CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 6 7

been more distinguished for his persevering indus-try , and talent • for arrangement , than for aninventive genius; geography has been more in-debted to him for its improvement, than to anyother philosopher. Fortunately for that science, informing his general system of geography , headopted the ideas, and imitated the practice ofHipparchus, who lived near four hundred yearsbefore his time. That great ^philosopher was thefirst who attempted to make a catalogue of thestars. In order to ascertain their position in theheavens with accuracy, he measured their distancefrom certain circles of the sphere, computing itby degrees, either from east to west, or fromnorth to south. The former was denominated thelongitude of the star, the latter its latitude. Thismode he found to be of such utility in his astrono-mical researches, that he applied it with no lesshappy effect to geography; and it is a circumstanceworthy of notice, that it was by observing anddescribing the heavens , men were first taught tomeasure and delineate the earth with exactness.This method of fixing the position of places ,invented by Hipparchus ,. though known to thegeographers between his time and that of Ptolemy,and mentioned both by Strabo J °, and by Pliny !I ,was not employed by any of them. Ot this neglectthe most probable account seems to be, that, asnone of them were astronomers, they did not fullycomprehend all the advantages geography might

30 Lib. ii. 31 Nat' Hist. lib. ii, c. 12. 26. 70.

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