When once lenses of the two contrary kinds existed, the elements of a telescope were in being.

We could not assume from these data that the discovery was made; but if it shall ultimately be substantiated that bodies invisible to the naked eye were observed by the Babylonians, we need feel no difficulty in ascribing to them the possession of some telescopic instrument.
The astronomical zeal of the Babylonians was in general, it must be confessed, no simple and pure love of an abstract science.

A school of pure astronomers existed among them; but the bulk of those who engaged in the study undoubtedly pursued it in the belief that the heavenly bodies had a mysterious influence, not only upon the seasons, but upon the lives and actions of men--an influence which it was possible to discover and to foretell by prolonged and careful observation.

The ancient writers, Biblical and other, state this fact in the strongest way; and the extant astronomical remains distinctly confirm it.
The great majority of the tablets are of an astrological character, recording the supposed influence of the heavenly bodies, singly, in conjunction, or in opposition, upon all sublunary affairs, from the fate of empires to the washing of hands or the paring of nails.

The modern prophetical almanac is the legitimate descendant and the sufficient representative of the ancient Chaldee Ephemeris, which was just as silly, just as pretentious, and just as worthless.
The Chaldee astrology was, primarily and mainly, genethlialogical.
It inquired under what aspect of the heavens persons were born, or conceived, and, from the position of the celestial bodies at one or other of these moments, it professed to deduce the whole life and fortunes of the individual.