Seth, according to the Hebrewtext, is 8575 years; which number, divided by ten, will give, on an average, 857 years and a fraction, for the life of each of them. That the dynasties of the Sun and Moon were antediluvian is clear; because it is ascertained that they were established in the beginning of the fifth century of the world: and that they descended from Seth and Cain is implied, because it is recorded, that they sprung from two distinguished sons of the first-created. The division of these dynasties may nevertheless be subject to some inaccuracy, since it is the principals only that are accurately described. The minor branches, who, like the Nomi in Egypt, assisted in the government, are placed from memory, after the author had been deprived of the originals from which they were extracted. This, however, is not essential to the general object of the work, since such inaccuracies may easily be rectified by those who have an opportunity of referring to the Puranas from which they were taken.

If these observations, the result of a long and intimate knowledge of the character, religion, and manners, of the Hindus, should become instrumenVOL. I.

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tal in converting them to Christianity, the great object of their publication will be fulfilled; and if not, the information contained in the following Letters may at least afford amusement and instruction to the young student in his researches after literary knowledge. In the works of Origen and others, who profess to believe in the creation and destruction of worlds innumerable, alledging that such revolutions ever had existed, and ever would exist, he will recognize the Menwantara system of the Hindus, or annual renewal of time, when nature becomes regenerate at the vernal equinox; when "He, whose property it is to exist unperceived by sense, having long reposed (during the winter), awakes, and, awaking, reproduces the great principle of animation." He will, by fully -comprehending the early dynasties of the Hindus, Egyptians, and Chaldeans, recognize in each the antediluvian patriarchs, as recorded in the Hebrew text of his Bible; and by a coincidence of dates and events, he will obtain collateral proofs of the authority of that holy record, upon which he justly grounds his faith in Christ; and from the sublime doctrines of true religion which he finds in their sacred records, he will learn with the Hindu, to

tolerate all religious opinions which are founded on the worship of the living God. He will " be enabled to establish as indubitable, that the three first ages of the Hindus are not mythological:" that they are neither "founded on the enigmas of their Astronomers, nor on the heroic fictions of their Poets; but that they contain a period of nine hundred years only;" "that the fourth historical age can be carried further back than about two thousand years before Christ," and that the commencement of it is correctly placed at Y. B. C. 3182; since, by adding nine hundred years to the current year of the fourth of Cali age, we get the true epoch of the creation, according to all oriental chronology. And when he reflects that a period of time not exceeding that of one annual revolution of the Sun, hath been compared to the doctrine of Archytas, the numerator of the sands, and deemed sufficient to baffle the ingenuity of Archimedes, who invented a notation that was capable of expressing them, their chronology being deemed "an absurdity so monstrous as to overthrow their whole system, so technical an arrangement excluding the idea of serious history;" and when he calls to mind that "nothing

has so embarrassed the learned world, as the dynasties of the kings of Egypt," and recollects that a learned Commentator of his own time doubts "whether it be in the power of man to thoroughly regulate the Egyptian chronology," and then finds himself enabled, by a simple rule in common arithmetic, to solve all such difficulties, he will be convinced of the folly and impiety of those who, suffering prejudice to get the better of their un derstanding, refuse their assent, whether in chronology or religion, to that which they do not fully comprehend. He will thereby learn to have "faith in things not seen," and to believe in those great truths, which may at present appear mysterious to him, in the holy religion of Christ.

LETTER I.

MY DEAR SIR,

In compliance with your request, I have arranged the observations, which a long residence in India enabled me to make, on the Theology and Chronology of the Hindus: subjects little understood, but which every young man, who enters into the East India Company's service, should endeavour to become master of; more especially since the conversion of the Hindus to Christianity has become a consideration with the English Government, and which may, I am confident, be effected with ease, if proper methods are adopted. On this subject I speak from personal knowledge, having devoted much time to so desirable an object and had it not interfered with the mercenary views of an individual, the protestant religion had long since been introduced not only in the district of Dindigul, but in all the Polloms subordinate thereto. I shall be most happy, if my researches prove either beneficial or amusing to you. They may possibly prevent you from imbibing those VOL. I.

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