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previous knowledge and practical experience of the most arduous operations of metallurgic fcience.

In refpect to that fpecies of chemistry which has relation to the process of hardening argillaceous and other earths by fire, we cannot doubt but that it was fully known to a race famous in antiquity for the many elegant kinds of pottery and porcelain common among them, both for domeftic ornament and ufe. From tradition, history, and the commercial annals of mankind, for nearly thirty centuries, we also know that they were able to extract, by infufion and other means, from earths, roots, and minerals, that variety of lovely and brilliant dyes, for which they have been immemorially celebrated; and, by dif tillation and fermentation, all those rich oils and fragrant balfams which the vegetable kingdom fo abundantly produces in that luxurious garden of the Greater Asia.

From the infatiable defire of riches," fays an old Sanfcreet author, cited in Mr. Halhed's Preface, "I have digged beneath the earth; I have fought by fire to tranfmute the metals of the mountains.”*

*Halhed's Gentoo Code, Preface, p. 29.

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These are effential branches of chemical science; and, that they actually existed at this early period in Hindoftan, every body will be convinced who attentively turns over the pa. ges of Menu's Institutes in the chapters that have reference to their mechanical arts and yet unrivalled manufactures. In those pages we find them, as I have truly stated in my Differtation on the Commerce of this ancient people,* engraving on the hardest ftones, and working in the most difficult metals; giving the most 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 respective occupations of the joiner, the cutler, the mafon, the potter, and the japanner; in executing the most curious cabinet and filligree work in gold; in drawing birds, flowers, and fruits, from the book of nature with exquifite precifion; in painting those beautiful chintzes annually brought into Europe, that glow with fuch a rich variety of

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colours, as brilliant as they are lasting; in the fabrication of those ornamental vafes of agate and chrystal, inlaid with the richest gems, that constitute 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 those remote or in thefe modern times, has ever vied with the Indians?

The selection 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 statement. With respect to their fkill in exploring mines and fabricating metals, in enchafing in gold, in working in ivory, in piercing gems, and in dying, we read;

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Day by day muft the king, though engaged in forenfic bufinefs, confider the great object of public measures, and inquire into the state of his carriages, elephants, horses, and cars, his conftant revenues and neceffary expenses, bis mines of precious metals, or gems, and his treasury." Inftitutes, p. 243.

"Of brilliant metals, of gems, and of every thing made with stone, (as pots or vases,) the purification

purification ordained by the wife is with afhes,

water, and earth.

P.
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, tin, and lead, may be fitly cleanfed with ashes, with acids, or with water."

Ibid.

"Utenfils made of shells or of hɔrn, of bones or of ivory, must be cleansed by him who knows the law, as mantles of chuma are purified." Ibid.

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 chuma bark, and of wool, even though not dyed red, are prohibited the mercantile Brahmin." Ibid.

That the ancient Indians alfo knew how, by fermentation, to obtain ardent fpirits is evident from the frequent prohibition of intoxicating

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toxicating 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 bruised. rice, and that extracted from the flowers of the Madhuca as one, fo 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, especially 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 artift for practice, in a thoufand different ways. It opened the path of the former into the inmoft receffes 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 vast globe which we inhabit. It enabled him to account for phænomena otherwise utterly inexplicable; he no longer beheld with fuper

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