cular day would be fufpended from one end o f the empire to
the other.
Before an eclipfe happens, the members o f the mathematical
board and other learned men in office affemble near the
palace, each having in his hand a iketch o f the obfcuration, in'
order to witneis the truth o f the aftronomer’s calculation. But
i f thefe people were not all interefted in making the calculation
to agree with the time and other circumftances o f the eclipfe, the
aftronomers would run no great hazard o f being deteded in an
error, -provided it was not a. very glaring one, as they have no
inftruments for meafuring time with any tolerable degree o f accuracy.
The moment the eclipfe begins, they all fall down on their
knees, aqd bow their heads nine times to the ground, during
which is ftruck up a horrible crafh o f gongs, kettle-drums,
trumpets, and other noify inftruments, intended to feare the
devouring dragon.
From the obfervance o f fuch extravagant ceremonies it would
not be fair to infer their total ignorance o f the principles o f
aftronomy; but that fuch is really the cafe, the latter part o f
their hiftory furnifhes abundant teftimony. In the thirteenth
century, when Gen-gis Khan the Mongul Tartar firft entered
China, and his fucceffor Kublai Khan effeded the conqueft -of
the country, the greateft diforder and confufion prevailed in
their chronology. T h e y were neither able to regulate the reckoning
o f time, nor to fettle the limits pf the different provinces,
nor even to afeertain the divifions o f lands as allotted to the federal
diftrids. Kublai, according to their own annals, held out encouragement
eouragement for learned men to frequent his court from every
part o f the world, and through the means o f the miffionaries,
both o f the Chriftian and Mahomedan faith, but principally the
latter, and perhaps ftill more through the defcendants o f the
Greeks, who anciently fettled in Badriana, many important
improvements were then introduced into China. He caufed a
regular furvey to be taken o f the whole empire. He adjufted
their chronology, and correded the errors o f their aftronomicai
obfervations; he imported various mathematical and aftronomicai
inftruments from Balk and Samarcand ; fuch as were then in
ufe among the Chinefe being o f a rude conftrudion, and unfit
to make obfervations o f the heavenly bodies with any tolerable
degree o f accuracy; and he repaired the grand communication
by water that conneds the northern with the fouthern extremities
o f the empire, a work, in -the contemplation o f which
the mind is not more ftrongly impreffed with the grandeur and
magnitude o f the objed, than with the pleafing fenfe o f its important
utility.
In feme o f the early accounts o f China, publiflhed in Europe,
we find the defeription o f certain inftruments, faid to have
been difcovered on a mountain near the city o f Nankin and
afterwards placed by the Chinefe partly in that capital and
partly in Pekin. On a more accurate examination o f thofe inftruments
it appeared, that they had all been conftruded for
feme particular place lying under the 37th parallel o f latitude;
from whence it followed, that all the obfervations made with
them at Pekin, which is in 39°. 55'. north, as well as all thofe
made at Nankin in 32°. 4 . north, muft.have been entirely falfei
p p and