418 THE THIRD DISCOURSE 



when they came, where they now are fettled, and what 

 advantage a more perfect knowledge of them all may 

 bring to our European world, will be mown, I trufl, in 

 five diftin£t effays ; the laft of which will demonftrate 

 the connexion or diverfity between them, and folve the 

 great problem, whether they had any common origin, 

 and whether that origin was the fame which we generally 

 afcribe to them. 



I begin with India : not becaufe I find reafon to be- 

 lieve it the true center of population, or of knowledge, 

 but becaufe it is the country which we now inhabit, and 

 from which we may beft furvey the regions around us; 

 as, in popular language, we fpeak of the rifing fun, and 

 of his progrefs through the Zodiack^ although it had long 

 ago been imagined, and is now demonftrated, that he is 

 himfelf the center of our planetary fy (tern. Let me here 

 premife, that, in all thefe inquiries concerning the Hif- 

 tory of India^ I fhall confine my refearches downwards 

 to the Mohammedan conquefts at the beginning of the 

 eleventh century, but extend them upwards as high as 

 pomble, to the earlieft authentic records of the human 

 fpecies. 



India then, on its moft enlarged fcale, in which the 

 ancients appear to have underftood it, comprifes an area 

 of near forty degrees on each fide, including a fpace 

 almoft as large as all Europe; being divided on the weft 

 from Perfia by the Arachofian mountains, limited on the 

 eaft by the Chinefe part of the farther Peninfula, confined 

 on the north by the wilds of Tartary, and extending to 

 the fouth as far as the ifles of Java. This trapezium, 

 therefore, comprehends the ftupendous hills of Potyidox 

 Tibet) the beautiful valley ofCaJIimir, and all the domains 

 of the old Indofcythians, the countries of Nepal and 

 Butd?it s Qdmrup or Afdm 3 together with Siam, Ava y 



Racaiiy 



