430 THE THIRD DISCOURSE 



the work of Siva : for each of the Divinities in their 

 Triad has at lead one facred compofition afcribed to 

 him. But as to mere human works on Hijlory and 

 Geography, though they are faid to be extant in CaJJi- 

 mzr 9 it has not been yet in my power to procure them. 

 What their ajlronomical and mathematical writings 

 contain, will not, I trufl, remain long a fecret : they are 

 eafily procured, and their importance cannot be doubt- 

 ed. The Philofopher whofe works are faid to include a 

 Syftem of the Univerfe, founded on the principle of 

 Attraction' and the central Pofition of the Sun, is 

 named Yavan Achdrya, becaufe he had travelled, we 

 are told, into Ionia. If this be true, he might have 

 been one of thofe who converfed with Pythagoras. 

 This at leaft is undeniable, that a book on Aftronomy* 

 in Sanfcrit, bears the title of Yavana Jdtica^ which may 

 fignify the lonick SeEl. Nor is it improbable, that the 

 names of the Planets and Zodiacal Stars, which the 

 Arabs borrowed from the Greeks, but which we find in 

 the oldeft Indian records, were originally deviled by 

 the fame ingenious and enterprifing race, from whom 

 both Greece and India were peopled; the race who, as 

 Dionyjius defcribes them, 



— ' first assayed the deep> 



' And wafted merchandize to coasts unknown : 



' Those who digested first the starry choir, 



' Their motions mark'd, and call'd them by their names." 



Of thefe curfory obfervations on the Hindus, which 

 it would require volumes to expand and illuftrate, this 

 is the refult; that they had an immemorial affinity with 

 the old Perfians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians ; the Phe- 

 nicians, Greeks, and Tufcans ; the Scythians, or Goths, 

 and Celts j the Chinefe, Japanefe,and Peruvians ; whence, 

 as no reafon appears for believing that they were a co- 

 lony 



