world with the tranflation of Menu's Inftitutes, which is now in the hands of molt profeffional men. "Though that circumftance," he adds. "has enabled me greatly to curtail my difquifi ions on that curious head of Indian iterature, yet it by no means releafes me from the obligation I am under to the general clafs of my readers, who may not be in poffeffion of the work in queftion. The concife obfervations which I have ventured to offer on the legislatue of India and that fingular code, compofed of fuch heterogeneous ingredients, that jargon (for fo 1 muft call it) of defpotim to men and benevolence to brutes, of fenfe and abfurdity, of the fublime and the puerile, are the result of confiderable attention to the fubject, founded partly on what I have been able to collect from ancient claffical writers, and partly from the few genuine Hindoo documents as yet in our poffeffion," Mr. M. then proceeds to explain himfelf on the other topics difcuffed in this curious final volume of his Antiquities, and clofes the Dedication in the following manner: "The legal Differtation, though the laft in order of those that occupy the pages of this final volume, I have introduced first and more particularly to your notice, Gentlemen, because it is the one in which you will probably find yourfelves moft interefted. It contains two others, intimately connected with Indian commerce and literature, to which I beg permiflion to make thefe dedicatory pages fomewhat introductory. "When the Arabian chiefs, in the feventh century of the Chriftian æra, poured their myriads into the plains of Hindoftan, they found there fuch fuperabundant wealth, the tribute of all nations for innumerable ages, as occafioned the writers of that country to invent the 10mantic fiction that, among other rarities peculiar to India, a tree was discovered there of pure gold*, and of enormous fize, fpringing naturally out of the foil, thus realizing Milton's fable of the vegetable gold that grew in the delightful paradife of his fancy. According to writers, however, hereafter referred to, of fomewhat better authenticity than those fablers, nothing could equal, in the ancient periods that preceded their irruption, the aftonishing magnificence difplayed in the pagodas. The lofty roofs and columns of thofe ftupendous edifices are reported to have been entirely covered with that beautiful metal; the high-raifed altars blazed with a profufion of gems; the breafts and veftures of their monftrous idols were covered with strings of the lovelieft pearl, while their eyes fparkled with the borrowed luftre of emeralds and rubies. I thought it could not fail of being peculiarly interesting to that very large and refpectable portion of my readers who are commercially connected with India, to trace to their fource, in the vaft, but now probably exhausted, mines of Africa and Afia, the ftreams of that amazing wealth, by way of appendix to the Differtation on the ancient commerce of India in the fixth volume of these "See Orme's Hindoflan, vol. i. p. 9." Anti Antiquities. The picture, it must be owned, is extremely gaudy and magnificent, but I truft it is not overcharged. The arts and fciences of India, which I have confidered under the general head of its literature, were carried, in periods of the moft remore zariquity, to fo high a point of excellence as opens to the European scholar an immenfe field for reflection. In this inftance alfo I have endeavoured to do the ancient Indians ftri& justice without exaggeration; but, on fome points principally relating to their unparalleled advance in mechanical fcience, confiderable difficulties arting, and there being fuch a deficiency of written materials in Europe for proving the points contended for; to fubftantiate thofe points I have had recourfe to the following plan of investigation and decifion, in which, if my author Sir William Jones was, as I have every reafon to think, correct in his original pofitions, I could scarcely fail of being alfo correct in my deductions. "By a train of forcible arguments, ftrengthened by an ingenious aftronomical calculation, that equally zealous and judicious explorer into the genuine antiquities of Afia has fixed the period of the first promulgation of Menu's Inftitutes to that of the establishment of the first monarchies in Egypt and Afia, which could not have taken place many ages pofterior to the deluge; and their first publication, as a code of written laws, to about the year 1280 before Chrift. Now when we read in that code of the engraving and piercing of gems, and particularly of diamonds, an art only recently known in Europe, we know they must neceffarily have had the use of those fine steel inftruments without which that operation could not poffibly have been perforwed, and confequently that they must have been very excellent metallurgits as early after the deluge as can well be conceived. Again, when, in the fame book, we read of a particular caff, or class, whose fole occupation it is to attend filk-vorms, we can ascertain, however difputed in favour of the Chinese at a later date, the very early period when filk-weaving flourished in India. To the fame decifion we are irrefiftibly led in refpect to the art of making pottery and porcelain, which induced me to conclude that the ancient Murrhins were not cryftal er agate, but a fine kind of porcelain, and I rejoice to find that fo good a judge of the fubject as Dr. Vincent confirms the fact contended for. A variety of fimilar proofs may be brought of their having been, in thofe ancient periods, good chemifts, aftronomers, architects, geometricians, and even anatomifts, an affertion fooften and ftrenuoufly denied; and, for thefe proofs, I refer the reader to the parts of the Differtation that relate to thofe facts. "Such, Gentlemen, is the fpecies of entertainment which I have endeavoured gratefully to provide for yourfelves and the indulgent public in the prefent volume of Indian Antiquities; and, while I take a final adieu of a fubject that has engroffed fome years of my life, most ervently do I hope that my humble effays may only be the forerunner * An ingenious Frenchman, however, in the Mem. de l'Inftit. Literature, tom. ii. p. 133, contends, and feems to prove, that it was a fpecies of Chalcedony, called in French Girafol, or cackolong. Rev. of of fome grander effort more fully and effectually to difplay them, fince my mind is eternally impreffed with the conviction from which, indeed, I have uniformly acted, that every additional research into their early annals and history will ultimately tend (not to weaken and fubvert, as the fceptic vainly prefumes, but) to ftrengthen and fupport the Mofaic and Chriftian codes, and, confequently, the highest and bett interefts of MAN.” The Dillertation on the treasures amaffed, in gold and filver bullion, and in coined money, in the ancient world, and parti cularly in India, the refult of its valt commerce in every age, exhibits an astonishing difplay of wealth; and the golden current is traced down, by various channels, from Sofala, one great fource of the riches of Tyre and Sidon, through Lydia, Babylon, and Judea, firft into the overflowing treatury of the all-conquering Alexander, and his Greek captains; and then into the prodigious vortex of Rome, flourishing in the zenith of its power, its rapacity, and its luxury. The account of the effect which the accumulation of wealth that fucceeded the conquest, by Cyrus, of the Lydian and Babylonian empires had on the Perfian character, and the confequent magnificence affumed by the princes, his fucceffors, is given in the warm and vivid colouring, not unufual in the pages of this writer. It contains the fubftance of what has been delivered on this head by the claffical writers of antiquity, and is as follows: "Never was there a more fudden change effected in the manners of a nation than that which took place in Perfia, after the conqueft of Babylon. The honourable indigence, the ftrict regimen, and laborious exercises, in which from infancy they had been trained, were now fucceeded by an oftentatious magnificence, a luxurious diet, and an indolent effeminacy. With the wealth, they caught the habits of the Lydians, and wallowed in all that unbounded voluptuoufnels for which the former are branded in the page of hiftory. During the life of Cyrus, indeed, his example and authority kept up in the army fore remains of the ancient difcipline; but the princes and nobles delighted rather to follow the example of Creus, and were plunged in exceffes of every kind. The fucceffors of Cyrus on the throne of Perfia feemed to think the dignity of that throne was better fupported by fplendor than virtue, and aimed to fecure the abject obedience of their fubjects, by dazzling them with a glory that teemed more than human; fo devored indeed were they to the shameless gratification, as any price, of their licentious and ftimulated appetites, and fo far had they exhaufted every fource of known terreftrial enjoyment, that one of them, it is well known, was not afhamed, by a public edi, to offer a fplendid reward to any perfon who should invent a new pleafure. "Ancient writers fpeak with rapture of the bats of imperial Sufa, and the magnificence of its fuptuous palace, fo highly de guished, He guifhed, as to have been the refidence, during three months of the year, that is, during the fpring feafon, of the great Shah-in-Shah, as Ecbatana was, during the fummer. The walls and ceilings of this palace were overlaid with gold, ivory, and amber, exhibiting the nobleft defans, wrought in the most exquifite tafte. Its lofty throne of pure gold was raifed on pillars refulgent with jewels of the richest luftre. The monarch's bed, alfo of pure gold, we have already noticed, as fhaded with the golden plane-tree and vine prefented by Pythias, on whofe branches hung clusters of emeralds and rubies. repofed his head on a cafket containing five thousand talents of gold, which was called the king's bolfter; and his feet refted on another, containing three thoufand talents of the fame metal. Every province of his valt empire daily furnished one dish, loaded with the richest rarities produced in it. He drank no water, but the pure cold wave of the Choafpes, carried with him in filver veffels, whitherfoever he went. His bread was made of the finest wheat in Phrygia; Egypt fupplied him with falt; the rich high-flavoured wines of Damafcus alone fparkled in his cup; the fofteft, fweeteft melodies foothed him during the banquet; and the lovelieft women of Afia beguiled his hours of domestic retirement. When he marched to battle, the pomp of the proceffion was to the laft degree fplendid and folemn; and has been minutely defcribed by Herodotus, Arrian, and Curtius; of whofe various relations the following is the refult. "It commenced the moment the fun appeared above the horizon. At that inftant, a trumpet, founding from the king's pavilion, proclaimed the appearance of its beam, and a golden image of its orb, inclofed in a circle of cryftal, was difplayed on high in the front of that pavilion. The Perfian banner, which was a golden eagle, the eagle of the fun, with its wings expanded, being alfo elevated, a body of Magi carrying on filver altars the facred and eternal fire, believed to have defcended from heaven, advanced firt. Then followed another band of Magi, chanting hymns in honour of the fun; and 365 youths, to reprefent the number of the days of the reformed year, clothed in flame-coloured vefls, and bearing a golden rod, the fymbol of his ray. After theie, marched a large body of horfe and men, bearing fpears with their points downward. Ten confecrated horfes, of furpaffing magnitude, bred on the Niftan plains, and caparifoned with furniture that glittered all over with gold and gems, preceded the chariot of the fun (for fuch it was, though called by Herodotus that of Jupiter) empty, and drawn by eight white horfes, the equerries attending them clothed in white vefis, and alfo beating in their hands golden wands. Next came the Perfian band, called immortal, ten thousand in number, all wearing collars of pure gold, and arrayed in robes of gold tiffue. Next came the male relations of the fovereign, habited in purple vefts, fringed with precious flones and pearl. The king followed inmediately after, in a chariot drawn by Nifæan horfes, a living mine of gold and rubies, and darting from his own perfon a glory fcarcely lefs refplendent than that of the fun, whom he reprefented. He appeared feated on a throne elevated above the chariot that bore him, and suftained by coloffal figures of the Genii of the Perfian mythology, caft in pure gold. The chariot was of gold, and from the centre of the beam, beam, that glittered with jewels, rofe two ftatues of pure gold, each a cubit in height, the one reprefenting PEACE, the other WAR; Over whofe heads a golden eagle, the banner of Perfia, fpread its wings, as if to fanction the choice of the nations, whether hoftie or pa iac. Two thousand chofen horfe, the king's body-guard, followed the royal car; fucceeded by twenty thousand foot, armed with javelins decked with pomegranates of gold and filver. Ten thoufand horte brought up the rear of the army of native Perfians. The rest of the innumerable hoft followed at a diftance, in feparate divifions, according to the nations which they refpe&ively repretented. "The citadel of Sufa is faid to have been the great treafure-houfe of the kingdom: in it the ancient records of the Perfian empire, from its foundation, were preferved. We are informed, by Diodorus, that Alexander carried away from this plundered capital no lefs than nine thoufand talents of coined gold, and of gold and filver bullion forty thoufand talents*. It muft, however, have been in the more ancient periods of the empire that Sufa was the chief treafury; because, great as this fum appears, it is comparatively trifling to what, according to the fame author, that infatiable plunderer of the wealth of Afia found at Perfepolis, which amounted to fuch an enormous fam, that, besides three thoufand camels which were loaded with it, all the adjoining countries were drained of their mules, affes, and other beats of burthen, to convey it away from a city, on which he wreaked his particular and unrelenting vengeance, in return for the impolitic burning of the Grecian temples by Xerxest. The total aggregate, in bullion, obtained at Perfepolis, Diodorus flates at one hundred and twenty thoufand talents of gold, independent of the precious gems, the coftly furniture, the veffels of chryftal and agate, the vefts of Tyrian purple and gold embroidery, found in profufion in the houses of the Perfian nobles and merchants. At the taking of Damafcus, after the battle of Iffus, he found in the royal coffers two thoufand fix hundred talents, in coined money, and five hundred in bullion, and with the other treafures, taken in that wealthy city, loaded feven thoufand mules. Ten thousand talents, at one time, and thirty thoufand at another, were the fums offered by Darius to Alexander, as the ranfom of his captive wife and daughters. The battle of Arbela put him in poffellion of all the coftly utenfils and fplendid equipages of Darius, with four thousand talents in money. In Pafargada he found fix thousand talents; and, in the royal city of Ecbatana, according to Strabot, no lefs than one hundred and eighty thoufand talents." P. 455. With refpect to the treafures wafted by the fail of commerce, from every country of the habitable globe to the thores of India, in exchange for its valuable productions, they are thus accounted for : "Diodorus Siculus, lib. xviii. cap. 66. "Strabonis Geograph, lib. xv. p. 741.” "The |