other parched with equatorial Fervors: The tremendous Tornado and the peftilential Blaft rendered the ancient Indians too well ac

quainted with thofe Phanomena. Their metallurgic Operations required the Aid of vaft BELLOWS for their Furnaces. Their Mines could not have been explored and wrought without AIR-SHAFTS and other pneumatic Machines, nor without greatly enlarging their Knowledge in this Branch of Science, which they made ufeful in the Myfteries practised in their fubterraneous Caverns. - Probably not unacquainted with ELECTRICITY and MAGNETIC ATTRACTION.

PAINTING. The exquifite Beauty of the Flowers and the brilliant Plumage of the Birds of Hindoftan bad the Effect to make the Indians PAINTERS in very early Periods, as well as to give them a decided Superiority over all the ancient World in the vivid Luftre of their DYES. Their peculiar Method of PAINTING on COTTON defcribed from Pliny and modern Authors. A fort Hiftory of their SILK and COTTON Works.

Their ancient Manufactures of PORCELAIN and COLOURED GLASS. Additional Obfervations on their SCULPTURE and AR

CHITECTURE.

CHITECTURE.

ENGRAVING ON GEMS.. The high Antiquity of this Art in India. The Kind of precious Stones principally felected for this Purpose, and the Devices engraved on them. The infinite Variety and Neatness of their JEWELLERY and GOLD WORK.

TH

HYDRAULIC S.

HE lotos, fufpended aloft in a thousand temples of India and Egypt as the picturesque symbol of that humid principle, which the emanation of the eternal beam, piercing the darkest receffes of the chaotic waters, animated and rendered prolific, demonftrates the strong traditional veneration for the aquatic element, which defcended down to the generations of Afia from the first speculative race of human philofophers. Their conceptions concerning the union of these two grand principles, and the confequent generation of all things, were fometimes expreffed by flames iffuing from the calix of the lotos, fculptured in form of a

vafe, which indeed its natural shape greatly refembles; and, at others, that calix is encircled with a radiated crown of flames, just mounting above the burnished edge, to mark the fuperior energy of fire over water. This is the invariable meaning of the ancients, when either Brahma, Seeva, Ofiris, or Horus, are portrayed fitting upon that facred plant: they are only emblems of the folar fire warming and invigorating the chaotic waters. This their conftant and immemorial deification of the element of water, and their profound admiration of the aftonishing qualities poffeffed by it of pervading, cherishing, and diffolving all things, the effect of philosophical investigation, must neceffarily and naturally have induced an acquaintance with many branches of Hydraulic fcience.

Indeed the doctrine of Thales, that is, of the Ionian school, aquam effe initium rerum, may be fairly faid to have flourished in its vigour in the earlieft poft-diluvian fages. From the fame traditional fountains, whence they obtained their information, Mofes alfo acquired his knowledge in regard to this wonderful element; and from the Mofaic and Egyptian school it was diffused among the philofophers

philofophers of Greece. From the extravagant honours which they paid to it, the first race of Indians feem to have confidered water as the univerfal ftamen, or grand elementary matter, out of which, by the aid of the igneous principle, all things proceeded, and into which their phyfical researches fhewed them they would all by putrefaction be again refolved. As it feemed to poffefs all the energetic properties of deity, they therefore exalted it to the rank of a divinity, and made it the object of their adorations. Now it can fcarcely be credited, that those whose constant practice it was, (at least if we may form a judgement of their conduct by that of their prefent progeny in blood and religion,) with holy enthusiasm, to explore fprings and confecrated rivers, and whom neceffity compelled to form vaft tanks, for the purposes of agriculture, in the scorched regions of India; that those who were accustomed to hew out magnificent baths for fuperftitious ablutions; and who, though perhaps ignorant of the cause, witneffed the alternate fwell and depreffion of the waters of the ocean, attracted by that moon whose refplendent orb they adored with fcarcely lefs fervour than her radiant paraS VOL. VII. Y mour,

in which they took fuch high delight, and the refreshing coolness of which was necessary to mitigate the heat of that burning climate, affords very evident proof that they were well acquainted with this fcience. They had obferved that clouds, breaking on the fummits of mountains, discharged upon them their watery treasures, which, finking into the chinks and pores of the earth in thofe elevated regions, rufhed forth with violence. from their fides or at their bafe in the form of fprings and fountains. The imitative genius of the Indian marked her plastic power, enlarged the fphere of fpeculation, and filled with fountains and jets d'eau the delicious gardens of Delhi and Agra.

But, independently of these their accurate obfervations of nature and her operations, they could fcarcely fail of learning the great principles of hydraulic fcience, before the Indian empire was formed, from their Affyrian ancestors; from that Bali, or Belus, who ftands nearly at the head of their great folar dynasty of fovereigns, when they formed a part of the vaft Iranian empire, which comprehended nearly a third of all Afia. In Affyria they could not fail of being well

known,