t

The liberal conduct of the Directors, on this occafion, to an unpatronized stranger, affords decifive evidence that an enlightened assembly of British merchants are equally above the bafenefs of prejudice, and the meanness of avarice; and that, however humble the inftrument, they are never indifferent to the advancement of Literature, and the diffufion of Science.

I frankly own to the candid reader that I knew not, at the time, the full extent and magnitude of the undertaking in which I had embarked. At my very entrance into the grand hiftoric field, through the whole ample circuit of which it became necessary for me to range, a field over-run with exotic and luxuriant vegetation, fuch a prospect unfolded itself, as, I confefs, at once difheartened and terrified me. Such a variety of complicated and profound fubjects preffed for difcuffion, before the way could be fufficiently cleared for an entrance upon the immediate path of Hiftory; fo deeply were the wild fables of Indian Mythology blended with the authentic annals of regular History; that the proper execution of the arduous work, feemed to demand the exertion of abilities, as well as the command of fortune, to

which

which I could by no means lay claim. It foon occurred to me, that, inftead of the folitary. exertions of an individual of moderate talents, of confined and precarious income, with no powerful patron in the high and fplendid circles of life to protect, and no opulent private connections vigorously to promote the work, the completion of fo extensive a plan as that laid down by myself, required the united efforts of fome confiderable literary fociety, combining a splendid affemblage of genius and erudition, and embodied for the purpose, with every public library in the kingdom at their fervice, and, I might add, the public treasury alfo, at their command. The Atupendous fyftem of the BRAHMIN CHRONOLOGY, extending back through millions of years; the obftinate denial of a GENERAL DELUGE by thofe Brahmins; the perplexing doctrine of a TRINITY IN THE DIVINE NATURE, for ever occurring in the operations of the grand Indian Triad of Deity, Brahma, Veefhnu and Seeva, a doctrine not to be traced to any immediate connexion with the Jewish nation, yet more confpicuous in India, than even in the Triple Mithra of Perfia, and the Globe, the Wing, and the Serpent, which, according to Kircher, formed the Trinity of Egypt; these were among the numerous, the

delicate,

delicate, and abftrufe topics, which neither the clerical nor hiftorical function in which I had engaged, would allow of being passed over in filence.

I had not, at firft, formed the remoteft conception that to enter into the spirit of the Ancient Sanscreet Hiftory of India, or to render that history intelligible to the reader, it would be necessary to engage in the deepest aftronomical fpeculations of the oriental world, yet, as I advanced in my enquiries, I found. that kind of knowledge to be indispensable; for, in fact, the primeval histories of all the ancient empires of the earth amount to little more than the romantic dreams of aftronomical mythology. This is particularly evident in Hindoftan, from the two great and most ancient rajah families being denominated SURYA-BANS and CHANDRA-BANS; or Children of the Sun and Moon.

I have entered farther into these astronomical difquifitions than my friends may think was either necessary, or, in regard to the fale of my book, prudent; but this particular fubject was intimately connected with others of a higher nature, and more momentous refearch. The daring affertions of certain sceptical French philofophers with respect to the Age of the World, whofe arguments I have attempted

d

1

attempted to refute, arguments principally founded on the high affumptions of the Brahmins and other Eaftern nations, in point of chronology and aftronomy, could their extravagant claims be substantiated, have a direct tendency to overturn the Mosaic system, and with it, Christianity. I have, therefore, withwhat fuccefs the reader must hereafter determine, laboured to invalidate thofe claims, with all the perfevering affiduity which an hearty belief in the truth of the former, and an unfhaken attachment, not merely profeffional, to the latter fyftem, could not fail of exciting and animating. While engaged in those enquiries, the fortunate arrival of the fecond volume of the Afiatic Researches, with the various differtations on the fubject, of Sir William Jones, and of Mr. Davis, who has unveiled the astronomical myfteries of the famous SURYA SIDDHANTA, the most ancient Sanfcreet treatife on that science, enabled me to pursue with satisfaction, with security, and, I trust, to demonftration, the plan which I had previously formed, and upon which alone the dif ficulty can be folved.

Guided by such indisputable authorities, I truft, I have proved in the first volume of my history, that the personages who are said to

have flourished fo many thousand years in the earliest ages, were of celeftial, not terrestrial, origin; that their empire was the empire of imagination, in the skies, not of real power on this globe of earth; that the day and year of Brahma, and the day and year of Mortals, are of a nature widely different; that the whole jargon of the YUGsorgrand periods, and confequently all those presumptuous affertions of the Brahmins, relative to the earth's antiquity, have no foundation but in the great folar and lunar cy→ cles, or planetary revolutions; and that CHALDEA, and not INDIA, was the parent country of mankind. In proof of this last assertion, I have produced a few remarkable instances which evince the primitive languages of Chaldæa and India not to be greatly diffimilar; that the name ADAM may be traced to the Sanscreet root, ADIM, or the firft; that in the prophetic and regal title of MENU of India, may be re cognized the patriarch Noah; that their great hero, BALI, an appellative synonymous with the Bel, or Baal, of their neighbours, is no other than Belus; and that all the prodigies of valour and wisdom fabled of the renowned DIONYSIUS Of India, if true, are only true of Rama, the fon of Cufh. Whatsoever partial objections may be urged against the d 2 system