Astronomy, which they carried with them out of Africa into Spain; and thus, after a long exile, it was introduced afresh into Europe.