gion; and each order or caft is faid to have proceeded from the Divinity in fuch a different manner, that to mingle and confound them would be deemed an act of moft daring impiety. Nor is it between the four different tribes alone that fuch infuperable bar riers are fixed; the members of each caft adhere invariably to the profef sion of their forefathers. From gene. ration to generation, the fame families have followed, and will always continue to follow, one uniform line of life..

Such arbitrary arrangements of the various members which compofe a community, feems, at first view, to be adverfe to improvement either in fcience or in arts; and by forming around the different orders of men, artificial barriers, which it would be impious to pafs, tends to circumfcribe the operations of the human mind within a narrower fphere than nature has allotted to them. When every man is at full liberty to direct his efforts towards those objects and that end which the impulse of his own mind prompts him to prefer, he may be expected to attain that high degree of eminence to which the uncontrouled exertions of genius and induftry naturally conduct. The regulations of Indian policy, with refpect to the different orders of men, muft neceffarily, at fome times, check genius in its career, and confine to the functions of an inferior caft, talents fitted to fhine in an higher fphere. But the arrangements of civil government are made, not for what is extraordinary, but for what is common; not for the few, but for the many. The object of the firft Indian legiflators was to employ the most effectual means of providing for the fubfiftence, the fecurity, and happinefs of all the members of the community over which they prefided. With this view they fet apart certain races of men for each of the various profeflions and arts nefary in a well-ordered fociety,

and appointed the exercife of them to be tranfmitted from father to for in fucceffion. This fyftem, though extremely repugnant to the ideas which we, by being placed in a very different state of fociety, have formed, will be found, upon attentive inspec tion, better adapted to attain the end in view, than a carclefs obferver is, on a first view, apt to imagine. The human mind bends to the law of neceffity, and is accustomed, not only to accommodate itself to the restraints which the condition of its nature, or the inftitutions of its country, impofe, but to acquiefce in them. From his entrance into life, an Indian knows the ftation allotted to him, and the functions to which he is defined by bis birth. The objects which relate to thefe are the first that prefent then felves to his view. They occupy his thoughts, or employ his hands; and, from his earliest years, he is trained to the habit of doing with eafe and pleasure that which he must continue through life to do. To this may be afcribed that high degree of perfection confpicuous in many of the Indian manufactures; and though veneration for the practices of their anceftors may check the fpirit of invention, yet by adhering to thefe, they acquire fuch an expertnefs and delica cy of hand, that Europeans, with all the advantages of fuperior fcience, and the aid of more complete inftru ments, have never been able to equal the exquifite execution of their workmanfhip. While this high improvement of their more curious manufactures excited the admiration, and attracted the commerce, of other nations, the feparation of profeffions in India, and the early diftribution of the people into clanes, attached to particular kinds of labour, fecured fuch abundance of the more common and ufeful commodities, as not only fupplied their own wants, but minister ed to thofe of the countries around them.

To

To this early divifion of the people into cafts, we must likewise afcribe a peculiarity in the ftate of India; the permanence of its inftitutions, and the immutability in the manners of its inhabitants. What now is in India, always was there, and is likely fill to continue: neither the ferocious violence and illiberal fanaticifm of its Mahomedan conquerors, nor the power of its European mafters, have effected any confiderable alteration. The fame diftinctions of condition take place, the me arrangements in civil and domestic fociety remain, the Jame maxims of religion are held in veneration, and the fame fciences and arts are cultivated. Hence, in all ages, the trade with India has been the fame; gold and filver have uniformly been carried thither in order to purchase the fame commodities with which it now fupplies all nations; and from the age of Pliny to the prefent times, it has been always confidered and execrated as a gulf which fwallows up the wealth of every other country, that flows inceffamily towards it, and from which it never returns. According to the accounts which I have given of the cargoes anciently imported from India, they appear to have confifted of nearly the fame articles with thofe of the investments in our own times; and whatever difference we may obferve in them feems to have arifen, not fo much from any diverfity in the nature of the commodities which the Indians prepared for fale, as from a variety in the wants, of the nations which de

manded them.

PROOFS OF THE EARLY CIVILIZATION OF INDIA, FROM THE STATE OF THE SCIENCES.

THE attainments of the Indians in fcience, furnish an additional proof of their early civilization. By every perfon who has vifited India in ancient or modern times, its inhabitants,

either in tranfactions of private bufinefs, or in the conduct of political affairs, have been deemed not inferior to the people of any nation in fagacity, acutenefs of understanding, or addrefs. From the application of fuch talents to the cultivation of fcience, an extraordinary degree of proficiency might have been expected. The Indians were, accordingly, early cele brated on that account, and fome of the moft eminent of the Greek philofophers travelled into India, that, by converfing with the fages of that country, they might acquire fome portion of the knowledge for which they were diftinguifhed. The accounts, however, which we receive from the Grecks and Romans, of the sciences which attracted the attention of the Indian philofophers, or of the difcoveries which they had made in them, are very imperfect. To the researches of a few intelligent perfons, who have vifited India during the courfe of the three laft centuries, we are indebted for more ample and authentic information. But from the reluctance with which the Brahimins communicate their fciences to ftrangers, and the inability of Europeans to acquire much knowledge of them, hile, like the mysteries of their religion, they were concealed from vulgar eyes in an unknown tongue, this information was acquired flowly and with great diffi culty. The fame obfervation, howe ver, which I made concerning our knowledge of the flate of the fine arts among the people of India, is applicable to that of their progrefs in icience, and the prefent age is the first furnished with fufficient evidence up+ on which to found a decifive judg ment with refpect to either.

Science, when viewed as disjoined from religion, the confideration of which I referve for another head, is employed in contemplating either the operations of the understanding, the exercife of our moral powers, or the nature and qualities of external ob

jects.

jects. The first is denominated logic; the fecond ethics; the third phyfics, or the knowledge of nature. With refpe&t to the early progrefs in cultivating each of these fciences in India, we are in poffeffion of facts which merit attention.

But, prior to the confideration of them, it is proper to examine the ideas of the Brahmins with refpect to mind tfelf, for if thefe were not juft, all their theories concerning its operations must have been erroneous and fanciful. The diftinction between matter and fpirit appears to have been early known by the philofophers of India, and to the latter they afcribed many powers, of which they deemed the former to be incapable; and when we recollect how inadequate our conceptions are of every object that does not fall under the cognizance of the fenfes, we may affirm (if allowance be made for a peculiar notion of the Hindoos which shall be afterwards explained) that no defcription of the human foul is more fuited to the dignity of its nature than that given by the author of the Mahabarat, 'Some,' fays he, 'regard the foul as a wonder, others hear of it with altonishment, but no one knoweth it. The weapon divideth it not; the fire burneth it not; the water corrupteth it not; the wind drieth it not away; for it is invifible, inconfumable, incorruptible; it is eternal, univerfal, permanent, immoveable; it is invifible, inconceivable, and unalterable. After this view of the fentiments of the Brahmins concerning mind itfelf, we may proceed to confider their ideas with refpect to each of the sciences, in that tripartite arrangement which I mentioned.

ift, Logic and Metaphyfics. On no fubject has the human understanding been more exercifed than in analyfing its own operations. The various powers of the mind have been examined and defined. The origin and progrefs of our ideas have been traced; and proper rules have been prefcribed,

of proceeding from the observation of facts to the establishment of principles, or from the knowledge of principles to form arrangements of fcience. The philofophers of ancient Greece were highly celebrated for their proficiency in thefe abftrufe fpeculations; and, in their difcuffions and arrangements, difcovered fuch depth of thought, and acutnefs of difcernment, that their syftems of Logic, particularly that of the Peripatetic School, have been deemed most diftinguished efforts of human reafon.

But fince we became acquainted, in fome degree, with the literature and fcience of the Hindoos, we find that as foon as men arrive at that stage in focial life, when they can turn their attention to fpeculative inquiries, the human mind will, in every region of the earth, difplay nearly the fame powers, and proceed in its inveftigations and difcoveries by nearly fimilar fteps. From Abul Fazel's compendium of the philofophy of the Hindoos, the knowledge of which he acquired, as he informs us, by affociating intimately with the most learned men of the nation; from the fpecimen of their logical difcuffions contained in that portion of the Shafter published by Colonel Dow, and from many paffages in the Baghvat-Geeta, it appears that the fame fpeculations which cccupied the philofophers of Greece had engaged the attention of the Indian Brahmins; and the theories of the former, either concerning the qualities of external objects, or the rature of our own ideas, were not more ingenious than thofe of the latter. To define with accuracy, to diftinguish with acuteness, and to reafon with fubtlety, are characteristics of both; and in both, the fame excefs of refinement, in attempting to analyfe thofe operations of mind which the faculties of man were not formed to comprehend, led fometimes to the moft falfe and dangerous conclufions. That fceptical philofophy, which denies the exi

fence

which contribute towards extending our knowledge of nature, in mathematics, mechanics, and aftronomy, A. rithmetic is of elementary ufe. In whatever country then we find that fach attention has been paid to the improvement of arithmetic as to ren der its operations molt eafy and correct, we may prefume that the fciences depending upon it have attained a fuperior degree of perf. &tion. Such improvement of this tcience we fied in India Whre, among the Greek and Romins, the only method used for the notation of numbers was by the letters of the aip_abet, which neceffarily rendered arithmetical calculation extremely tedious and operofe, ”e Indians had, from time in nemone, employed for the lame parpole te ten cyphers, or figures, now unive fully kiowa, and by means of them performed overy operation in art veric with the greste è facil tv and ex sodi

By the hipov tavention of giving a diferent vala to each fure 20erdeg to its change of place, no nære than ten Scares are reeded in ciculatives the mot complix, and of aw given extent; and art haetic is the mod pented of all be iciencos.The Arabuns, not long after their faranti Suin, intra acod tri ́s mode of roPANCA 15 Eurove, aid end en ch to acknowlecze at the bid consid tie kasulidge

proof ftill more confpicuous of their extraordinary progrefs in fcience. The attention and fuccefs with which they ftudied the motions of the heavenly bodies were fo little known to the Greeks and Romans, that it is hardly mentioned by them but in the most cofory manner. But as foon as the Mahomedans etablished an intercourse with the natives of India, they observed and celebrated the fuperiority of their attronomical knowledge. Of the Europeans who visited In iia after the communication with it by the Cape of Good Hope was difcovered, M. Bernier, an inquifitive and philosophical traveller, was one of the first who learned that the Indians had long appl-d to the study of autronomy, and had made confiderable progrefs in that folence. His information, however, feems to have been very general and imperfect. We are indebted for the fit ferent fic proof of the great profi ceny of the Indians in a tronomical Koxiedge, to M. de la Loubere, who, on his return from his embaffy to Stim, brought with him an extract from a Samete mansiering, which conta n. i talles and rules tir calculating treplies of the fun and moon. The mader in whion tree tab es were cod cand ne deres t. e principles on un ca they were founded extremely co cute, and t regard a commentatravin erant in a tron onical cal