and of nature. The simple occupations of pastoral life, not less 
than the uninterrupted repose of philosophical abstraction; the 
plains of Chaldea, as well as the observatories of Egypt, were 
favourable to its cultivation.” 
“ While the calculations of the Egyptians and of the Chinese 
have been generally given up as untenable, many of the astrono- 
mical {eras of the Indian Brahmins have been supposed to dis- 
play an accuracy, which could not have taken place, unless they 
had been founded on actual observation. The astonishing pro- 
gress of the ancient Indians in science, from which their descend- 
ants have so far degenerated, appears to indicate the superior 
accuracy of their system. Their astronomy is found to be more 
correct the higher we ascend, and its inferiority is the most evident 
as we approach the present times: in its original perfection, it 
claims a decided superiority over the system of any other oriental 
nation.” 
The superior knowledge and early civilization, to which India 
lays claim, is readily admitted as a strong proof of the veracity of 
the Mosaical history. “ They shew that we must look for the 
first dawnings of intellectual light in the countries adjacent to the 
spot, which the concurrent voice of history and tradition represents 
as the first abode of man, and the theatre on which the memorable 
events that occurred in the infancy of the postdiluvian world were 
transacted. They demonstrate the arrogant and unfounded pre- 
tensions of the Greeks and Romans, Avho represent their ancient 
progenitors as the immediate descendants of heaven; and who 
arrogate to themselves the honour of being the inventors of science, 
as well as the arbiters of taste. The falsehood of these pren tensions 
