of the globe in improvement, the colour of the inhabitants, their effeminate appearance, their unwarlike spirit, the wild extravagance of their religious tenets and ceremonies, and many other circumftances, confirmed Europeans in fuch an opinion of their own preeminence, that they have always viewed and treated them as an inferior race of men. Happy would it be if any of the four European nations, who have, fucceffively, acquired extenfive territories and power in India, could altogether vindicate itfelf from having acted in this manner. Nothing, however, can have a more direct and powerful tendency to infpire Europeans, proud of their own fuperior attainments in policy, fcience, and arts, with proper fentiments concerning the people of India, and to teach them a due regard for their natural rights as men, than their being accustomed, not only to confider the Hindoos of the prefent times as a knowing and ingenious race of men, but to view them as defcended from ancestors who had attained to a very high degree of improvement, many ages before the leaft ftep towards civilization had been taken in any part of Europe. It was by an impartial and candid inquiry into their manners, that the Emperor Akber was led to confider the Hindoos as no less entitled to protection and favour than his other fubjects, and to govern them with fuch equity and mildness, as to merit from a grateful people the honourable appellation of "The Guardian of Mankind." It was from a thorough knowledge of their character and acquirements, that his Vizier, Ahul Fazel, with a liberality of mind unexampled among Mahomedans, pronounces an high encomium on the virtues of the Hindoos, both as individuals and as members of fociety, and celebrates their attainments in arts and fciences of every kind. If I might prefume to hope that the defcription which I have given of the manners and inftitutions of the people of India could contribute in the fmallest degree, and with the most remote influence, to render their character more refpectable, and their condition more happy, I fhall close my literary labours with the fatisfaction of thinking that I have not lived or written in vain.' We hope that Dr. R. will not, as he strongly infinuates, here terminate his literary labours, how honourable foever the termination might be, both to his understanding and to his heart. Of his various performances, the prefent is not that of which the design is the most extenfive, nor the execution the most elaborate but in this Hiftorical Difquifition, we perceive the fame patient affiduity in collecting his materials, the fame difcernment in arranging them, the fame perfpicuity of narrative, and the fame power of illuftration, which fo eminently diftinguish his other writings, and which have long rendered them the delight of the English reader at home, and an honour to English literature abroad. Ayeen Akbery, vol. iii. p. 2. 81. 95. ART. ART. II. Philofophical Tranfactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. Ixxx. Part II. [Article concluded from p. 271. of our laft volume.] MATHEMATICAL and ASTRONOMICAL PAPERS. Determination of the Longitudes and Latitudes of fome remarkable. Places near the Severn. In a Letter from Edward Pigott, Efq.. to Sir Henry Charles Englefield, Bart. F. R. S. TH HE places which have their longitudes and latitudes here determined, are, The center of Brin Hill, the east part of Quantock Hill, a tower called Land Mark, the center of Watchet Hill, St. Hillary's Church, Llanmace Church, Minehead, Frampton Houfe, Llantwit Chur b, the caft part of Llangwynewar Hill, St. Donat's Cafle, Porlock, or Hufton Point, Leemouth, and Hangman Hill Thefe longitudes and latitudes are all deduced from thole of Frampton House, which had been previously determined, the former from tranfits of the moon over the meridian, compared with correfponding obfervations made at Greenwich, and the latter from meridional altitudes of the fun and fixed stars, made with a quadrant of 18 inches, of Bird's conftruction. On the Satellites of the Planet Saturn, and the Rotation of its Ring on an Axis. By William Herfchel, LL. D. F. R. S. Dr. Herschel here gives all the obfervations which he has yet been able to make on the planet Saturn, its ring, and fatellites; as well thofe from which the deductions contained in a former paper on this fubject had been drawn, (fee our Review for lait April, p. 403,) as those which he has fince been able to make; and he informs us, that he has been induced to haften this inquiry, on account of the frequent appearance which he had obferved of protuberant and lucid points on the arms of Saturn's ring. I have mentioned (fays he) in my laft paper, that these phæ nomena had been refolved by the fituation of fatellites that put on thefe appearances but my obfervations were continued near two months afterwards; and as I had from them corrected the epoche of the old fatellites, and improved the tables of the new ones, I found that befides many of thefe bright points which were completely accounted for by the calculated places of the fatellites, there were also many more mentioned in my journal, that would not accord with the fituation of any of them. The question then prefented itfe:f very naturally, What shall I make of thefe protuberant points? To admit two or three more fatellites, by way of folving fuch phænomena, appeared to me too hazardous an hypothefis; especially as thefe lucid points, though fome of them had a motion, did not feem willing to conform to the criterion I had before used, of coming off the ring, and fhewing themfelves as fatellites. And yet a fufpicion of at least one more fatellite fatellite would often return; it was confiderably strengthened when I discovered, by means of re-calculating with great precision the whole series of obfervations, that in the beginning of the feafon there had been fome few mistakes in the names of the fatellites, when the obfervations of them were entered in the journal. In fetting them right, which threw a great light upon the revolution of the fixth, and more especially upon that of the feverth, I found alfo, that fome of the obfervations which were entered by the name of the feventh fatellite could not belong to that, nor to any other known one. It remained therefore to be examined, whether there might not be fufficient ground to fufpect the existence of an eighth fatellite. In this fituation of things, I thought it most adviseable to draw out the whole feries of obfervations in a paper, beginning at the fifth fatellite, and proceeding gradually through the fourth, third, fecond, firft, fixth, and feventh, to approach towards the center of Saturn; that it might appear at laft what obfervations were left unaccounted for. By this means alfo it will be feen clearly, with how fcrupulous an attention the identity of every fatellite has been ascertained; and with a view to give the ftrongest fatisfaction in this refpect, at least one obfervation of each has been calculated for each night; and the place thus computed is put down, that it may be compared with the obferved one.' After giving the obfervations, and the method which he purfued in comparing them, he remarks, that there remained, among his obfervations, many which would not accord with the computed fituations of any of the five old, nor of the two new, fatellites, which he had himfelf difcovered; and if he had found that they could all have been expounded by admitting one fatellite more within that which he has called the feventh, he fhould not have hesitated in adopting that hypothefis: but as they could not, he is inclined to think that the brilliant and apparently protuberant points, which he took for fatellites, are points in the ring itself; and that the ring has a motion of its own, making a revolution in its own plane, and carrying these points along with it, once in the courfe of about ioh. 32 m. 15 f. 4. Having now compared a greater number of obfervations than he had done when he wrote his former paper on this fubject, Dr. H. ftates the time of a revolution of the fixth fatellite to be 1 d. 8h. 53′ 8′′ 9; and that of the feventh, 22h. 37 m. 221. 9. Thefe are to be fuppofed corrections of the numbers given in his former paper. He adds, that the revolution of the feventh fatellite is not yet abfolutely confirmed, and that it will require the obfervations of another feafon, at least, to establish inis point with accuracy. Dr. H. defers the full investigation of the distances of these two fatellites from the center of Saturn, until he has obtained a greater a greater number of observations than he has yet done, made in proper fituations for that purpose: but, admitting the dif tance of the fourth fatellite to be 3′ 8′′ 918 from Saturn, which is the refult of the beft obfervations that he has yet obtained, and that the time of its revolution is 15 d. 22h. 41 m. 13f. 4, the diftance of the fixth fatellite from Saturn will be 36"7889, and that of the seventh 28′′6689. The paper concludes with tables for computing the pofitions of all the feven fatellites, with examples of their use. Of Spherical Motion. By the Rev. Charles Wildbore; còmmunicated by Earl Stanhope, F. R. S. The problem of determining how any body will continue to move, after it has been made to revolve about an axis paffing through its center of gravity, while that center remains at rest in abfolute space, was firft refolved, or attempted to be refolved, by the very learned M. D'Alembert: it was afterward undertaken by the celebrated M. Euler; and again by the truly ingenious P. Frifi of Milan. All these gentlemen proceeded on the fame principles, and reasoned nearly in the fame manner; fo that if one of them was wrong, all the reft must be so. The late Mr. Landen, who was not, perhaps, inferior to any of the three former, in that branch of the mathematics to which this problem belongs, after reading what they had done on the subject, was perfectly fatisfied that they had proceeded on wrong principles; and that, in confequence, many of their conclufions were erroneous. His folution of the fame queftion was first published in the 75th volume of the Philofophical Tranfactions, for the year 1785; and afterward, at greater length, in the fecond volume of his Memoirs, which made its appearance in the beginning of the year 1790 *. Whether Mr. Landén, or the three first-mentioned gentlemen, be right, is the queftion. Mr. Wildbore takes the three against the one: he has, therefore, the odds in his favour: but we do not mean to infinuate that he has nothing elfe, nor to hazard an opinion on the fubject. It might, perhaps, be deemed great prefumption in us to do it, even if the matter had been put in the plainest point of view that it will admit. We will however venture to fay, that it does not appear from the fpecimen before us, that Mr. W. able as he is, is likely to be the man defined by Providence to clear up this intricate matter. On the Chronology of the Hindoos. By William Marfden, Esq. F. R. S. and A. S. Mr. Marsden here explains the nature of the several eras which are in ufe among the Hindoos, who, in general, pro * See Review, vol. iv. New Series, p. 446. fefs fefs the religion of Brahma, and are confidered as the indigenous inhabitants of India; and compares them with each other, and with the Chriftian era. The principal era among the Hindoos is the Kalee Yoog, as Mr. Marsden writes it, or Calyougham, as it is written by others, which is the current one of four grand yoogs, or ages, that these people suppose to have exifted fince the creation of the world. To give our readers fome idea of the extravagance with which this fpeculative people, in the wanton exercise of numerical power, portion out the boundless region of duration, it may be fufficient to obferve, that the Kalee Yoog has its beginning in the 3101ft year before the ufual date of the Chriftian era, and is yet incompleted; that they believe this will be the fhorteft of the four Yoogs; and that the number of years in each of the other three are progreffively greater, as they are more remote from the present time. Mr. Marsden does not deem it neceffary to extend his researches to any of the three former Yoogs, as the Kalee Yoog conftitutes the principal era to which practical chronology has any reference, and comprehends within it, 1ft, the era of the Bikramajit; 2d, the era of Salaban; 3d, the Bengal era, which is not strictly Hindoo; and, 4th, the Cycle of 60 years. Our limits will not permit us to purfue the thread of this curious paper to that extent which we could wish; and, therefore, as the following table will exhibit the relation of the feveral eras to one another, to the Chriftian era, and to period, we fhall transcribe it: the Julian 4791 3179 134 ;8 Prefent Cycle of 606460 +848 18031747 1669 1154 58 54 1 Years, A. D. 1700, fr. Apr. 16503148911846|179017121197| 44 APPENDIX. Remarks on Major General Roy's Account of the Trigonometrical Operation, suhereby the Distance between the Meridians of the Royal Obfervatories of Greenwich and Paris has been determined. By Mr. Ifaac Dalby. This article is introduced by the following preface: Our late much refpected colleague, Major General Roy, hav ing finished, in September 1738, the trigonometrical measurement described |