built a large vessel, which, even in this nautical age, would require all the application of almost every art and every science given to man. But, did not Abraham, afterwards, draw his sword to sacrifice his son? Eliezer offer to Rebecca his vases of gold and silver? and Judah give to Thamar his bracelet and his ring? Job speaks of mines, and of the manner of working them. The Israelites made a calf of gold. Moses even rendered gold potable. The oldest astronomical observations of which we know any thing, are those of the Hindoos. They are correct for 4893 years, commencing 3102 years before our æra, and are nearly of the same date with that given by Manetho to the Egyptians, and by Herodotus to the Phoenicians. The manner in which these observations were calculated, is likewise original, and different from that of any other people. It grows out of clear and irrefragable data, aided by a chain of accurate and anterior observations. From this, the parent of all future planetary systems, the Chaldeans drew their astronomical riches; from the same source flowed all the knowledge of the Egyptians. The Greeks, we know, learned from a strange people; and by the Greeks we have been enlightened. It is said, the the Egyptians and the Chaldeans went infinitely further back in their calculations. But, this is merely asserted, not proved. The Hindoos, however, have proof. They have preserved their historical monuments. They have their Jyotish, or astronomical Sastra, so ancient as to be reputed a divine revelation. * Moreover, the actual ignorance of the Brahmans, at this hour, of the elementary parts of this science, undeni ably shew, that their ancestors, or a more ancient people, were the inventors of the astronomy, which, in a biind routine, they now, in some instances, practise. The grand theoretical system of Hindoo astronomy, which may be said to be lost, was, from what still remains of it, rich, varied, and correct. The tables of Trivalore, Narsipore, and Chrisnabouram, together with those of Siam, demonstratively evince the profound knowledge of the early Hindoos in this science. In a word, says Bailly, Richesse de la science, variéte des méthodes, exactitude des determinations, tout assure aux Indiens, ou à leurs auteurs la possession & l'invention de leur astronomie. Les Indiens donnent à cette science une date très antique qui repond à la description du ceil. † *Asiatic Researches. + L'Astrnom. Idienne & Orientale, The The attention and success with which the Hindoos studied the motions of the heavenly bodies, were so little known to the Greeks and Romans, that it is hardly mentioned by them, but in the most cursory manner. * The Mahometans, however, on their establishing an in-. tercourse with India, observed and acknowledged the superiority of the Hindoos in astronomical knowledge. Of the Europeans who visited India, after the communication with it by the Cape of Good Hope was discovered, Bernier (and celebrity should be joined to his honest name) was the first who learned, that the Indians had long applied to the study of astronomy. But the first scientific proof of their great pro-. ficiency was given us by De La Loubere; who, on his return from his embassy to Siam, brought with him an extract from a Siamese manuscript, which contained tables and rules for calculating the places of the sun and moon. The manner in which these tables were constructed, rendered the principles on which they were founded extremely obscure; and it required a commentator as conversant in astronomical calculation as Cassini, to explain the meaning of this curious fragment. The epoch of the Siamese tables corresponds to the 21st of March, A. D. : VOL. IV. S Strabo. A. D. 638. Another set of tables was transmitted from Chrisnabouram, in the Carnatic, the epoch of which answers to the 10th of March, 1491. A third set of tables came from Narsipore, and the epoch of them goes no farther back than A. D. 1569. The fourth and most curious set of tables was published by M. le Gentil, to whom they were communicated by a learned Brahman of Trivalore, a small town on the Coromandel Coast, about twelve miles west of Negapatam. The epoch of these tables is of high antiquity, and coincides with the beginning of the celebrated æra of the Calyougham, or Colle Jogue, which commenced, according to the Indian account, three thousand one hundred and two years before the birth of Christ. These four sets of tables have been examined and compared by Bailly; and his calculations have been verified, and his reasonings illustrated and extended, by the learned Professor Playfair,* The general result of all the enquiries, reasonings, and calculations, in regard to Indian astronomy, which have hitherto been made public, is, that the motion of the heavenly bodies, and more particularly their situation at the comencement of the different, epochs to which * Robertson. the the four sets of tables refer, are ascertained with great accuracy; and that many of the elements of their calculations, especially for very remote ages, are verified by an astonishing coincidence with the tables of the modern astronomy of Europe, as improved by the latest and most nice. deductions from the theory of gravitation. The accuracy of these results, however, is less surprising, than the justness and scientific nature of the principles, on which the tables, by which they calculate, are constructed; for the method of predicting eclipses, followed by the Brahmans, is of a kind altogether different from any that has been found in the possession of nations in the infancy of astronomy. Geometry, as well as arithmetic, are here called in to contribute their assistance. The Indians never employ any of the grosser computations, that were the pride of the early astronomers of Egypt, and of Babylon. The older the calculations of the Hindoos, the more accurate they are found. For those very remote ages (nearly five thousand years distant from the present) their astronomy is most accurate; and the nearer it comes down to our own times, the conformity of its results with ours diminishes. From astronomy in its most advanced S 2 |