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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 most daring impiety. Nor is it between the four different tribes alone that such infuperable bar riers are fixed; the members of each caft adhere invariably to the profef fion of their forefathers. From generation to generation, the fame families have followed, and will always continue to follow, one uniform line of life.

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Such arbitrary arrangements of the various members which compofe a community, feems, at firft view, to be adverse 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 pass, tends to circumfcribe the operations of the human mind within a narrower sphere 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 impulfe 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 first Indian legiflators was to employ the most effectual means of providing for the fubfiftence, the fecurity, and happiness 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 profeffions and arts neceffary in a well-ordered fociety,

and appointed the exercife of them to be tranfmitted from father to fom 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 infpection, better adapted to attain the end in view, than a careless obferver is, on a firft view, apt to imagine. The human mind bends to the law of neceflity, and is accustomed, not only to accommodate itfelf to the reftraints 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 his birth. The objects which .relate to thefe are the first that prefent themfelves 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 muft 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 ancellors 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 science, and the aid of more complete inftruments, 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 claffes, attached toparticular kinds of labour, fecured fach abundance of the more common and ufeful commodities, as not only fupplied their own wants, but minifter ed to thofe of the countries around them.

To

To this early divifion of the people into cafts, we must likewise ascribe 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 ftill to continue: neither the ferocious violence and illiberal fanaticism of its Mahomedan conquerors, nor the power of its European mafters, have effected any confiderable alteration. The fame diftinctions of condition take place, the fame arrangements in civil and domeftic fociety remain, the fame 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 fupplics all nations; and from the age of Piiny to the prefent times, it has been always confidered and execrated as a gulf which swallows up the wealth of every other country, that flows inceffantly 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 nearJy the fame articles with thofe of the inveftments in our own times; and whatever difference we may obferve in them seems to have arifen, not fo much from any diversity in the nature of the commodities which the Indians prepared for fale, as from a variety in the wants, of the nations which demanded 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 an cient 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 such talents to the cultivation of science, an extraordinary degree of proficiency might have been expected. The Indians were, accordingly, early celebrated 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 diftinguished. The accounts, however, which we receive from the Greeks and Romans, of the fciences which attracted the attention of the Indian philofophers, or of the discoveries 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 indeb ed for more ample and authentic information. But from the reluctance with which the Brahmins communicate their sciences to ftrangers, and the inability of Europeans to acquire much knowledge of them, while, hike the myfteries of their religion, they were concealed from vulgar eyes in an unknown tongue, this information was acquired flowly and with great difficulty. The fame obfervation, how ever, which I made concerning our knowledge of the ftate of the fine arts among the people of India, is applicable to that of their progrefs in fcience, and the prefent age is the first furnished with fufficient evidence upon which to found a decifive judgment with refpect to either.

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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 respect to the early progrefs in cultivating each of these sciences 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 itself, for if these were not just, 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 fhall 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 aftonishment, 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.' Aker 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.

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ift, Logic and Metaphyfics. On no fubject has the human underftanding 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 bave 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 science. 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 fyftems of Logic, particularly that of the Peripatetic School, have been deemed moft diftinguished efforts of human reafon.

But fince we became acquainted, in fome degree, with the literature and science 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 investigations and difcoveries by nearly similar 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 occupied 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 nature of our own ideas, were not more ingenious than thofe of the latter. To define with accuracy, to diftinguifh with acuteness, and to reafon with fubtlety, are characteristics of both; and in both, the fame excess of refinement, in attempting to analyse those operations of mind which the faculties of man were not formed to comprehend, led fometimes to the most falfe and dangerous conclufions. That fceptical philofophy, which denies the exi

ftence

He who

ftence of the material world, and af" inherent in his nature. "reftraineth his active faculties, and "fitteth down with his mind attentive

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quence, and make the event equal, "whether it terminate in good or in " evil; for fuch an equality is called "Tog (i. e. attention to what is fpi"ritual.) Seck an afylum then in "wifdom alone; for the miferable and "unhappy are fo on account of the " event of things. Men who are en"dued with true wifdom are unmind"ful of good or evil in this world.

ferts nothing to be real but our own ideas, feems to have been known in India as well as in Europe; and the" to the objects of his fenfes, may be fages of the eaft, as they were indebt-called one of an aftrayed foul. The ed to philofophy for the knowledge of man is praifed, who, having fubmany important truths, were not more "dued all his paffions, performeth exempt than thofe of the west from "with his active faculties all the funcits delufions and errors. "tions of life unconcerned about the 2d, Ethics. This science, which 66 event. Let the motive be in the has for its object to afcertain what di- "deed, and not in the event. Be ftinguishes virtue from vice, to invefti- not one whofe motive for action is gate what motives fhould prompt men "the hope of reward. Let not thy to act, and to prefcribe rules for the "life be spent in inaction. Depend conduct of life, as it is of all others the "upon application, perform thy duty, moft interesting, feems to have deeply" abandon all thought of the confeengaged the attention of the Brahmins. Their fentiments with refpe& to thefe points were various, and, like the philofophers of Greece, the Brahmins were divided into fects, diftin. guished by maxims and tenets often diametrically oppofite. That fect with whofe opinions we are, fortunately, beft acquainted, had established a fyftem of morals, founded on principles the most generous and dignified which unaffifted reason is capable of discovering. Man, they taught, was formed, not for fpeculation or indolence, but for action. He is born, not for himfelf alone, but for his fellow men. The happiness of the fociety of which he is a member, the good of mankind, are his ultimate and highest objects." In chufing what to prefer or reject, the juftnefs and propriety of his choice are the only confiderations to which he should attend. The events which may follow his actions are not in his own power, and whether they be profperous or adverfe, as long as he is fatisfied with the purity of the motives which induced him to act, he can enjoy that approbation of his own mind, which conftitutes genuine happiness, independent of the power of fortune or the opinions of other men. "Man

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Study then to obtain this applica"tion of thy understanding, for fuch " "application in bufinefs is a precious " art. Wife men who have aban"doned all thought of the fruit which "is produced from their actions, are"freed from the chains of birth; and go to the regions of eternal happi- 、 nefs."

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From thef, and other paffages which I might have quoted, we learn that the diftinguishing doctrines of the Stoical School were taught in India many ages before the birth of Zeno, and inculcated with a perfuafive earneftuefs nearly refembling that of Epictetus; and it is not without altonifhment that we find the tenets of this manly active philofophy, which feem to be formed only for men of the moft vigorous fpirit, prefcribed as the rule of conduct to a race of people more eminent for the gentleness of their difpofition than for the elevation of their minds.

3d, Phyfics. In all the fciences which

which contribute towards extending proof ftill more confpicuous of their

our knowledge of nature, in mathema- extraordinary progrefs in fcience. The tics, mechanics, and aftronomy, A- attention and fuccefs with which they rithmetic is of elementary ufe. In ftudied the motions of the heavenly whatever country then we find that bodies were fo little known to the fuch attention has been paid to the Greeks and Romans, that it is hardly improvement of arithmetic as to ren- mentioned by them but in the most der its operations moft eafy and cor- cutfory manner. But as foon as the rect, we may prefume that the sciences Mahomedans eftablished an intercourfe depending upon it have attained a fu- with the natives of India, they obfervperior degree of perfection. Such im- ed and celebrated the fuperiority of provement of this fcience we find in their aftronomical knowledge. Of the India. While, among the Greek, and Europeans who visited India after the Romans, the only method used for communication with it by the Cape of the notation of numbers was by the Good Hope was difcovered, M. Berletters of the alphabet, which neceffa- nier, an inquifitive and philofophical rily rendered arithmetical calculation traveller, was one of the first who extremely tedious and operofe, the In- learned that the Indians had long apdians had, from time immemorial, em- plied to the ftudy of aftronomy, and ployed for the fame purpofe the ten had made confiderable progrefs in that cyphers, or figures, now univerfally fcience. His information, however, known, and by means of them per- feems to have been very general and formed every operation in arithmetic imperfect. We are indebted for the with the greatest facility and expedi- firft fcientific proof of the great profition. By the happy invention of giv- ciency of the Indians in aftronomical ing a different value to each figure ac- knowledge, to M. de la Loubere, who, cording to its change of place, no on his return from his embaffy to more than ten figures are needed in Siam, brought with him an extract calculations the most complex, and of from a Siamese manufcript, which conany given extent; and arithmetic is tained tables and rules for calculating the most perfect of all the fciences. the places of the fun and moon. The The Arabians, not long after their manner in which thefe tables were fettlement in Spain, introduced this conftructed rendered the principles on mode of notation into Europe, and which they were founded extremely were candid enough to acknowledge obfcure, and it required a commentathat they had derived the knowledge tor as converfant in attronomical calof it from the Indians. Though the culation as the celebrated Caffini, to advantages of this mode of notation explain the meaning of this curious are obvious and great, yet fo flowly do fragment. The epoch of the Siamefe mankind adopt new inventions, that tables correfponds to the 21st of the ufe of it was for fome time con- March, A. D. 638. Another fet of fined to fcience; by degrees, however, tables was tranfmitted from Chrifnamen of business relinquished the for- bouram, in the Carnatic, the epoch of mer cumbersome method of computa- which anfwers to the 10th of March, tion by letters, and the Indian arith- A. D. 1491. A third fet of tables metic came into general ufe through- came from Narfapour, and the epoch out Europe. It is now fo familiar and of them goes no farther back than A. fimple, that the ingenuity of the people, D. 1569. The fourth and most cuto whom we are indebted for the in-"rious fet of tables was published by M. vention, is lefs obferved and lefs cele- le Gentil, to whom they were commubrated than it merits. nicated by a learned Brahmin of Tirvalore, a fall town on the Coroman

The aftronomy of the Indians is a

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