• &tical Astronomers, who endeavoured in earnest to • make themselves Masters of the Science; and that • Thales was the firft who could predict an Eclipse in • Greece, not DC Years before Chrift; and that Hipparchus made the first Catalogue of the fixt Stars not above CL Years before Christ. u t According to that known Obfervation of Varro, there was nothing that can deserve the Name of Hiftory to be found among the Greeks before the Olympiads, which were but about Twenty Years before the building of Rome. And " Plutarch informs us, how little the Tables of the Olympiads are to be relied upon. But whatever Learning or Knowledge of ancient Times the Romans had, they borrowed it from the Greeks. For they were fo little capable of transmitting their own Affairs down to Pofterity, with any exactness in point of Time, that for * fome Ages, they had neither Dials nor. Hour-glaffes to measure their Days and Nights by for common ufe, and for Three hundred Years they knew no fuch things as Hours, or the like Distinctions; but computed their Time only from Noon to Noon. This. Distinction of Time was afterwards laid afide; for in the Twelve Tables, mention was made only of the Sun's Rifing and Setting, till after fome Years Noon was added; but they had no exact Sun-dial till about Three hundred Years after, nor any Clepfydra to ufe by Night, and in Gloomy Days, till A. V. C. DXCV. Tamdin Populo Romano indifcreta Lux fuit. And there was ftill much * negligence and abuse in their Intercalations, fo that it is no wonder that their Calendar was in fuch confufion till Cafar regulated it. The pretenfions of the Chineses to Antiquity appear equally vain, and upon the fame grounds: For they • Cenforin. de Die Natali, c. 21. "In Numâ, init. * Id. c. 23. under a understood little or nothing of Aftronomy, or else the Miffionaries by their skill in that Art, would not have been able fo much to infinuate themfelves with the Emperors of China. Indeed the Chineses themselves confefs, that their Antiquities are in great part fabulous, and they acknowledge that their most ancient Books were in Hieroglyphicks, which are not expounded by any who lived nearer than MDCC Years to the firft Author of them, that the numbers in computation are fometimes mistaken, or that Months are put for Years. But of what Antiquity or Authority foever their first Writers were, there is little or no credit to be given to the Books now remaining, fince that general deftruction of all ancient Books by the Emperor Xi Hoam ti, who lived but about Two hundred Years before Chrift: He commanded upon pain of Death, all the Monuments of Antiquity to be deftroyed, relating either to History or Philofophy efpecially the Books of Confucius, and killed many of their Learned Men: fo that from his time, they have only fome fragments of old Authors left. The Chinese are a people vain enough to fay any thing that may countenance their pretences to Antiquity, and love to magnifie themselves to the Europeans, which makes them endeavour to have it believed, that their Antiquities are fufficiently entire, notwithstanding this destruction of their Books: and for the fame reafon they described the Emperor's Obfervatory as the most compleat, and the best fitted for the ufes of Aftronomy, that could be imagined; but upon the view it appeared very inconfiderable, and the Inftruments were found useless, and new ones were placed in their room, made by the direction of Father Verbieft. This People after all their boasts of Skill in • Martin Hift. Sin. lib. i. ii. & Atl. Sinic. Præf. Philip. Couplet in Confuc. Proœm. Declar. & Præf. ad Fab. Chronol. Sinica Mo narchiæ. Le Compt's Memoir. p. 64, 71, 464. Y Astro Aftronomy, were not able to make an exact Calendar, and their Tables of Eclipses were so uncorrect, that they could scarce foretel about what time that of the Sun fhould happen. And in a Petition, which the Emperor of China, in favour, it seems, to the Missionaries, had privately drawn up to be prefented by them to himself in publick, it is faid, that Father Adam Schaal made it known to all the Court, that the Rules of the Cæleftial Motions established by the ancient Aftronomers of China, were all falfe. And not only the common People of China, but the chief Mandarines are fo ignorant and fuperftitious, that when they fee the Sun or Moon under an Eclipfe, with Sacrifices and other Rites, and with great noise and clamor they apply themselves to rescue them from the Dog or Dragon, which they imagine is like to devour them. The Learned Caffini fays, that it is unquestionable, that a great part of the Eclipfes, and of the other Conjunctions, which the Chineses allege, cannot according to their own Calendar, as it is at prefent, have happened at the Times that they pretend; as he found by the Calculation of a great number of these Eclipfes, and even by examining only the intervals of Time between them; fome being fet too near, and others at too great a distance. He obferves, that F. Couplet himfelf doubts of fome of these Eclipfes, by reason of a Compliment, which the Chinese Aftronomers made to one of their Kings, whom they congratulated, when an Eclipfe, which they had foretold, did not happen, faying, that fince it portended Mischief, the Heavens, in favour to him, had put it by. He fays, that notwithstanding their Boaft of ancient and magnificent Obfervatories, furnish'd with all forts of Inftruments, and their ample Colleges for the Studies of Aftronomy, yet this Nation, fo jealous of its b Regl. de L' Aftron. Siam. Loubere, Tom. 2. p. 266. Reflex. fur la Chron. Chinese, ib. p. 385. own own Glory, and fuch an Enemy to Strangers, was forced, for the correction of their Calendar, to place the Jefuits over their own Aftronomers, tho' they came to teach a Religion contrary to their own; and to do the greatest honour to Ricci, Schall, Verbieft, and Grimaldi, who, during his abfence in Italy, was by the Emperor of China chofen Prefident of the Aftronomers. From the Agreement in the Numbers of the Chinese Tables of Conftellations and those of Tycho Brahe, almost always in the fame Minute, Caf fini concludes, that the Chinese Tables were calculated by the Jefuits, who firft went into China. For our Aftronomers of this Age find it difficult to agree in the fame Minute, as to the Place of the fix'd Stars, and between the Tables of Tycho, and those of the Landgrave of Heffe, made at the fame time by excellent Aftronomers, there is a difference of feveral Minutes; which fhews, that the Chinese Tables were taken from Tycho's, or else they could not fo exactly agree with them. Besides, the Longitudes in the Chinefe Tables are fet down according to Tycho's Method, which reduces the Stars to the Ecliptick, and not to the Equinoctial, as the Chinese Method does. This f excellent Aftronomer, by examining a Conjunction of the Planets under their Fifth Emperor, has difcovered a difference by the Antedate of Five hundred Years, between the Time noted in the Chinese Chro nology, and the true Time. And he proves a Mistake of Four hundred ninety seven Years in their Account of another Aftronomical Obfervation, concerning the Winter Solstice, under their feventh Emperor. So that he has proved by one inftance, that the Chineses carry their Antiquities too high by Five hundred Years, and has difcovered another Error in their Chronology of about Five hundred Years more. a. Ib. p. 390. Ib. p. 391. Y 2 f Ib. p. 396. e M. de la h M. de la Loubere, who, in his History of Siam, has communicated thefe Obfervations of Caffini to the World, is himself of opinion, that the Chineses in their Lift of Kings, have inferted the contemporary Kings of the Provinces of China, when it was divided into several leffer Kingdoms under one Monarch, as if they had reigned in fucceffion. i k So little credit is to be given to the pretences which the feveral Nations among the Heathens have made to Antiquity, without any ground from History, but upon wandring Difcourfes of Obfervations in Aftronomy, which they had little or no skill in. It is confeffed by Diodorus Siculus, and other Heathen Writers, that Jupiter, and the rest of their Gods were Men who had been Deified after their Death. And it has been made evident by divers Learned Men, that the most ancient, and the very best of the Heathen Gods, were but Men, whom the Scriptures mention as Worfhippers of the True God, fuch as Noah, Jofeph, Mofes, &c. The Egyptians are faid to have learned of Abraham, the knowledge which they had in Aftronomy. However, the Hebrew Calendar feems to have been fix'd before MoJes's time for he makes no alteration in it, but only appoints the Month Abib to be the first in the Ecclefiaftical Year, leaving the Civil Year as he found it. Burnt-offerings were appointed for the New Moons; and befides the Rules which Mofes gave them relating to their Months, Books of Aftronomy were written by learned Jews of the Tribe of " Iffachar, in the time of the Prophets: For that the care of their Calendar belong'd to that Tribe, we learn from 1 Chron. xii. 32. And the Obfervation of the Feafts required i Diod. Sic. 1.3. c. 5. l. 5. c.15. h P.399. k Jof. Antiq. 1. 1. c. 9. m 1 * Τὸν πρῶτον κόσμον διεφύλαξε. Ib. 1. r. c. 4. |