SYSTEMS OF ASTRONOMY. 205 



'' 3?^cars for the age of the Skrya Siddhanta. Hence 

 *' the only legitimate inference that can be deduced, 

 *' is either that the heavenly bodies were so inaccu- 

 " rately observed by the author as to furnish no ba- 

 ^' sis for calculation, or that the observations were 

 " made at a period prodigiously anterior to that as- 

 '' sumed by Air. Bentley. The first alone is admis- 

 '' sible, and in that we are disposed to acquiesce." 



Lest, however, his readers should not be inclined 

 to admit of such a conchision, he endeavours to 

 throw a suspicion on the whole thus : 



" But when it is recollected how many collations, 

 " researches, and ingenious conjectures have been 

 " requisite to restore Greek and Roman writers to 

 *' their pristine sense, some enquiry would be ne- 

 " cessary respecting the manuscript used by Mr. 

 " Bentley, and the certainty of comprehending 

 " his text, which he interprets difFei'ently from his 

 " instructors. At present Mr. Bextley is involved 

 " in the following dilemma, either that the obser- 

 *' vations of the heavenly bodies contained in the 

 *' Surya Siddhanta are wholly erroneous, or that they 

 ^' were not made at the period he conjectures." 



Tlie Reviewer had it fully in his power to have 

 ascertained tlie fact, whether the copy of the »S7f/7/« 

 Siddhanta, in my j)ossession, was correct or not, by 

 merely referring to a paper of Mr. Davis, in the 

 second volume of the .^.sv^/Z^ic Researches, page 232. 

 He might have calculated the places of the planets 

 from the numbers there exhibited, and compared 

 them with those given by me; which would have 

 shewn him whether 1 deviated from my instructors 

 or not. If he found that I had committed a mate- 

 rial error, or deviated from truth, he. would tlien 

 have been justified in exposing it to the world. On 

 the other hand, if he found that it was right, it 

 would have been equally his duty to have candidly 



