their Algebra from the Greek treatise of Dio. phantus, and the Hindoos from the Arabians; but Mr Strachey observes, that no one has ever found in the East a translation of Diophantus, and that the oriental processes are quite different from his. He adds, that the learned Mussulmen in Hindostan generally consider the Hindoos as the inventors of this abstruse and interesting department of science. In astronomy their emi. nence has been represented as much more remarkable. They have tables commencing with the Kali-Yug, or 3100 years before the Christian era; the authenticity of which has been strongly maintained by M. Bailly in his Histoire de l'Astronomie, as well as by our own illustrious countryman Mr Playfair. The investigations of Laplace, however, and of the most eminent recent inquirers, seem to have decided that these tables were calculated backwards at a much more recent period, and that it is even impossible to say how modern they may be. This subject is treated so learnedly and fully in Mr Mill's History of India, that we may confidently refer to it those who may wish for more copious information. It is certain, that the science is now cultivated in Hindostan, solely with a view to astrology, and the calculation of eclipses; that this calculation is carried on by mechanical rules, without any idea of the principles upon which they depend;

that the instruments employed are rude in the extreme; and that the astronomer is unable to calculate with perfect accuracy, and considers himself fortunate if his prediction make even a near approach to the truth.

1

CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL VIEW OF HINDOO SOCIETY.

Moral Character.-Distinction of Casts, and peculiarities of each. -Mahrattas.—Pindarees.-Seiks.—Nairs.—Mahommetan Population.-Syriac Christians.-Syriac Jews.

AMONG the nations of the East, the native Hindoos have excited a peculiar degree of wonder and interest. The companions of Alexander, the first Europeans by whom they were visited, beheld in them with astonishment, a people bearing no resemblance to any encountered in their previous career. Every successive conqueror and visitor found the same people, unaltered by all the series of revolutions which had shaken their country. Yet though often seen, they could scarcely be considered as known. Their shy, austere, and quiet deportment, their disdain and indifference to all foreigners, and the difficulty of obtaining a key to their language and institutions, rendered it scarcely possible to see any thing beyond the polished and uniform exterior. Now, however, the establishment and continued exercise of a British administration in India, has ne

cessarily forced the natives into closer contact with our countrymen; and that spirit of learned inquiry, which the deepest recesses of Indian science have been unable to elude, has also removed the veil in a great measure from their manners and social existence.

The first impression made upon Europeans, by the view of this great people, was in a great degree favourable. The delicacy of their form and figure, their polished and flattering address, the absence of all bustle and turbulence, joined to the display of pomp and wealth in their courts, gave the idea of a refined and elegant people. It appeared even that they had arrived at the extreme point of civilization, that they might be branded indeed as effeminate and unmanly, but were strangers to the vices and disorders which characterize barbarous life. Philosophers and orators who wished to excite the indignation of mankind against the violences committed by the Europeans in India, have sought to make it appear more atrocious by the innocent and unoffending character of the sufferers. The result of a close inspection has been much less favourable. It is stated, that this smooth and flattering exterior, indicates not any real humanity, but merely that servile and interested courtesy, which long habits of slavery generate; that entire selfishness forms the basis of their character; and that under this smiling exte

rior, coarseness and brutality, and even a proneness to acts of violence, may soon be perceived. It must be observed, indeed, that their dealings with Europeans, whom they must detest as foreign invaders, and from whom they have experienced numberless acts of individual violence, cannot afford the most favourable light in which to contemplate them. The representation, however, is made by so many candid and philanthropic pens, that it seems impossible to consider it as wholly unfounded.

It is an observation as old as Homer, that the hour which makes a man a slave, takes away at least half his value; a sentence to which the experience of mankind has given an always increasing weight. Now the Hindoos suffer beneath a weight of subjection heavier than perhaps ever weighed upon any people. Despotism," says Mr Grant, "is not only the principle of the go"vernment of Hindostan, but an original, irre

66

versible, and fundamental principle in the very "frame of society." Besides the absolute sway of the sovereign, the whole population is composed of a series of classes, each of which scarcely acknowledges a common nature with those beneath it. India having, moreover, for a long series of ages been ruled by the sword of foreign nations, who have never in any degree amalgamated with the natives, all spirit of national inde