known, as every body must be convinced who has read the account given by Diodorus* of the hanging gardens of Babylon, with their lofty terraces extending gradually up to the fummit of the walls, which were two hundred feet in height, and at that ftupendous elevation were refrefhed with water forced up by immenfe engines from the bed of the Euphrates. But a farther knowledge of hydraulics was neceffary to the existence of a very large proportion of the Indian nation; and though, in the courfe of ages, they have, in respect to this as well as other sciences, funk down into a very degrading state of ignorance, the danger of perishing by famine ftill preserves among them a portion of the fcience fufficient for the proper diftribution of the waters, contained in their great tanks, over the champaign country, which is reprefented by M. Sonnerat as univerfally divided into parcels of about one hundred or one hundred and twenty yards square. In these that valued grain, the rice, which constitutes Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 98. + Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 130. Y 3 the the in which they took fuch high delight, and refreshing coolness of which was neceffary 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 summits of mountains, discharged upon them their watery treasures, which, finking into the chinks and pores of the earth in those 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 stands 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, known, as every body must be convinced who has read the account given by Diodorus* of the hanging gardens of Babylon, with their lofty terraces extending gradually up to the fummit of the walls, which were two hundred feet in height, and at that ftupendous elevation were refrefhed with water forced up by immenfe engines from the bed of the Euphrates. But a farther knowledge of hydraulics was neceffary to the existence of a very large proportion of the Indian nation; and though, in the courfe of ages, they have, in respect to this as well as other sciences, funk down into a very degrading state of ignorance, the danger of perishing by famine ftill preserves among them a portion of the fcience fufficient for the proper diftribution of the waters, contained in their great tanks, over the champaign country, which is reprefented by M. Sonnerat as univerfally divided into parcels of about one hundred or one hundred and twenty yards fquare. In these that valued grain, the rice, which constitutes Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 98. + Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 130. Y 3 the the principal food of the Indians, is depofited and grows up to maturity in water only; but, as the greateft part of the lands is dry and fandy, hydraulic machines were neceffary to elevate and abundantly distribute that water to the thirsty plant. Thefe machines are, indeed, extremely fimple in their fabri cation, but they are effective; engravings of them may be seen in Sonnerat. Another danger equally alarming, that of perifhing by thirst, impended over them if they totally neglected this branch of philofophy; for, in regions remote from the great rivers, they only obtain water from wells funk to a vast depth in the fand and clay; and, from thefe, the necessary fluid could not be obtained except by pumps and other engines of various constructions and dimenfions. They could not have constructed the canals and fluices neceffary to convey the water from one diftrict to another over vaft fandy plains without fome proficiency in this fcience; nor could many of their mechanical operations, where fluids were concerned, as, for inftance, when fpirits and effential oils were to be extracted by diftillation, be carried on without the use of fiphons or fimilar hydraulic veffels. PNEU 1 PNEUMATICS. Having discoursed thus largely concerning the adoration paid by the Indians, on account of their important utility to man and life, to the elements of fire and water, it would be improper to omit noticing their equal veneration for the athereal element, which was fo great as to lead them to perfonify and exalt it) into a deity under the name of Indra, the god of the firmament, a deity armed with all those formidable infignia, and invested with that unbounded empire over subject nature, which the Grecian mythologifts have conferred on their Jupiter. The ftormy prime minifter of Indra, in the government of his wide aërial domain, is VAYoo, the god of the winds, who is expreffively represented in their pictures as riding furiously, from one point of heaven to the other, on a fwift antelope, and brandifhing in his hand a fabre gleaming like lightning. In fact, the immenfe viciffitudes of climate naturally to be expected in fo extenfive a country as India, and the tremendous irregularities |