206 ON THE HINDU 



acknowledged it. For, as Pope very justly says, 

 respecting the moral qualities of a good Critic: 



Tis not enough WIT, ART, and LEARNING join; 



In all you speak, let truth and candour shine. 



It is much to be lamented, that the very reverse of 

 this is but too often the case, and that men suffer 

 their judgment to be biassed by their prejudices. 



By exhibiting the mean result of ten different 

 operations *, viz. 731 years for the age of the Siirjja 

 Siddhanta^ the Reviewer conceived he did me more 

 justice than I was entitled to; and therefore, to 

 counteract it, as he thought, Instead of giving the 

 whole of the different results, from which his readers 

 would be enabled to form a just opinion, he makes 

 choice of the two extreme results, as differing most 

 from the mean, and concludes from thence, that 

 either the heavenly bodies were so inaccurately ob- 

 served by the author as to furnish no basis for cal- 

 culation, or that the observations were made at a 

 period prodigiously anterior to that given by nie. 



Now, it must be immediately apparent to any 

 man of common sense, that by taking the two ex- 

 treme results only, no other inference could, consis- 

 tently with truth, be drawn from thence, but that 

 the work must have been written at some period 

 between these extremes ; the mean of which 

 ■— 1 1 5+.'^ to— 7^o years. 



In computations, depending on a number of ob- 

 servations, it is well known that astronomers reject 

 such as are found to differ most from the mean re- 

 sults; for in all cases some of the data, from their 



* These were the results which the Reviewer ought to have given 

 his readers. 



Moon's apogee, gave 6o.O years. 



Moon's node, • • • • 5S0 . 



Su n's apogee, ]105 . 



Venus, 86o - — -, 



Mars, 340—. 



Moon, "(bO . 



.Tu PITER, 875 years. 



Saturn, 805 . 



Mark's aphelion, 641 . 



Length of the year, 736 . 



INIean age, 731 . 



