[ + 8 ° ] 
Difficulty is only to afcertain the FaCl, and con- 
vince reafonable People that it was made at all. 
Tis well known, and allow'd by the Miffionaries 
themfelves, that the Reception they have met with 
in China hath been more owing to their Character 
as Thilofophers than Apofiles (g). When therefore 
they brought with them into the Country Accounts 
of European Difcoveries, and particularly in Aftro - 
nomy , might not the Chinefe y agreeable to their vain- 
glorious Charader, tell them, that they had of their 
own much older than any thing they could pretend to ? 
It may be faid indeed, that this is no more than Sup- 
pofition, and which confequently argues but little : 
But then the Suppofition is fo eafy and natural, that 
it requires at leaft the contrary to be made out by 
fome very good Proof. 
One Reafon why this may be infilled on the more 
is, that the Chinefe y according to the Fathers them- 
felves, have not always been faithful in their relating 
Obfervations. T-hang y about the Year after Chrijl 
721 , had the Reputation among them of an able 
AJironomer 5 but being miftaken, it feems, in his 
Calculation oi an Eclipfe y rather than own his Ig- 
norance, he pretended, that the heavenly Bodies 
did not always obferve the fame Laws. In Support 
of which extraordinary Hypothefis, he urged, that, in 
the Time of Tfin (/&), the Star Sirius was eclipfed by 
the Planet Venus $ tho* the Latitude of Sirius is 39 0 
32' 8", and that of Venus never exceeds 4 0 . The 
fame 
(a) Obfervat . ut fup. Tom 2. p. 117. (h) Obfervat . ut 
f u P* Tom. 2* p. 86. FlamfteacT s Britilh CataU Greg . AJiron . p. 5. 
