I have to make muft o f courfe be very- general;; minute particular
« will not be expefted in a work o f this nature. There is
no branch o f fcience which the Ghinefe* affefl: to value fo much,
and underhand ib little, as aftronomy. T he neceflity- indeed
o f being able to mark, with fome degree o f precifion, the returns
o f the feafons and certain periods,, in fo large a community,
muft have directed an early attention o f the government to this
fubjebt; and accordingly we find, that an aftronomicat board
has formed one o f the ftate eftablilhments from the earlieft periods
o f their hiftory. Yet fo little progrefs have they made in
this feience, that the only part o f its fun&ions, which can be
called aftronomical, has long been committed to the care o f
foreigners, whom they affect to hold in contempt and' to con-
fider as barbarians. T he principal objed o f this board, is to.
frame and to publilh a national calendar, and to point out to the
government the fuitable times and feafons for' its important undertakings.
Even when the marriage o f a prince or princefs o f
the blood,is about to take place, the commiffioners o f aftronomy
muft appoint a fortunate day for the celebration o f the nuptials,
which is announced in form in the Pekin Gazette.
In this important almanack, as in the Greek and Roman calendars,
are inferted all the fuppofed lucky and unlucky days in
the year, predidions o f the weather, days proper for taking medicine,
commencing journies, taking home a wife, laying the
foundation o f a houfe, and other matters o f moment, for entering
upon which particular times are aifigned. T o the fuperin-
tendency o f the Chinefe members o f this auguft tribunal is committed
the aftrological part, a committee o f whom is feleded:
annually
annually for the execution o f this important talk. Whether
the men o f letters, as they call themfelves, really believe in the
abfurdities o f judicial aftrology, or whether they may think it
neceffary to encourage the obfervance o f popular fuperftitions,
on political confiderations, I will not take upon me to decide.
If, however, they ihould happen to poffefs any fuch fuperior
knowledge, great créditais due to them for ading the farce with
fuch apparent earneftnefs, and with fo much folemnity. The
duration o f the fame fyftem has certainly been long enough for
them to have difcovered, that the multitude are more effectuall
y governed by opinion than by power-
The phenomena o f the heavenly bodies, to an enlightened
and intelligent mind, furniih the moft grandi and fublime fpec-
tacle in nature ; to the ignorant and fuperftitions, the molt
awful. The common- people o f alt countries, and in all ages,
have confidered the occafional privation o f the light o f the tw o
great luminaries o f heaven as the forerunners o f fome extraordinary
event, whilft the more intelligent part o f the community
have* turned thefë fuperftitibus notions to their advantage.
Thales is faid to have; been, able to calculate the returns o f
eclipfes fix hundred; years before the birth o f Chrift ; o f courfe,,
he was well acquainted with the caufes by which they were
produced; yet his countrymen were always filled with fuper-
ftition and terror on the event o f an eclipfe., Plutarch has ob-
ferved that Pèricles learned from Anaxagoras to overcome the
terrors which the various phenomena o f the heavens infpired
into thofé who knew not their caufes ; and he mentions a ftrik