which we might reasonably have expected from fo diligent and ingenious a people. The numerous puranas and itihafas, or poems mythological and heroic, are completely in our power; and from them we may recover fome disfigured but valuable pictures of ancient manners and governments; while the popular tales of the Hindus, in profe and in verfe, contain fragments of history; and even in their dramas we may find as many real characters and events as a future age might find in our own plays, if all histories of England were, like thofe of India, to be irrecoverably loft: for example, a moft beautiful poem by Somadeva, comprising a very long chain of inftructive and agreeable stories, begins with the famed revolution at Pataliputra, by the murder of king Nanda with his eight fons, and the ufurpation of Chandragupta; and the same revolution is the subject of a tragedy in Sanfcrit, entitled the coronation of Chandra, the abbreviated name of that able and adventurous ufurper. From these once concealed, but now acceffible compofitions, we are enabled to exhibit a more accurate sketch of old Indian history than the world has yet feen, especially with the aid of well-attefted observations on the places of the colures. It is now clearly proved, that the first Purana contains an account of the deluge, between which and the Mohammedan conquefts the hiftory of genuine Hindu government muft of course be comprehended; but we know from an arrangement of the seasons in the aftronomical work of Parafara, that the war of the Pandavas could not have happened earlier than the clofe of the twelfth century before Chrift; and Seleucus muft, therefore, have reigned about nine centuries after that war. Now the age of Vicramaditya is given; and, if we can fix on an Indian prince contemporary with Seleucus, we shall have three given points in the line of time between Rama, or the firft Indian colony, and Chandrabija, the laft Hindu monarch, who reigned in Behar; fo that only eight hundred or a thousand years will remain almoft wholly dark; and they muft have been employed in raifing empires or states, in framing laws, improving languages and arts, and in obferving the apparent mo tions of the celestial bodies.'

So flight is the chaẩm that remains in the records of th world-a chafm which, perhaps, may be in part filled! The affiftant sciences, geography, aftronomy, and chronology, have been cultivated in the east; and accounts of these have been given by different members of the fociety. The, advantages derived from the labours of the fociety, in the history of animals, vegetables, and minerals, the hiftory of the human mind, and of various fciences, are noticed in their order.

Paffing to the eleventh difcourfe, which relates to the philofophy of the Afiatics, we obferve that this is divided into five kinds-medicine, metaphyfics and logic, ethics and juCRIT. REV. VOL. XXVII. Of. 1799.

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rifprudence, natural philofophy and mathematics, and the religion of nature. On medicine there are few works; but detached parts of different fyftems relate to this science. In general, however, the Hindoos had made a very flight proficiency in it. In metaphyfics and logic, their acquifitions were very confiderable. The Hindoo philofophers feem to have afforded the foundation of what Pythagoras taught in Italy, and Zeno in Greece. We may here obferve, that, in an Indian treatife, mention is made of a fyftem of logic, communicated by the Brahmins to Callifthenes, which the writer fuppofes to have been the origin of the Ariftotelian method. Another Indian fyftem fupports a modern doctrine, that the qualities of matter are illufory, exifting only in our own perceptions; a doctrine which fir William Jones does not confider as fhocking or abfurd.

Ethics, though capable of fcientific arrangement, fcarcely require it, as the doctrines are few and clear. These have been, in the caft, ufually inculcated in fhort comprehenfive fentences, fixing themfelves on the mind by fome point or quaintnefs of expreffion. The fages of Greece have exhorted individuals to do to others what they would with others to do to them: Confucius, and the moralists of the east, have even taught their difciples to do good to thofe who perfecute them. On the fubject of the caftern jurifprudence, fir William Jones refers to the introduction of his Indian Pandects.

A part of the philofophy of Newton, and the whole of his theology, may, it is faid, be found in the Veda and even in the works of the Sufis. His æther, or at least an equally fubtile fluid, poffeffing the fame fuppofed properties, applicable to the explication of the fame phænomena, is mentioned in the works of the Hindoos, under the appellation of a fifth element. They were acquainted with the doctrines of attraction and gravitation, and aware of the extenfive influence of the former. Their mathematical knowledge was alfo confiderable; and, from the whole of their science, they concluded that an allcreating, an all-preferving fpirit, infinitely wife, good, and powerful, reigned fupreme. Such are the concluding obfervations of the late very refpectable prefident: they are the proper conclufion of a life devoted, among other purfuits, to the culti vation of thofe fciences which contribute to illuftrate revealed religion, and to eftablish the fupremacy of the divine nature.

II. On three Natural Productions of Sumatra, by John Macdonald, Efq.'

Camphor is the firft of thefe fubflances. The oil and the concrete proceed from the fame tree; but the affertion of Macquer, that nitrous acid diffolves camphor, and renders it oily and pellucid, does not contribute to the explanation of the

change from the fluid to the oppofite ftate. Our author defcribes the manner of collecting and preparing the camphor; and we are forry to find, that he thinks the folid oil likely to become scarce The fluid will probably fupply its place; or art may produce the requifite change. The fecond communication relates to the coral of Sumatra, which our author is inclined to refer to the vegetable fyftem; and it contains fome account of the rapid increase of the coral iflands. The frequent occurrence of thefe in the Indian feas, and their peculiar nature, we noticed in our review of captain Cook's third voyage. To tranfport a mafs of coral to the road of Madras, to form an ifland and a harbour, for the protection of fhipping, is a fublime idea; but the prefident, in his note, feems to apprehend that a dangerous reef of coral, rather than an ifland, might be the confequence.-The copper of Sumatra is the fubject of the third communication; and fome arguments are adduced to encourage the Eat-India company to work the copper mines of that ifland.

III. On the Plant Morinda and its Ufes. By William Hunter, Efq.'

This is the morinda citrifolia of Linnæus. Defcriptions of the plant, and of the procefs for dyeing, in which it is ufed, are given at length. The colour which it imparts is a deep red, valuable rather for its durability than its beauty. With fieel, this is changed to a purple or chocolate colour.

IV. On the Inhabitants of the Hills near Rajamahall. By Lieutenant Thomas Shaw.'

This account is drawn up with fimplicity and propriety. The manners of the inhabitants of thefe hills are fimple, and their morality is fecured by the ideas of immediate retribution from the vengeance of the divine being, fimilar in nature to the offence. They acknowledge one God; but various fuperftitions are mingled with their religious fyftem.

Their arts are only thofe of neceffity, and they are feemingly low in the fcale of dexterity or addrefs. Their government is a mutual contract for protection and obedience; and their chief is only the primus inter pares.' Their villages are connected into affociations called tuppahs; but the chief of each has very little authority, except in his own village. In their wars, on the hills, they are ufually merciful; in the plains, they are cruel; but the chastity of the women is fcarcely ever violated. They have a great regard for truth, and are, in general, cheerful and humane. When the Eaft

India company was firft connected with them, it was to reprefs their incurfions in the plains, to which they had been excited either by defign or in confequence of fome mifunderstanding. By the fucceffive efforts of captains Brooke and

Browne, and of Mr. Cleveland, they are now civilised and fubject to the company.

V. Additional Remarks on the Spikenard of the Ancients. By the Prefident.'

The prefident's remarks on the fpikenard of the ancients were published in the fecond volume of the Researches, and the prefent Appendix is occafioned by Dr. Blane's paper on the fame fubject in the Philofophical Tranfactions. In this effay, is a fatisfactory defence of his former opinion, showing that the ancient spikenard was truly a valerian.

VI. On the Dhanéfa, or Indian Buceros. By Lieutenant Charles White.'

The Indian buceros, or horn-bill, is minutely defcribed. The bill of this bird, like that of the toucan, is difproportionately large, and is furnished with a horn, which, from its fituation, cannot be a weapon of offence. It is remarkable that the natural and moft nutritious food of this bird is the nux vomica. When the feed (for it is not a nut) is ripe, this buceros is very fat; and the fat is ufed in contractions and old chronic pains. It may derive fome virtue from the bird, or from its food; but, as many ftimulants are added to the ointment, we know not how much of the virtue is to be attributed to the bafis.

VII. On the Iflands Nancowry and Comarty. By Lieutenant R. H. Colebrooke.'

The islands of Nancowry and Comarty are nearly in the centre of the Nicobars. The inhabitants are honeft, and peaceable though brave. They feem to be a Malay race, and not the aborigines. Our prefent author does not add materially to what M. Fontana has told us, except in defcribing a ceremony annually performed in honour of the dead. It confifts, like other ceremonies among uncivilifed races, of a feast, terminated by inebriation; but, about fun-fet, a woman digs up the fkull of the perfon laft buried; and, after cleaning it with milk of cocoa-nuts and an infufion of saffron, the again commits it to the earth, wrapped up in a piece of new cloth.

VIII. On the Loris, or flowpaced Lemur. By the Prefident.'

This pleafing defeription of an uncommon animal deferves attention. The account of its manners being new, we will extract it.

In his manners he was for the most part gentle, except in the cold feafon, when his temper feemed wholly changed; and his creator, who made him fo fenfible of cold, to which he must often have been expofed even in his native forefts, gave him, probably for that reafon his thick fur, which we rarely fee on animals in

thefe tropical climates: to me, who not only conftantly fed him, but bathed him twice a week in water accommodated to the feafons, and whom he clearly diftinguished from others, he was at all times grateful; but, when I disturbed him in winter, he was ufually indignant, and feemed to reproach me with the uneafinefs which he felt, though no poffible precautions had been omitted to keep him. in a proper degree of warmth. At all times he was pleased with being stroked on the head and throat, and frequently suffered me to touch his very fharp teeth; but at all times his temper was quick, and, when he was unfeafonably disturbed, he expreffed a little refentment by an obfcure murmur, like that of a squirrel, or a greater degree of difpleasure by a peevith cry, efpecially in winter, when he was often as fierce on being much importuned, as any beaft of the woods. From half an hour after funrise to half an hour before funfet, he flept without intermiffion, rolled up like a hedge-hog; and as foon as he awoke, he began to prepare himself for the la bours of his approaching day, licking and dreffing himself like a cat; an operation, which the flexibility of his neck and limbs enabled him to perform very compleatly he was then ready for a flight breakfast, after which he commonly took a fhort nap; but, when the fun was quite fet, he recovered all his vivacity. His ordinary food was the fweet fruit of his country; plantains always, and mangos during the feafon; but he refufed peaches, and was not fond of mulberries, or even of guaiavas: milk he lapped eagerly, but was contented with plain water. In general he was not voracious, but never appeared fatiated with grafshoppers; and passed the whole night, while the hot feafon lafted, in prowling for them: when a grafshopper, or any infect, alighted within his reach, his eyes, which he fixed on his prey, glowed with uncommon fire; and, having drawn himself back to spring on it with greater force, he seized the victim with both his forepaws, but held it in one of them, while he devoured it. For other purposes, and fometimes even for that of holding his food, he ufed all his paws indifferently as hands, and frequently grafped with one of them the higher part of his ample cage, while his three others were feverally engaged at the bottom of it; but the pofture, of which he seemed fondeft, was to cling with all four of them to the upper wires, his body being inverted; and in the evening he usually stood erect for many minutes playing on the wires with his fingers and rapidly moving his body from fide to fide, as if he had found the utility of exercife in his unnatural state of confinement. A little before daybreak, when my early hours gave me frequent opportunities of obferving him, he seemed to folicit my attention; and if I prefented my finger to him, he licked or nibbled it with great gentleness, but eagerly took fruit when I offered it; though he feldom ate much at his morning repaft: when the day brought back his right, his eyes loft their luftre and ftrength, and he compofed himself for a flumber of ten or eleven hours.'