159 
Mr. Colebrooke, and Sir Graves Haughton, give us ample 
information on this subject. The books of law are nume- 
rous, and form an important branch of Sanscrit lite- 
rature, consisting both of compilations and commentaries. 
Among these, the Institutes of Menu are the most distin- 
guished, and considered to have been written as early as 
880 B.C. (Heeren). Some of their works contain maxims 
or precepts put together into codes, which are attributed to 
ancient sages, as their original and inspired authors ; 
others consist either of comments on these traditional tracts, 
or of systematic treatises, in which the several topics of 
Hindoo jurisprudence are discussed according to logical 
arrangement; and passages from the ancient law-givers 
are adduced, in support of the doctrines advanced. 
(Hindoos, ii. p. 311.) 
If from their literature and philosophy we pass to the 
science of the Hindoos, we shall find equal reason to con- 
clude, that it was not only in vividness of imagination and 
powers of philosophical abstraction that they excelled, 
but that the exact sciences were equally cultivated, and 
apparently with an original and successful result. The 
essays and translations which we have on the subject of 
Hindoo Mathematics, are from the pens of Messrs. Cole- 
brooke, Reuben Barrow, Edward Strachey, Dr. Taylor, of 
the Madras, and the late Mr. John Tytler, of the Bengal 
Medical service. Also by M. Bailly in his Astron. Ind., 
and the celebrated Playfair in the Edinb. Phil. Trans. ; who 
both support the high antiquity of Hindoo science. The 
results of these essays have been ably abridged by Professor 
Wallace in British India, (Vol. iii. p. 401.) and by others. 
The Sanscrit writings from which a knowledge of Hindoo 
mathematics has been obtained, are different astronomical 
works, in which most of their mathematical treatises are 
contained. In the admirable article on Arithmetic by Mr. 
