'The Trug Places of the Piquets 85 . V Mercury and Venus the same mean orbit and motion as to the sun, and in giving the epicycles which in fact correspond to their heliocentric orbits. making the centre of those epicycle, however, not the brue, but the men place of the sum, and also pplying to the latter the cornection due to the eventricity of the orbits ]Both thransfer the centate of the orbits of the superior planets from the sun to the earth, and then assign to each, as an epicycle, the earth's orit; not, however, in the form of an ellip४e, nor even of an eccentric, but in that ot u, true circle : and hes, too, bon nu1ake the place of the centre of the epicycle to depend upon the me instead of the brun, place of the Sun. The key to the whole system of the (Greeks |he determining cuuse both of iss numerous १ecordance with the १ctual conditions of tives in ntinue १nk of its inaccuracies, is the principle, dictinctly laid down and strictly adhered to by them, thob the planetary provements are {o be reprotected by a conulbination of equable cirecular motionux |n none other being deemed suited to the dignity and peafection of the heavenly bodies. Ey the Hindus, this principle is nowhere expossly recognized, so th¥ se afte 're . ५s one of indin, iutituence. lthough their whole system. no less than that of the (roeks Seeing in other wexpects inspired by it, it is in one point, as we shall note more particularly hereafter, distinctly abandoned and violated by thern see below undo 5), 1. We Runnot but regard with the highest aarliration the neuteness and inclustry the power of observation, १nalysis, Ind teuckin f he Greeks, that hampurc} by false abuntions, and interfectly provired with insteumonte, they wer: 11ble to construct a science containing so Puch of tru{h, and Sryng !* xecure basis for the irmprovements of afteg title whether we p&y the same tribute to the guius of he Hirtu will lepend upon whether we consider him also, like all the rest of he worl, to have been blue poil of the Greek in astronomical sciect, o whether e shal bolieve him to have rive independ ८ system 8C closely the ७unterprt of that of the West. The differences between the two system a •e unuch less fundamental and importilt. 'J'he assumption of a centre of equal distance different from that of equa } ungula. }I{ion-nr, in the case of Mercury, itself also m%8able-js unknown to the Hindus : this, however appears to be an innovation introduced into the Greek system by Ptolemy nd un. knon before his tine it was adopted by him, in spite of its seeing grbitrariness, because it gave him results according inor to netly with his observations. The moon's eveetion, the discovery ot Ptolemy , is equally wanting in the Hindu astronomy. As regard the combined application of the equations of the apsis anl he conjunction, the two systems are likewise gb variance. Ptolemy follows the tex, .as well as the simpler, method: he applies frst the whole correction to the eccccutbricity of the
