and national belief never originating without fome foundation: That the mere priority in time of the Western to the Eastern writers, when unfupported by circumstances of higher evidence, should give no preference in regard to authority: as, upon the fame principles, we might rank a Ctefias before Plutarch; a Roger de Hoveden before Hume; or a Gregory of Tours before De Thou: That we may perceive some strong lines of truth in the Eastern hiftorians, from their concurrence with the Bible, in the few facts mentioned above: whilst even their filence on fome heads, with their flight variation in others, furnish high prefumption of their authenticity for had they been exactly in conformity with the Scripture, we should naturally have concluded, that their materials had been borrowed from thence; and confidered them merely in the light of tranflations. But the manner in which they are told fhows, that the great lines were independently known in Perfia; and that the difference is fimply what might have been expected between Sacred Writers, who had every opportunity of information ; and the annalists of another country, who neither had fuch advantages, nor were fo deeply interested in the events. *

THE usefulness of the Arabic language, in the illustration of Scripture, has indeed long been generally acknowledged; whilft the Perfian, little studied by the learned, has hardly ever been confidered as an auxiliary in this important point. Yet when we reflect upon the intimate connection of a great part of the hiftory of the Jews with that of Perfia, it is difficult to account for this fingular inattention, upon any ground but the supposition, That the old dialect of Perfia is loft; and that the modern can give no assistance in remote enquiries. But this, as I have before observed, seems to be a furmife, unsupported by the slightest authority: the pure Perfian now in ule being evidently of very high antiquity; and apparently the chief language in which any thing Perfian, worth prefervation or recovery, has been written by the ancient natives: however it may have been difguised under a variety of perplexing characters, which few have given themselves the trouble to confider with attention. Should the Arabic and Perfian languages ever become therefore, like the Greek and Latin, objects of general education; and learned men, freed from the fetters of prejudice, be once brought to suppose, that Grecian and Roman information may fometimes be affifted or corrected by

a judicious ftudy of Eaftern authors, many discoveries must evidently be expected; which may furnish a variety of ufeful clues to the dark labyrinths of Ancient Mythology, Hiftory, and Manners.

Usefulness of the Arabic and Perfian languages in throwing light on early times. Strictures on Mr. Bryant's New Syftem or Analyfis of Ancient Mythology•

AMONGST other learned men who, apparently from an idea of their modern date, have difputed the utility of the Arabic and Perfian languages, in the inveftigation of remote antiquity, is the ingenious author of A New Syftem or Analyfis of Ancient Mythology; a work in which the novel ingenuity of the Analytic System; the penetration and judgment difplayed in the refutation of vulgar errors; with the new and informing light in which he has placed a variety of ancient facts; leaves the learned world only to regret,

that this claffical writer had not, to his fingular knowledge in Greek and Roman literature, added fome tincture of the languages and learning of the East. As there appears, however, to be an impropriety in any perfon's condemning what he confeffedly does not understand; and as this learned gentleman has attacked a province, which I conceive it is my duty to defend; I fhall endeavour to remove some of the prejudices which he may have created: as the errors of a writer of uncommon abilities, who has laid down canons for future history, may have a more dangerous tendency than the mistakes of inferior men, whom few read, and ftill fewer follow. *

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THE chief points, which Mr. Bryant means to establish, are, Firft, The universality of the Deluge from Gentile authorities. Secondly, The migration, after the Babel dispersion, of a people whom he calls Cuthites or Amonians, the defcendants of Chus the fon of Ham. Thirdly, The Arkite ceremonials, with the general worship of the Sun and Fire, as introduced by those people into the different countries where they established colonies. "

Two great lines, our learned author obferves, marked, in particular, the Amonian character; The monuments and rites which they every where inftituted, as memorials of

the Universal Deluge; and The proofs they every where left of their idolatrous worship of the Sun and Fire. With regard to the first great event, I shall only observe, in general, that the departing from the Sacred Writings, to prove the destruction of mankind by Pagan authorities, however laudable the intention, feems first to shake to the foundations the ve nerable fabrick, and then to prop it with a bullrufh. For, where recourfe is had to feeble and imperfect evidence, a cause must ever be hurt in proportion to its failure. Yet, as if truth wanted the aid of fiction, innumerable have been the attempts of the learned to establish, by forced and unnatural conftruction, a conformity between the early history of the Hebrews and the later fables of Greece, Egypt, and other ancient nations. From the fragments of Berofus, Sanconiathon, Manetho, and other remote fablers, any thing, and every thing, may indeed be drawn, which a lively imagination can fuggeft; but the working up of such strange materials into any circumftance defcriptive of Noah's Deluge, fhews a warmth of fancy, highly prepared for the reception of every thing marvellous. Whilft, giving them all their utmost force, they prove, at laft, precisely nothing for ingenious men, if refolved to apply to profane materials in