153 
infer its originality; but, from studying the translations 
in Persian and Latin of the works of the Arabs, I felt, 
from the nature of the information, that much of it must 
have been borrowed from the Indians ; and this was con- 
firmed by their reference by name to the Hindoo Charaka, 
(v. p. 37.) 
In this investigation, we get little assistance from the 
Hindoos themselves, in consequence of their extravagant 
claims having deprived their chronology of credit, even on 
the most moderate computations. But their stationary 
nature affords a peculiar advantage in drawing inferences ; 
for in the present day, we find them the same in manners 
and in customs as in the time of Alexander^ though with 
the addition in those early ages of a high character for 
wisdom ; from which, like the modern Greeks, they have 
certainly now degenerated. This very stationary nature, 
however, appears to me a result of their early civilization ; 
for frequently conquered as they have been, and ruled 
over by ruder nations, they have usually made these in 
some measure conform to their own higher notions of civi- 
lization, instead of adopting, or being corrupted, by the 
coarser manners of their earlier conquerors. 
That " India early acquired a high character for the 
wisdom of its philosophers,'" we are informed by history ; 
whence we learn, that " it was visited by Pythagoras, 
Anaxarchus, Pyrrho, and others, who afterwards became 
eminent philosophers in Greece." (Brucker's Philosophy 
by Enfield.) From Pliny we learn, " Certe Pythagoras, 
Empedocles, Democritus, Plato, ad hanc discendam navi- 
gare, exsiliis verius quam peregrinationibus susceptis. 
(Plin. xxx. c. 2.) Thales, Crates, and Eudoxus, are others 
who are stated to have travelled in the East ; but we are 
unable to aseertain how far these travels extended, and 
must therefore have recourse to other evidence, to per- 
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