OF THE UNIVERSE. THE ARABIANS. 



still higher point, that the regularity and subjection to laws, 

 which characterise the movements of the heavenly bodies, arc 

 seen to be, as it were, reflected in terrestrial phenomena, 

 and that men seek to discover in these also, to use the 

 expression of our great poet, the "fixed unchanging pole/'' 

 In all climates, the conviction of the regularity of the pla- 

 netary movements, and of their subjection to law and order, 

 has contributed more than any thing else to lead men to 

 seek the same subjection to law and order, in the undula- 

 tions of the aerial ocean, in the oscillations of the sea, in 

 the periodical march of the magnetic needle, and in the 

 distribution of vegetable and animal life on the surface of 

 the globe. 



The Arabians were in possession of Indian planetary 

 tables ( 35 ) as early as the end of the eighth century. I 

 have already mentioned that the Susruta, the ancient epitome 

 comprising all the medicinal knowledge of the Indians, 

 was translated by learned men belonging to the court 

 of the Caliph Haroun Al-Baschid, a proof of the early 

 introduction of Sanscrit literature. The Arabian mathema- 

 tician Albymrii went himself to India to study astronomy 

 there. His writings, which have only very lately become 

 accessible to us, shew how well he was acquainted with, the 

 country, the traditions, and the extensive knowledge of the 

 Indians, psi) 



But however much the Arabian astronomers may have 

 owed to earlier civilized nations, and especially to the Indian 

 and Alexandrian schools, they still must be regarded as 

 having considerably enlarged the domain of astronomy, by 

 their peculiar practical turn of mind, by the great number 

 and the direction of their observations, by their improve- 



