STUDY XI. 347 



farther in the belief, that the firft men, who ad- 

 vanced toward the Eaft, were engaged in this re- 

 fearch, and were in hafte to reach their object, is 

 this, that having taken their departure from India, 

 the cradle of the Human Race, like the founders 

 of other Nations, they did not, like them, people 

 the Earth progreffively, as Perfia, Greece, Italy, 

 and Gaul, were fucceffively, in a wefterly direction ; 

 but leaving defert the vail: and fertile countries of 

 Siam, of Cochinchina, and of Tonquin, which are 

 to this day half barbarous and uninhabited, they 

 never gave up the purfuit till they were (lopped by 

 the Eaftern Ocean ; and they gave to the iflands 

 which they perceived at a diftance, and on which 

 they did not for a long time, acquire the ikill to 

 land, the name of Gepuen, which we have trans- 

 formed into Japan, and which, in the Chinefe lan- 

 guage, fignifies, birth of the Sun. 



Father Kircher * aflures us, that when the firft 

 Jefuit Aflronomers arrived in China, and there re- 

 formed the Calendar, the Chinefe believed the Sun 

 and the Moon to be no bigger than they appear 

 to the eye ; that, on fetting, they retired to a deep 

 cave, from which they iffued next day at the time 

 of rifing ; and, finally, that the Earth was a plane 

 and fmooth furface. Tacitus, who has written Hif- 



* See China illuftrated, chap, ix. 



tory 



