88 



consider to have been erected more than a century. The follow- 

 ing remark in the Edinburgh Review on Mr. Bentley's treatise on 

 the Hindoo systems of astronomy should not be omitted. That 

 " the consideration of the facts ascertained therein, and of many 

 more which it would be easy to produce, ought to keep our curio- 

 sity alive to the remains of science in the east. Their extent and 

 accuracy are so considerable — their origin and genealogy so com- 

 pletely unknown — they are united with so much extravagance and 

 superstition, and so totally separated from any general stock of 

 knowledge, that we cannot but consider them as forming altoge- 

 ther the most enigmatical monument of antiquity that is to be 

 found on the face of the earth. A great degree of scepticism on this 

 subject ought most carefully to be preserved, until the industry and 

 learning of the Asiatic Society, to which we have already so great 

 obligations, shall furnish us with a more complete catalogue and 

 description of the remains of oriental science. We may then de- 

 cide, whether the east has only borrowed from the west, or whether 

 it be true, as Lucian says, that it was in India that philosophy first 

 alighted on the earth." 



We left Benares and our hospitable friends there on the 1st of 

 September, and on the 3d arrived at Buxar, a neat little fortress 

 erected on an eminence, commanding a great extent of flat coun- 

 try, adorned with rich groves and plantations. The lines are ex- 

 tensive, intended principally as shelter for the ryots in case of an at- 

 tack ; the whole is uncommonly neat, and in excellent order. After 

 vieAving the field of battle where General Munro gained the victory 

 over Serajah Dowlah, we dined with the commanding officer, and, 



