he mountain; and, finding the Hermit
still soundly sleeping, I threw myself on a seat, under the shelter of
some bamboos, fell asleep, and did not awake until late the next morning.

When I arose, I found the good Brahmin up, and, though much weakened by
his disease, able to walk about. He told me that the Mirvoon, uneasy at
my not returning as usual in the evening, had sent in search of me, and
that the servant, finding me safe, was content to return without me. He
advised me, however, not to repeat the same cause of alarm. Sing Fou, on
hearing my explanation, readily forgave me for the uneasiness I had
caused him. After a few days, the Brahmin recovered his ordinary health
and strength; and having attended him at an earlier hour than usual,
according to his request on the previous evening, he thus addressed
me:--

"I have already told you, my dear Atterley, that I was born and educated
at Benares, and that science is there more thoroughly understood and
taught than the people of the west are aware of. We have, for many
thousands of years, been good astronomers, chymists, mathematicians, and
philosophers. We had discovered the secret of gunpowder, the magnetic
attraction, the properties of electricity, long before they were heard of
in Europe. We know more than we have revealed; and much of our knowledge
is deposited in the archives of the caste to which I belong; but, for
want of a language generally understood and easily learnt, (for these
records are always written in the Sanscrit, that is no longer a spoken
language,) and the diffusion which is given by the art of printing,
these secrets of science are communicated only to a few, and sometimes
even sleep with their authors, until a subsequent discovery, under more
favourable circumstances, brings them again to light.

"It was at this seat of science that I learnt, from one of our sages,
the physical truth which I am now about to communicate, and which he
discovered, partly by his researches into the writings of ancient Pundits,
and partly by his own extraordinary sagacity. There is a principle of
repulsion as well as gravitation in the earth. It causes fire to rise
upwards. It is exhibited in electricity. It occasions water-spouts,
volcanoes, and earthquakes. After much labour and research, this principle
has been found embodied in a metallic substance, which is met with in the
mountain in which we are, united with a very heavy earth; and this
circumstance had gr