dividual, becoming disgusted with the treatment he receives at the hands of secret enemies, is obliged to reserve the publication of the result of his labours for some future time, when more liberal sentiments may prevail. In consequence of the attack made on my essay on the antiquity of the Surya Siddhanta, I wrote another paper in the eighth volume of the Asiatic Researches, pointing out the complete ignorance of the reviewer, and his ill nature in making an attack, where in fact there was not the most distant foundation for it. I there showed by a table the gradual decrease of the errors in the Surya Siddhanta, from the year 3102 before Christ, down to A. D. 999, and also for two periods later, in order to show the increase of the errors again in an op- posite direction; thereby showing, that the point at which the errors were the least possible was between seven and eight hundred years back at the time. This table is so plain, that a schoolboy totally unacquainted with astronomy can under- stand it; but, plain and simple as it is, the reviewer, to show his knowledge of astronomy, I suppose, as well as his ill will, has thought fit to attack it by such sophistry and ignorance as, I believe, never before came from the pen of a reviewer; and am rather surprised that it could be at all admitted into the Review, which certainly did it no good, as casting a reflection on the abilities of those who
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PREFACE.
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