﻿APPENDIX. 4#9 



probably too the established religion of the Greeks and 

 the Eleusiuian mysteries may only be varieties of the 

 two different sects. That the Druids of Britain were 

 Bramins is beyond the least shadow of a doubt; but 

 that they were all murdered and their sciences lost, is 

 out of the bounds of probability ; it is much more 

 likely that they turned Schoolmasters, Freemasons, 

 and Fortune-tellers, and in this way part of their 

 sciences might easily descend to posterity, as we find 

 they have done. An old paper, said to have been found 

 by Locke, bears a considerable degree of internal evi- 

 dence both of its own antiquity and of this idea ; and 

 on this hypothesis it will be easy to account for many 

 difficult matters that perhaps cannot so clearly be done 

 on any other, and particulary of the great similarity 

 between the Hindoo sciences and ours : a comparison 

 between our oldest scientific writers and those of the 

 Hindoos will set the matter beyond dispute ; and for- 

 tunately the works of Bede carry us twelve hundred 

 years back, which is near enough to the times of the 

 Druids to give hopes of finding there some of their re- 

 mains. I should have made the comparison myself, 

 but Bede is not an author to be met with in this coun- 

 try ; however, I compared an astrolabe in the Nagry 

 character (brought by Dr. Mackinnon from Jynagur) 

 with Chaucer's description, and found them co agree 

 most minutely : even the center pin which Chaucer 

 calls " the horses" has a horse's head upon it in the in- 

 strument; therefore if Chaucer's description should 

 happen to be a translation from Bede, it will be a strong 

 argument in favour of the hypothesis, for we then 

 could have nothing from the Arabians. What Bun- 

 gey and Swisse! may contain, will also deserve inquiry; 

 and that the comparison may be the readier made, 

 where the books are procurable, I mean very shortly 

 to publish translations of the LeeJavotty and Beej Ge- 

 neta, or the arithmetic and algebra of the Hindoos. 



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