272 AN ESSAY ON THE 



mild anrl dewy beams of the moon. There are ri- 

 vers and seas of liquid amber, clarified butter, 

 inilk, cur<ls, and intoxicating liquors. Geogra- 

 pliical truth is sacrificed to a symmetrical arrange- 

 ment of countries, mountains, lakes, and rivers, 

 witli vvliich tliey are highly delighted. There are 

 two geographical systems among the Hindus : the 

 first and most ancient is according to the PurdiVas, 

 in which the Earth is considered as a convex sur- 

 f ice gradually sloping toward the borders, and sur- 

 rounded by the ocean The second antl modern 

 system is that adopted by astronomers, and cer- 

 tainly the worst, of the two. The P«2^/W27e^ con- 

 sidering the Earth as a flat surface, or nearly so, 

 their knowledge does not extend much beyond 

 the old continent, or the superior hemisphere : but 

 astronomers, being acquainted with the globular 

 shape of the Earth, and of course with an inferior 

 hemisphere, were under the necessity of borrowing 

 largely from the superior part in order to fill up 

 the inferior one. Thus their astronomical know- 

 ledge instead of being of service fo geography, has 

 augmented the confusion, distorted and dislocated 

 every part, every country in the old continent. 

 The Paurdjiics represent, in general, the Earth as 

 a flat surface; though it appears from the context 

 to be of convex figure, with a gentle slope all round 

 toward the ocean, which is supported by a circular 

 range of mountains, called Locdlocas by the Hin- 

 dus ; Caf by Musulmans, and by our ancient my- 

 thologists Atlas ; Djjris, Dpim, from the Sansoii 

 tir, and tiram, the margin term or bordc?'' of the 

 world, or the larder (Earth's) Thremi in the Edda 

 Scemudr. x 



The Jaes and the ancients in general, consider- 

 ed the Earth as a flat surface. This idea was cer- 

 tainly a most natural one, till the study of astro- 



