i62 REMARKS on the 



moir already mentioned*; and it makes the year 3102 before 

 Christ, 40"^ longer than the year at the beginning of the 

 prefent century f. The year in the tables of TirTalore is there- 

 fore too great by 1', ^"\. 



31. But the determination of the year is always from a com- 

 parifon of obfervations made at a confiderable interval from 

 one another ; and, even to produce a degree of accuracy much 

 lefs than what we fee belongs to the tables of Tirvalore, that 

 interval muft have been of feveral ages. Now, fays M. Bailly, 

 if we fuppofe thefe obfervations to have been made in that pe- 

 riod of 2400 years, immediately preceding the Calyougham, to 

 which the Brahmins often refer ; and if we alfo fuppofe the 

 inequality of the preceffion of the equinoxes, to increafe as we 

 go back, in proportion to the fquare of the times, we fhall find, 

 that, at the middle of this period, or 1200 years before the be- 

 ginning of the Calyougham, the length of the year was 365*^, 

 ^'', 50', 41", almoll precifely as in the tables of Tirvalore. 

 And hence it is natural to conclude, that this determination of 

 the folar year is as ancient as the year 1200 before the Cal- 

 yougham, or 4300 before the Chriftian era J. 



32. In this reafoning, however, it feems impoflible to acqui- 

 efce ; and M. Bailly himfelf does not appear to have relied on 

 it with much confidence ||. We are not at liberty to fuppofe, 

 that the preceflion of the equinoxes increafes in the ratio above 

 mentioned, or, which is the fame, that the equinodtial points 

 go back with a motion equably retarded. If, by M. DE 

 Grange's formula, we trace back, ftep by flep, the variation: 

 of the folar year, we fhall find, that about the beginning of 

 the Calyougham, it had nearly attained the extreme point of 



one 



* Mem. Acad. Berlin, 1782. p. 289. 



t Aft. Ind. p. 160. 



X. Ibid. p. 161. 



II He fays, " Sans doute il ne peut refulter de ce calcul qu'un apperfu." 



