His spirit, though mighty and unbounded, from his early habits and education naturally tended to repose; he thought with delight on the sun rising among the Alpine snows, or gilding the peaks of the rugged hills with its evening rays. But within him he felt a fire burning for ever, and which the snows of his native mountains could not quench. He feared that he was alone in the world, and that no being, kindred to his own, had been created; but in his soul there was an image of angelic perfection, which he believed existed not on earth, but without which he knew he could not be happy. Despairing to find it in populous cities, he retired to his paternal domain. On again entering upon the scenes of his infancy, many new and singular feelings were experienced he is enchanted with the surpassing beauty of the scenery, and wonders that he should have rambled so long and so far from it. The noise and the bustle of the world were immediately forgotten on contemplating

‹ The silence that is in the starry sky,

The sleep that is among the lonely hills.'

A light, as it were, broke around him, and exhibited a strange and momentary gleam of joy and of misery mingled together. He entered the dwelling of his infancy with delight, and met his brother with emotion. But his dark and troubled eye betokened a fearful change, when he beheld the other playmate of his infancy. Though beautiful as the imagination could conceive, she appeared otherwise than he expected. Her form and face were associated with some of his wildest reveries, his feelings of affection were united with many undefinable sensations, he felt as if she was not the wife of his brother, although he knew her to be so, and his soul sickened at the thought.

"He passed the night in a feverish state of joy and horror. From the window of a lonely tower, he beheld the moon shining amid the bright blue of an Alpine sky, and diffusing a calm and beautiful light on the silvery snow. The eagle ow! uttered her long and plaintive note from the castellated summits which overhung the valley, and the feet of the wild chamois were heard rebounding from the neighbouring rocks; these accorded with the gentler feelings of his mind, but the strong spirit which so frequently overcame him, listened with intense delight to the dreadful roar of an immense torrent, which was precipitated from the summit of an adjoining cliff, among broken rocks and pines, overturned and uprooted, or to the still mightier voice of the avalanche, suddenly descending with the accumulated snows of a hundred years.

In the morning he met the object of his unhappy passion. Her eyes were dim with tears, and a cloud of sorrow had darkened the light of her lovely countenance.

For some time there was a mutual constraint in their manner, which both were afraid to acknowledge, and neither was able to dispel. Even the uncontrollable spirit of the wanderer was oppressed and overcome, and he wished he had never returned to the dwelling of his ancestors. The lady is equally aware of the awful peril of their situation, and without the knowledge of her husband, she prepared to depart from the castle, and take the veil in a convent situated in a neighbouring valley.

With this resolution she departed on the following morning; but in crossing an Alpine pass, which conducted by a nearer route to the ad. joining valley, she was enveloped in mists and vapour, and lost all knowledge of the surrounding country. The clouds closed in around her, and a tremendous thunder storm took place in the valley beneath. She wan dered about for some time, in hopes of gaining a glimpse through the clouds of some accustomed object to direct her steps, till exhausted by fatigue and fear, she reclined upon a dark rock, in the crevices of which, though it was now the heat of summer, there were many patches of snow. There she sat, in a state of feverish deliriam, till a gentle air dispelled the dense vapour from before her feet, and discovered an enormous chasm, down which she must have fallen, if she had taken another step. While breathing a silent prayer to Heaven for this pro vidential escape, strange sounds were heard, as of some disembodied voice floating among the clouds. Suddenly she perceived, within a few paces, the figure of the wanderer tossing his arms in the air, his eye inflamed, and his general aspect wild and distracted-he then appeared meditating a deed of sin,-she rushed towards him, and, clasping him in her arms, dragged him backwards, just as he was about to precipi tate himself into the gulf below.

'Overcome by bodily fatigue, and agitation of mind, they remained for some time in a state of insensibility. The brother first revived from his stupor; and finding her whose image was pictured in his soul lying by his side, with her arms resting upon his shoulder, he believed for a moment that he must have executed the dreadful deed he had meditated, and had waked in heaven. The gentle form of the lady is again reanimated, and slowly she opened her beautiful eyes. She questioned him regarding the purpose of his visit to that desolate spot-a full explanation took place of their mutual sensations, and they confessed the passion which consumed them.

'The sun was now high in heaven-the clouds of the morning had ascended to the loftiest Alps-and the mists, "into their airy elements resolved, were gone." As the god of day advanced, dark vallies were suddenly illuminated, and lovely lakes brightened like mirrors among the hills-their waters sparkling with the fresh breeze of the morning. The most beautiful clouds were sailing in the air-some breaking on the mountain tops, and others resting on the sombre pines, or slumbering on the surface of the unilluminated vallies. The shrill whistle of the marmot was no longer heard, and the chamois had bounded to its inaccessible retreat. The vast range of the neighbouring Alps was next distinctly visible, and presented, to the eyes of the beholder," glory beyond all glory ever seen."

In the meantime a change had taken place in the feelings of the mountain pair, which was powerfully strengthened by the face of nature. The glorious hues of earth and sky seemed indeed to sanction and rejoice in their mutual happiness. The darker spirit of the brother had now fearfully overcome him. The dreaming predictions of his most imaginative years appeared realized in their fullest extent, and the voice of prudence and of nature was inaudible amidst the intoxication of his joy. The object of his affection rested in his arms in a state of listless happiness, listening with enchanted ear to his wild and impassioned eioquence, and careless of all other sight or sound.

'She too had renounced her morning vows, and the convent was unthought of, and forgotten. Crossing the mountains by wild and unfrequented paths, they took up their abode in a deserted cottage, formerly frequented by goatherds and the hunters of the roe. On looking down, for the last time, from the mountain top, on that delightful valley, in which she had so long lived in innocence and peace, the lady thought of her departed mother, and her heart would have died within her, but the wild glee of the brother again rendered her insensible to all other sensations, and she yielded to the sway of her fatal passion.

There they lived, secluded from the world, and supported, even through evil, by the intensity of their passion for each other. The turbulent spirit of the brother was at rest-he had found a being endowed with virtues like his own, and, as he thought, destitute of all his vices. The day dreams of his fancy had been realized, and all that he had imagined of beauty, or affection, was embodied in that form which he could call his own.

On the morning of her departure the dreadful truth burst upon the mind of her wretched husband. From the first arrival of the dark-eyed stranger, a gloomy vision of future sorrow had haunted him by day and night. Despair and misery now made him their victim, and that awful malady which he inherited from his ancestors was the immediate consequence. He was seen, for the last time, among some stupendous cliffs which overhung the river, and his hat and cloak were found by the chamois hunters at the foot of an ancient pine.

'Soon too was the guilty joy of the survivors to terminate. The gentle lady, even in felicity, felt a load upon her heart Her spirit had burned too ardently, and she knew it must, ere long, be extinguished. Day after day the lily of her cheek encroached upon the rose, till at last she assumed a monumental paleness, unrelieved, save by a transient and hectic glow. Her angelic form wasted away, and soon the flower of the valley was no more.

His

The soul of the brother was dark, dreadfully dark, but his body wasted not, and his spirit caroused with more fearful strength. "The sounding cataract haunted him like a passion." He was again alone in the world, and his mind endowed with more dreadful energies wild eye sparkled with unnatural light, and his raven hair hung heavy on his burning temples. He wandered among the forests and the mountains, and rarely entered his once beloved dwelling, from the windows of which he had so often beheld the sun sinking in a sea of crimson glory.

"He was found dead in that same pass in which he had met his sister among the mountains; his body bore no marks of external violence, but his countenance was convulsed by bitter insanity.'

ART. VIII.—Surya Siddhanta.

P. F.

OST of our readers are acquainted with the controversy which has taken place among some modern Astronomers of the first reputation; M. Gentil, M. Le Place, Dr. Marsden, Mr. Bentley, &c. as to the antiquity of the Indian astronomical calcu.. lations. The gentlemen who advocate the high antiquity of the Indian tables, refer them to a Hindo period called the Kaly Yong 3102 years before the christian æra.

Four sets of Hindoo astronomical tables have been at different times brought or transmitted to Europe, by travellers who had no connection or communication with each other. 1. By father Duchamp, transmitted by M. de la Loubere, from Siam in 1687. 2. The tables from Parampour, by father Patrouillet, also transmitted by M. de la Loubere. 3. The Tirvalore tables brought home by M. Gentil. 4. Another set brought home by La Loubere. These tables assign values to seven different astronomical elements, which do not belong to them at the present day, but which the theory of gravity proves to have belonged to them at the æra of the Kali Youg! viz.

1. The procession of the equinoxes.

2. The acceleration of the moon's motion.

3. The length of the solar year.

4. The equation of the sun's centre. 5. The place of Jupiter's aphelion.

6. The equation of Saturn's centre.

7. The inequalities of motion of Jupiter and Saturn.

Dr. Marsden and Mr. Bentley suppose these calculations to have been made backward, at the period when the Soorya siddy antes (or Soorya viddantam, or Surya siddhanta as it is spelt above) was compiled; which is the great source of the present astronomical knowledge of the modern Brahmins, who are ignorant however of the principles on which the Surya siddhanta was calculated. But the supposition that this book contains astronomical facts calculated backwards, is inconsistent with the knowledge of astronomy prevalent in Europe at the date assigned to it. In Scotland, Dr. Playfair's defence of the antiquity of the Hindoo astronomy, is generally considered as unshaken. At any rate, the first translated specimen of the Surya Siddhanta, cannot but be welcomed as a curiosity of Hindoo literature, of no mean character: we give therefore the following extract from the Asiatic Register of May, 1817.

PART OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE SURYA SIDDHANTA.

[The Surya Siddhanta our readers will recollect is the celebrated work on Astronomy, which by the plausible assumption of an immensely remote antiquity, has occasioned much curiosity, investigation, and con troversy. See Asiatic researches, vols. ii. vi. and viii. We are enabled through the kindness of one of the very limited number capable of producing it, to present a version from the original Sanskrita, which is asserted to be the work of Varaha Mihira.]

BOOK FIRST.

Reverence to Ganesa! Om! Om!

Reverence to Brahma, the inconceivable, imperceptible form; without quality, the soul of quality; whose image comprehends the whole universe.

**

In the Krita-Yooga, a little remaining, a great Asurat by name

* First age!

An evil spirit.

VOL. X.

51

Maya, desirous of learning in full the most sublime mystery, the highest degree of knowledge, and foremost branch of science, the cause of the motion of the heavenly bodies, inflicted upon himself very severe acts of penance, in worshipping the sun. The prolific God, gratified by those acts of penance, was pleased with him, and of himself bestowed upon the votary Maya, the history of the planets, The glorious sun said: "Invoked with acts of penance, I know thy wish; and I will give thee that knowledge which has time for its foundation, the great history of the planets. No one being able to bear my glare, I have not an instant to speak. This man, a portion of myself, shall repeat it to thee, without remainder."

The God having said this, and fully instructed the portion of himself, disappeared. That man spoke thus unto Maya, as he stood with joined hands bowing:-"Hear with an attentive mind that supreme knowledge which heretofore the sun himself, in each of the Yugas, revealed unto the Maharshis. This, verily, is that first Sastra the author of light formerly pronounced.”

"In this work the division of time is by the revolution of Yugas only. There is a Time the destroyer of all things. There is another Time for the purpose of calculation. That species of time is two fold, from its gross and subtle natures, called Murtta and Amurtta. The Murtta is distinguished by the terms Prana, &c. The Amurtta by the term

- Six Pranas make one Vinari: sixty Vinaris one Nari; sixty Naris one day and night of the stars, and of such days and nights, thirty constitute one month; by sun-risings called Savana, by Tithis, or Lunar days, Lunar; by the Sangkranti Solar. Of twelve months is formed one year: it is called a celestial day. The Suras and the Asuras have their respective day and night, the reverse of each other. Of such days three hundred and sixty make a celestial year; and also a year of the Asuras. Of those years twelve thousand constitute the period of the four Yugas. The sum of the four Yugas, including their Sandhis¶ and Sandhyangsas, is 4,320,000 solar years.

The duration of the Krita, &c. Yugas, is in proportion to the number of Dharma's feet remaining. The four Yugas, in due order, consist of four, three, two, and one-tenth of the sum of the whole.

The sixth part of the Krita, &e. Yuga, in due order, is its proper Sandhi. Seventy-one of the Yugas, &c. is here called the period of a Manu. At the end of it there is a Sandhi of the number of years constituting the Krita Yooga, viz. one million seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand years, called Jalotbhava.** Of the above Manus there are fourteen in a Kalpa, including Sandhis. At the beginning of a Kalpa, there is a Sandhi of fifteen times the measure of the Krita Yuga. Thus a Kalpa, which brings about the confusion of all things, is formed of a

* Maya is frequently mentioned as an artist skilled in supernatural works; in a note there is this addition; " at a place in Salmali Dwipa situated four hundred and twenty Yojanas to the east part from Lanka, Maya, &c."

Literally great saints.

Meaning time personified in Siva or fate.

Breathings.

The term is not legible in the original.

The literal meaning of Sandhya or Sandhi is junction or union; and of Sandhyangsa-portion of Sandhi.

** Rising of the waters.