Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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return of the sun and the seasons. His course was then divided
into 12 portions or signs, corresponding with the number of
moons in the first computation. Each of these portions was
found to consist of 30 days and a fraélion ; but as it would be
inconvenient to divide a da}^ the whole number was retained,
and the surplus added to complete the year.
The first idea of a year must have been that of the return of
the sun and the seasons to the same point. And ftom the
visible revolution of die sun, men must have first obtained
months and years thus construéted. Hence the Hebrew terra,
for a year nw implies an Iteration, Repetition, a Return to
the same point. This could have been no other than the
return of the sun and the seasons. The sun was the great
luminary which, by his regular course amongst the other lights
or stars, was appointed to measure years. Gen. i. 14, 16.
If the moon was first resorted to for the purpose of measuring
the sun's course, it was soon found inadequate Lo the purpose.
Its revolution had no connection with the return of the seasons^
It only served to suggest a division ol" the sun's course into 1 2
portions. In most nations, of which any ancient records and
traditions are preserved, we find that tiiis division of the year,
and the signs of the zodiac, by which it was marked, were
known from remote ages. The discovery is claimed by several
difterent nations, a circumstance Avhich generally attends those
inventions which were derived from the common parents of the
nations. The history of the deluge is understood to be recorded
in the names and delineations of some of the constellations.
It is not improbable that the Noachidai, assigned to them new
names and representations, in order to commemorate this
awful event, in the volume of the heavens, Avliich would be
open to their posterity, in every region of the earth. But with
no postdeiuvian nation can astronomical studies have origi-