But, for fear the Reader fhould miftake in perufing thefe Volumes, he muft note, that the Obfervations are not of one kind only, but of feveral forts; for fome of them are Aftronomical, fome of them are Geographical, fome of them are Chronological and Hiftorical; in fhort, fome of them are Philofophical, and fome Food od ti Hiftorical in the natural way.

to

The Aftronomical Obfervations are of two Kinds, 1. Some are extracted from Chinefo Books of inconteftable Antiquity. 2. Others, are of the late Obfervers we have mentioned, and fome other Perfons unnamed. The former confiftof fix and twenty of the Sun, which Fath. Gaubil has proved to be exact the very Day mentioned by the Chinese Authors; and one and twenty Conjunctions of Jupiter with different fixed Stars, which our Editor fets a great value upon; remarking, that there is no way more certain to obtain the periodical Time of a Planet, than obferving its Conjunction with the fixed Stars. And what is more, thefe Conjunctions of Jupiter fill up a Chafm of about 1000 Years, during which we find not the leaft Obfervation of the kind with reference to that great Planet.

:

Our Editor allows the Chinese to have been pretty inaccurate, and that they mention only the Day of each Obfervation, without particularifing Hour, Minute, or Second; but at the fame time fhews how very eafy it is to reduce many or moft of them to that Exactnefs of Time. For the later Obfervations, they have been communicated to the Gentlemen of the Obfervatory at Paris, who have given them a kind Reception, and one of them, M, Maraldi, calls them, in a Letter to our Editor, Curious and Useful,

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Useful, and fays, they could not fail of being acceptable to Aftronomers, if they were but made public.

But Fath. Souciet is in a fort of a quondary as to the Method wherein he has digefted this Collection. He is at a lofs to know, whether the Reader might not have been better pleased if he had feen the whole jumbled together in one formless Mafs, than to have each Science diftinguifhed. Some indeed, there may be fo very wrong-headed, as to have been delighted with the Puzzle and Confufion of a Heap of Obfervations of a dozen of forts, crouded together without Order or Method; but for one of those, we will venture to fay there are a hundred, at least, who are better pleased to fee each Obfervation ranged regularly under its proper Clafs: fo that if our Words had any weight with Fath. Souciet, we would advise him never to break his reft about that matter.

The Geographical Obfervations, whether fuch as come from the Miffionaries, or the Chinese and Tartars, muft, one would think, tend to the Improvement of our Maps and Charts of Afia, at least of the more eastern and northern parts of that large Quarter. Thus far, as our Editor obferves, we may be the wifer for them; they will acquaint us with the Nature of the Soil between Place and Place; we fhall by them know if the Roads be good or bad, the People you are to pass through, the Face in general of their Country, and their prefent State; all which will fall under the Comprehenfion of most People, and moft People are fond of fuch Relations.

The most important Subject in the Chronological way, is the Hiftory of the five firft Mogul Emperors, We fhall take an opportunity, be

fore

⚫fore we have done, to dwell a little on that great, Conqueror Fenghiz Khân, whofe Life and Actions mult have been far better known to the Chinese than either to the Arabians or Perfians, to whom we have been hitherto indebted for! what we know of him. Befides, the Chinefe are! esteemed the most exact Hiftorians imaginable.

Of the Philofophical Obfervations, our Edi tor doubts not but that thofe on the Load-ftone or Variation of the Needle, will be kindly fed ceived; because of the great Improvement હું which may refult therefrom to Navigation; be J cause they agree with thofe of Dr. Halley; bea caufe they produce the fame concentric Curves and because they may, in time, by the Addition of further Obfervations of the fame kind, bring to light the exact diftance of the Curves, and fo

give the Longitude by the help of the lon

Our Editor here applies himself to the Naviga tors in general, and exhorts them to do their ut moft to bring this Knowledge to pafs, by the moft diligent Obfervations, thereby to let the laft hand to their Art.

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To conclude, he obferves, that as there are the Names of many Places interfperfed up and down in this Collection, he has reduc'd them all to a Table, with their Latitudes and Longitudes annex'd, according to de la Hire, des Places, Street, Harris, and la Connoiffance des Temps 3 that he counts his Longitude from the Meridian of Paris, and that if any of his Readers fhould be offended that fome of the Obfervations: deliver'd in Latin, they are to blame his Scru pulofity, he not caring to depart from the Ob fervers own exprefs Words; and again, he has this for his farther excufe, that those who are addicted to these Studies, will eafily understand the Latin of an Obfervation.

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are

Thus

The Work

itfelf.

Remarks

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Thus far we have pursued our Editor in his Preface; he having, as the Cuftom pretty much abtains among the French Writers and Compilers, acted, tolerably well, the part of a Journalift upon himself,as we may fay, We will now take a Survey of the Collection itself, and fee if we can extract any thing from it, wherewith to gratify our Reader.

This Mifcellaneous Work opens with fome on the Chi-Obfervations on the Aftronomy of the ancient nele Aftro-Chinese in general; wherein among other things general. we are told, the Chinese were divided upon the great point, whether the Heavens turned round the Earth, or whether the whole turned round the Sun that they expreffed their Eclipfes in Numbers, which, at this day, are but little understood that Father Kegler, Prefident of the Tribunal of the Mathematics, had a Chinefe Planifphere of the Stars, drawn long before the Jefuits fet foot in China, and that among thofe Stars many were of the Telescopic Class a that from the Dynafty of the Hams, who reign'd before Jefus Chrift, to this Day, there are Treatifes of Aftronomy: that from thofe Treatifes it appears, the Chinese have, for upwards of two thousand Years, pretty well known the quantity of the folar Year to be three hundred and fixty five Days and about fix Hours: that from the time of rabo they have computed, That in four folar Years there are three of three hundred and fixty five Days, and one of three hundred and fixty fix, and this Year they call Ki: that they have well enough known the diurnal Motion of the Sun and Moon, the quantity of the Lunar Month, whether periodical or fynodical, a Lunar Cycle of nineteen Years, and the like: that they were fufficiently skilled in the nature

of

of Obfervations by the Sun; that they could take his Meridian Altitude, and find his Declination that the Chinese are pretty much puzzled with, or at least, that they write confufedly of the Stations, Directions, and Retrogradations of the Planets: that they reckon'd the Sun's greatest Declination to be twenty-four of their Degrees, or twenty-three Degrees thirty-eight Minutes according to us; the Chinese, till Fath. Schall introduced our Cuftom, dividing the Circle into three hundred and fixty-five Degrees, twenty-five Minutes, allowing a hundred Minutes to each Degree that the Chinese have al ways given Names to the Stars, and have always parcelled out the Heavens inConftellations! that by the Chinese History it appears, they have always been pretty well versed in Aftrono mical matters and that the Chinese have Chains of Obfervations upon the Solftices and Comets, for above four hundred Years before Chrift, down to the fourteenth Century after him.

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The following Reflexion is made, but we are Reflexion not certain by whom, upon thefe Remarks; That the Chinese had no knowledge of the Comets by Calculation, but by meer Obfervation of them when they appeared; from whence the Author drawing an Inference in favour of the other parts of the Chinese Aftronomy, concludes, That fuch a Series of Obfervations on the Comets must convince us of their great Diligence in watching the Occurrences of the Heavens, and that this their uninterrupted Application muft have afforded them much Knowledge, and fupplied many wants they laboured under.

Then follow the like Remarks on the Indian Remarks on Aftronomy in general. The Author complains, the Indian that the Indians have been better Merchants than Aftronomy in general

Scholars;