, at the end of which the regeneration of all
things takes place. This is thought to be a remnant of the most ancient
Hindoo speculations, and not the result of observation among the Greeks.
Some time after the arrival of the sun in Aries,

"at the vernal equinox, the Indians probably discovered their mistake,
in giving about 60 years to a degree; that they ought to give 50" to a
year, about 72 years to a degree, and about 2160 years to a sign; and
that the Luni-Solar cycle, called the Neros, did not require 608 years,
but 600 years only, to complete its period. Hence arose the more perfect
Neros."

It is thought by various writers that the knowledge of the ancient
Hindoos regarding the movements of the sun and moon in their cycles of
nineteen and six hundred years--the Metonic cycle, and the Neros--proves
that long before the birth of Hipparchus the length of the year was
known with a degree of exactitude which that astronomer had not the
means of determining. It is positively asserted by astronomers that
at least twelve hundred years were required, "during which time the
observations must have been taken with the greatest care and regularly
recorded," to arrive at the knowledge necessary for the invention of the
Neros, and that such observations would have been impossible without the
aid of the telescope.

On the subject of the great learning of an ancient race, Sir W. Drummond
says:

"The fact, however, is certain, that at some remote period there were
mathematicians and astronomers who knew that the sun is in the centre
of the planetary system, and that the earth, itself a planet, revolves
round the central fire;--who calculated, or like ourselves attempted to
calculate, the return of comets, and who knew that these bodies move
in elliptic orbits, immensely elongated, having the sun in one of their
foci;--who indicated the number of the solar years contained in the
great cycle, by multiplying a period (variously called in the Zend, the
Sanscrit, and the Chinese ven, van, and phen) of 180 years by another
period of 144 years;--who reckoned the sun's distance from the earth at
800,000,000 of Olympic stadia; and who must, therefore, have taken the
parallax of that luminary by a method, not only much more perfect than
that said to be invented by Hipparchus, but little inferior in exactness
to that now in use among the moderns;--who could scarcely have made a
mere guess when they fixed the moon's distance from its pr