der diftinct heads, the origin and progrefs of thefe fciences, as known to the Indians, are fucceffively traced, and their very high antiquity accounted for by fuppofing that, in this peaceful and fecluded region, long flourished a confiderable portion of the wisdom of the Noachidæ, derived from their antediluvian progenitors. Hence no wonder that the arts made fo rapid a progress in India, nor that its original fyftem of jurifprudence, before it was corrupted by the artful Brahmin in many points, bore fo near a refemblance to that of the Hebrews. Some of thefe fhall be specified hereafter; at prefent, let us attend to their progrefs in Science and, as a fpecimen of the author's method of treating the fubject, we shall infert what he obferves in regard to their Chemistry. "Those who, from the earliest periods, have been devoted to a fuperftitious veneration of the element of FIRE, thofe who gave to their pagodas the form of pyramids and cones, to imitate the folar beam, and on whofe altars a facred flame for ever blazed, could fcarcely fail of being intimately acquainted with its wonderful properties, which in fact were the fource of that admiration and reverence. It was their acquaintance with its active pervading principle and energy which induced them to idolize FIRE as the foul of the material world; its hallowed beam, their phyfical theology taught them, emaning from the folar orb, first gave animation and motion to univerfal nature; and, from fome mutilated tradition of a better theology, they regarded fire as the great CHEMIST that was finally to diffolve the univerfe and reduce it to afhes. In fact, they conceived the orbs of heaven to be formed of a kind of ætherial fire, and that they floated in a circumambient luminous fluid, which they confidered as a fifth element, and denominated the AKASS. I have had frequent occafion to observe that their fuperftitious veneration for this element probably commenced, during their refidence in Chaldæa, with the firft corruption of the pure patriarchal theology; and, according to the Indian hiftory*, devout pilgrims, as well in memorial of their origin as of this their pri mæval devotion, still refort to Hierapolis in Syria, and pay their devotions at the two JWALA-MUCHIS, or Springs of Naptha, the one not far from the banks of the Tigris, the other on the flaming plain of Baku, on the borders of the diftant Cafpian Sea, where the priests of the fun watched night and day the never-dying flame, supposed to have been kindled by his own ray. "Of the powerful agency of FIRE, the Afiatics could scarcely avoid entertaining the most awful conceptions, fince its tremendous effects were often too diftinctly visible in that torrid climate, where the broad flashes of the tropical lightning fired their loftieft forefts, and the globe of electric flame levelled their proudest temples with the duft. They alfo faw it in the burtting volcano that shook to the centre their * Mr. Wilford on Egypt and the Nile, in Afiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 297" mountains mountains of broadeft bafe, and filled whole provinces with defolation and difmay. "Obferving with anxious and fearful attention the wonderful operations of nature by the process of fie, in the melted minerals that rolled in torrents down the fides of the flaming mountain, in their refits courfe fweeping away every intervening object, or affimilating, it with its own fubftance, the ancient inhabitants of Afia endeavoured to imitate her fupreme analyzing power, and very early commenced the practice of chemiary. To what extent, indeed, that primitive race knew the art of decompounding and combining bodies by means of fire, it is impoffible to afcertain; but, without being confiderable adepts in this fcience, neither could Tubal Cain, that Tubal Cain, whofe high antiquity and whole refembling name plainly mark him for the Vulcan of Pagan mythology; for, they thought, and one might almost think with them, that the inventor of the fcience of chemistry could scarcely be less than a god,-have been the instructor of every artificer in brafs or iron; nor the Indian Visvacarma, the active fubftitute of Agni, the Hindoo god of fire, have forged the arms of the Devatas, thofe miffile weapons of fire in the Puranas denomi nated AGNEE-ASTRA, and made ufe of in the Satya, or first age of the world. The ufe of fire-arms, in the earliest periods, opens a wide field for reflection, in many refpects, fince it proves that the Indians knew how to apply the falt-petre and fulphur vivum, with which their plains abound, to the purpofes of war, and formed out of them a compofition which, if not actual gunpowder, was of fuch a nature as gave to bodies a projectile motion. Mr. Halhed exprefsly denomimates it gunpowder, and gives an interefting account of the invention in his preface to the Gentoo Code. "A modern author of much celebrity has very ingeniously attempted to prove that the ancients were actually acquainted, in very early periods, with the chemical procefs of making gunpowder, and inftances the invention of Salmoneus, with which he is faid to have imitated the thunder and lightning of Jupiter, in proof of his affertion. What is, however, much more to our prefent purpose, he cites Themiftius, to prove that the Indian Brahmins encountered one another with thunder and lightning launched from an eminence; and Philoftratus, in evidence, that, when attacked by their enemies, they did not leave their walls to fight them, but darted upon them miffile weapons, in noife and effict relembling πρηστήρας και βροντας, lightning and thun der. By thefe weapons were evidently meant the fire-shaft, or rocket, defcribed by Mr. Halhed; and to thefe we may add the artificial thunder and lightning ufed in their cavern-imitations." P. 671. In further proof of their metallurgic, as well as aftronomical fkill, Mr. M. produces the following curious paffage from the Life of Apollonius, by Philoftratus. * Mr. Dutens. "Apol ! Apollonius cum Farcha Brachmane fecreto philofophatus, muneris loca ab eo tulit annulos feptem, TOTIDEM PLANETARUM DICTOS NOMINIBUS, quos fingulos geftaret per fubjectos planetis dies; fc. ut annulum AUREUM garet die jolis, ARGENTEUM die lun, FERREUM die Martis, HYDRARGYRINUM die Mercurii, die Jovis STANNEUM, ANEUM die Veneris, et PLUMBEUM die Saturni, quod fingulis planetis fingula refpondeant METALLA." The author now proceeds to adduce other arguments for the Indians having been in very early periods excellent chemifts. The medicinal drugs for which they were ever fo celebrated, and particularly by those which were antidotes to the venomous bites of the numerous claffes of Indian ferpents; their being able to extract from roots and minerals the beautiful dies with which, according to Pliny, the productions of the Indian loom were annually, and are to this day fo gaudily impreffed; their manufacturies of pottery and porcelain, painted with colours equally vivid, and efpecially their vafa murrhina, whatever was the compofition*, fo coveted by the luxurious Romans; and their immemorial ufe of the procefs of diftillation, by which they obtained not only the intoxicating liquor called bang, but all thofe rich oils and fragrant balfams which the vegetable kingdom fo abundantly produces in that luxurious garden of the greater Afia. With the fubfequent extract, in which he appeals to the ancient Inftitutes of Menu for the truth of the exiflence of these arts among them, twelve hundred years before Chrift, the age of that production, we shall conclude our ftrictures on this particular differtation. Thefe are effential branches of chemical fcience; and, that they actually existed at this early period in Hindoftan, every body will be convinced who attentively turns over the pages of Menu's Inftitutes in the chapters that have reference to their mechanical arts and yet unrivalled manufactures. In thofe pages we find them, as I have truly ftated in my Differtation on the Commerce of this ancient peoplet, engraving on the hardeft ftones, and working in the most difficult metals; giving the moft beautiful polish to the diamond, an art fuppofed not to be known till the 15th century; enchafing in gold, and working in ivory and ebony, with inimitable elegance. In weaving, fpinning, and dying; in all the more ingenious devices appertaining to the refpective occupations of the joiner, the cutler, the mafon, the potter, and the japanner; in executing the most curious cabinet and filligree work in general; in drawing birds, flowers, and fruits, from the book of nature with exquifite precifion; in painting thofe beauti ful chintzes annually brought into Europe, that glow with fuch a variety of colours, as brilliant as they are lasting; in the fabrication of those ornamental vafes of agate and chryftal, inlaid with the richest gems, that conftitute fo large a portion of the fplendid merchandize of India with the neighbouring empires of Afia; in fhort, in whatever requires an ingenious head or a ductile hand, what people on earth, in thofe remote or in these modern times, has ever vied with the Indians? "The felection of a very few paffages from thofe celebrated Inftitutes, fince the Vedas are not yet acceffible, will be fufficient to prove the truth of the preceding ftatement. With refpect to their skill in exploring mines and fabricating metals, in enchufing in gold, in working in ivory, in piercing gems, and in dying, we read; "Day by day muft the king, though engaged in forenfic business, confider the great object of public measures, and inquire into the state. of his carriages, elephants, horses, and cars, his conftant revenues and neceffary expenfes, his mines of precious metals, or gems, and his treafury." Inftitutes, p. 243. "Of brilliant metals, of gems, and of every thing made with ftone, (as pots or vafes,) the purification ordained by the wife is with afhes, water, and earth." P. 137. "A golden veffel, not fmeared, is cleanfed with water only; and every thing produced in water, as coral-fhells or pearls, and every ftony fubftance, and a filver veffel, not enchafed." Ibid. "Veffels of copper, iron, brass, pewter, in, and lead, may be fitly cleanfed with ashes, with acids, or with water." Ibid. "Utenfils made of shells, or of horn, of bones, or of ivory, muft be cleanfed by him who knows the law, as mantles of chuma are purified." lbid. "In page 261, we find punishments ordained "for mixing impure with pure commodities, for piercing fine gems, as diamonds or rubies, and for boring pearls or inferior gems improperly." "All woven cloth, dyed red, cloth made of Sana, of cshuma bark, and of wool, even though not dyed red, are prohibited the mercantile Brahmin." Ibid. "That the ancient Indians also knew how, by fermentation, to obtain ardent fpirits is evident from the frequent prohibition of intoxicating liquors enjoined on the Brahmin tribe. Inebriating liquor may be confidered as of three principal forts; that extracted from dregs of fugar, that extracted from bruifed rice, and that extracted from the flowers of the Madhuca: as one, so are all; they fhall not be tafted by the chief of the twice-born." P. 320. "There are scarcely any of the mechanical branches of trade, efpecially thofe of a more coftly kind, in which a knowledge of chemistry is not more or lefs neceffary; and these have ever flourished throughout India in earlier times and in a higher degree of perfection than in any other country of Afia. In fhort, the philofopher wanted chemistry for experiment; the artist for practice, in a thousand different ways. It opened the path of the former into the inmost recesses of nature, and taught him to imitate her various and wonderful power of refolving, feparating, combining, and tranfmuting, the elementary particles of matter that compofe the vaft globe which we inhabit. It enabled him to account for phænomena otherwife utterly inexplicable; he no longer beheld with fuperftititious horror the bursting volcano, the the aurora borealis, and other terrific meteors; he foon learned himself to roll the thunder and launch the lightning of Jove; he stole fire from heaven, and lighted up, in the laboratory, a creation of his own. The latter matured the projects and realized the hopes of the philofopher. By practical chemistry he extended the bounds of niechanic fcience, he widened the field of commerce, and ftrengthened the bands of focial intercourfe." P. 687. The Differtation on the JURISPRUDENCE OF INDIA, being the final divifion of this volume and of the work, unfolds to the legal enquirer a fyttem of government, and of laws, widely different from thofe prevalent in Europe at this period of refined fentiment and polished manners. If, in fome inftances, his aftonifhment will be excited by their fublimity and wisdom, in others his indignation will be roufed by their apparent abfurdity and barbarity; he muft, however, diveft himfelf of prejudice, and calmly reflect on, the remote date to which the Inftitutes lay claim; the rude and almoft favage ftate of mankind, when many of them were promulged, requiring a proportionate degree of feverity; the unlimited defpotifm of eaftern monarchs, and the crafty policy of a tribe of defigning priests, placed, by the laws of Menu, in a station even fuperior to fovereignty itfelf. Though therefore, here and there, throughout the code, appear manifeft veftiges of patriarchal wifdom in legiflation, and of equity in decision, it cannot be denied that far more numerous traces may be found in it of capricious and fanguinary tyranny, as the Nimrods of Afia fucceffively arofe to deface the tables of thofe equitable laws which regulated the conduct of the virtuous Shem, and his purer progeny. The fubfequent extract from this Differtation difplays the writer's fentiments on the very oppofite features which, in this refpect, Menu's Inftitutes exhibit; and their original title of MENUMSRITI, or Laws remembered from Menu, fhould, during the perufal of them, be ftill retained in memory, fince that very title evinces with what ease, and freedom from detection, the groffeft interpolations may have taken place in the body of the code itfelf. "In every retrospect on the ancient Hindoo government it will be obferved, that, while its politic legiflator held out to perfevering virtue and patient obedience the most alluring rewards, it affumed the moft inflexible afpect towards criminals of every defcription. To temporal punishments the moft dreadful, and to corporeal mutilations the moft fanguinary, in order to imprefs his mind with deeper reverential awe, were added all the terrors of the fpiritual anathema, tormenting U BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XVII, MARCH, 1801. dæmons |