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ON THE

STRUCTURE

OF THIS GLOBE,

LETTER III.

Examination of Teftimonies adduced from antient Aftronomy, to prove the Antiquity of the World; and particularly of Mr. Bailly's fecond Syftem, founded on an Indian Era pretended to be fixed on real Aftronomical Obfervations.

WE have feen, Sir, the fubterfuges by which some frag

ments of antient authors have been wrested, in order to prove an indefinite antiquity to the population of the earth; and I flatter myself to have fufficiently demonftrated the futility and inadmiffibility of these forced explications. Inwardly fenfible of the weakness of such means, which folely confift in perverting the most evident sense of these traditions, and ashamed of laying much stress on the ridiculous pretenfions of thofe nations who, to prolong their

existence,

existence, have had recourfe to imaginary beings, the favourers of the high antiquity of the world imagined they had at last found triumphant proofs of it in the pretended series of eclipses observed in China. But fuch aftronomers as have attempted to verify them have uniformly agreed, that it was impoffible to lay any solid foundation on obfervations of fuch early periods. They generally bear no other date but that of a reign: are never so precife as to mark the season of the year, or the place of observation;-circumstances, however, abfolutely neceffary to fix the reality of fuch obfervations in a country fo extenfive as China. From the most learned researches they have concluded, that the real obfervations of the Chinese do not carry us fo high as those which the Chaldeans are said, on more authentic testimonies, to have made (a). Besides, evident abfurdities intermixed with these pretended obfervations, such as that of the fun being stationary during ten days, fufficiently fhew what little regard is to be had to them. The as yet very narrow science of that nation, which, though it has carefully preserved the degree of knowledge it had once acquired, has been ever very little folicitous of acquiring further perfection, is ill calculated to infpire us with much confidence on these points (b). It is certain that, whether this nation was originally less learned in aftronomy, or whether it has loft more of its former knowledge in its frequent revolutions, its principles in this science are less exact, notwithstanding its college of mathematicians, than thofe of its neighbours the Tartars, and still less fo than those of Indoftan.

Reduced

Reduced to abandon this fo little folid fupport, it is towards these Indians that the partisans of high antiquity have lately turned their attention. Notwithstanding all the refpect we may be inclined to pay to the certainly very antique race of the Bramins, we are forced to allow that the fables gravely retailed by them, on their origin and early hiftory, are at least as extravagant as those of other nations. who have fet up equal pretenfions. But it is afferted that astronomical calculations, founded upon real obfervations, affure to this people a pre-eminent antiquity, the proofs of which are thus rendered indubitable. We have already touched on the recent work of Mr. Bailly on Indian Aftronomy, and we have drawn from it important lights in the discussion of several objects. We have seen that this judicious author, abandoning to pure fiction the years of the firft and fecond Indian ages, has reduced to reasonable compass those of the third, in order to make it coincide with the duration of the antediluvian times, as gathered from other teftimonies. Notwithstanding the propensity so natural to man to support an opinion once advanced, I cannot suppose that a perfon of his high reputation in fcience could have the fmalleft intention ever to measure back his fteps, or to retract so formal a declaration, limiting the race of man to a period less than 6000 years before Christ, in order to revive the idea of a burning globe cooling by flow degrees, which, like that of Mr. de Buffon, would require a duration fince the time of its being covered with waters, of 30,000, or indeed of 60,000 years. Before I examine the pretended era of 3101 years before Christ of the pre

fent

fent age, I must not diffemble that it is my opinion that neither of the three preceding ages really deferves a ferious confideration. The two firft are certainly fabulous; and to the third, grounded no doubt on the original tradition of an antediluvian world, no calculation or reduction can be applied with any degree of confidence. As I have already indicated in a former note, the number of years attributed to these three ages, arithmetically decreasing, is visibly framed at pleafure by the combination of myftical and fuperftitious numbers, multiplied by one another, and really deferves no more attention than the prophetically determined period of the prefent age. The body of this last publication of Mr. Bailly, confecrated to establish the epoch of 3101 years before Chrift, determined on real obfervations, is certainly a work equally learned and laborious. He therein calculates by diverse Indian tables and formula the pofitions of the fun, moon, and planets, at different periods, till he arrives at this principal era; and verifies them nearly by the more perfect rules of our aftronomy. Nothing can be more dazzling than this fcientific display, nor more imposing than this kind of proof, which we are accustomed to look upon as demonftration. In mathematics a faulty bafis, or the smallest error in initial cyphers, overturns at once the whole fabric of the most perfect calculations. I have no fuch reproach to make to Mr. Bailly, and am far from equal to conteft these points with him. But here admitting the folidity of his basis, and the accuracy of his calculations, it is the conclufions drawn from these that are far from decifive. Without following the author in

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operations far beyond common reach, this point may be difcuffed by fimple reasoning.

What Mr. Bailly feems to have very clearly proved, is, that the antient inhabitants of Indoftan have inherited from their ancestors tolerably perfect rules and formula for the calculation of the motions of the fun and planets, though they have loft all knowledge of the principles on which they are founded. He thinks that all the other nations of the east have borrowed from them their knowledge of aftronomy, conveyed to them by the Bramins of the north; and that the first feat of primitive aftronomy was between the 40th and 50th degree of latitude; and he feems inclined to fix it in Thibet or Boud-tan, though that country lies in a more fouthern latitude. This is recurring to his antient opinion of northern derivations, and is a matter of opinion. If the latitude of 40 is fixed upon, Armenia, under that same latitude, in which all oriental traditions place the cradle of mankind after the deluge, will have at leaft equal pretenfions to it. It refults from his verifications of Indian astronomy, and from the precious relics of that fcience which this author has discovered in all parts of Afia, that a fufficiently perfect theory of aftronomy, drawn from one common fource, has been antiently pretty generally diffused amongst the nations of the eaft, whofe pofterity has preserved its tables and methods, without understanding their principles. It is a moft valuable work, containing the most curious difcoveries, for which the learned world certainly owes great obligations

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