A s to the numerous .eclipfes taken notice o f in the records
o f the country, they are mere regifters, noted down
whenever they happened, and not predictions or the refult
o f calculations. It does not appear, indeed, that the Chi-
nele were, at any time, able to predict an eclipfe, notwith-
ftanding all that has been faid in their favour on this fubjedt.
The reputed Chinefe tables, publiihed by father Couplet, have
been detected to be thofe o f Ty cho Brahe; and Cafiini found
the chronology o f their eclipfes, publiihed by Martinus, to be'
erroneous, and their returns impoffible. It could not indeed
be otherwife ; the defedivenefs o f the calendar muft neceffarily
falfify all their records as to time. -
Had the miffionaries been difpofed to confer a real fervice on
the Chinefe, inftead o f mifleading the world by their ftrange and
wonderful accounts o f this people; inftead o f bellowing fo
much time in tranflating into Chinefe a fet o f logarithm tables
for the ufe o f Kaungjhee, the fecond Emperpr o f the prefent
dynafty, o f which they pretend he was fo fond that he always
carried them about with him fufpended to his girdle, they
ihould rather have taught them the ufe, and the convenience,
o f the Arabic numbers, o f whofe combinations and refults their
own language is not capable, and have inftrudted a few o f their
youth in the principles o f arithmetic and the mathematics. For
fuch an omiflion, however, human nature can readily find an
excufe. It would be too great an inftance o f felf-denial, to re-
linquilh the advantages and the credit which their fuperior fkill
had gained them over a vaft empire, by making the individuals
o f that empire participate in their knowledge.
When
When we refled, for a moment, how many perplexities and
difficulties were oceafioned by the irregular coincidences o f
the folar and lunar periods, in the calendars o f Europe, from the
time o f Julius Casfar to the altering of the ftyle by pope G re gory,
we may readily conceive how great muft be the errors in
the chronology o f a country, where the inhabitants are entirely
ignorant even o f the firft principles o f aftronomy, and where
they depended 011 the adventitious aid o f foreigners, to enable
them to carry into execution one o f the molt important concerns
o f the government.
Every thing o f their own invention and difcovery carries
with it fuch ftrong marks o f orighpality, as cannot eafily be
miftaken. The language declares itfelf to be moft unqueftion-
ably the produdion o f the country ; fo does the mariner’s com-
pafs; and they have a cycle, or period, to aflift their chronology,
o f which I think none will difpute with them the invention.
In their records it is carried back to the time o f the Emperor
Whang-tee, the third from Fo-Jhee. This cycle, confuting
o f fixty years, has no reference to the periods o f the motions
or coincidences o f the fun and moon, as one o f the fame
period among the Hindus, but is ufed merely as our century,
to diftinguiih time into eras or ages. Inftead o f denominating
any given year the firft, fecond, or third year o f fuch a cycle,
they have affirmed two fets o f charaders, one fet confifting o f
ten, and the other o f twelve; the firft are called the ten roots,
and the fecond the twelve branches. T he combination o f a
root and a branch gives a name for the y e a r ; and the different
permutations, o f which they .are capable, lupply them with
fixty