SECT. II.

A fbort view of the early periods of Perfian hiftory. Like thofe of other nations disfigured by the marvellous; yet not entirely to be rejected. Difagreement between the Grecian and Afiatic hiftory of Perfia. Invafion of Xerxes improbable. Outlines of the Macedonian conqueft from Perfian hiftorians.

THE reigning families of Perfia, previous

to the Arabian conqueft, are comprehended, by their hiftorians, under four dynafties; the Pifhdadians, the Kaianians, the Afhkanians, and the Saffanians. The Perfians, like other people, have affumed the privilege of romancing on the early periods of fociety. The first dynasty is, in confequence, embarraffed by fabling. Their most ancient princes are chiefly celebrated for their victories over the Demons or Genii, called Dives; and fome have reigns affigned to them of eight hundred, or a thousand years. Amidst fuch fictions, however, there is apparently fome truth. Those monarchs probably did reign; though poetic fancy may have afcribed to them ages

and adventures which the laws of nature reject. We dispute not the existence of our English Arthur, though we believe not in the Giants and Magic of Geoffrey of Monmouth: and Charlemagne was undoubtedly a great prince, though we fubfcribe not to the wonderful adventures of Turpin's Twelve Peers. The Dives may have been favage neighbours, conquered by the Pishdadian kings; and magnified by tradition as Beings of a fupernatural fpecies. The Gods, the Titans, and the Heroes of the Greeks; the Giants, the Savages, and the Monsters of Gothic romance, feem all to have originated from fimilar principles : from that wild irregularity of fancy, and that admiration of the marvellous, which, in various degrees, runs thro' the legends of every darker period of the history of mankind. The longevity, at the fame time, afcribed to this race of monarchs, may either have been founded on fome imperfect antediluvian idea; or may be refolved, by fuppofing families inftead of individuals: and that the Caiumaras, the Ghemfbids, and the Feriduns of the Eaft, were merely fucceffions of princes, bearing one common furname; like the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, or the Cæfars of the West. *

WITH the fecond dynasty, a more probable fyftem of hiftory feems to commence : yet

ftill the era of Kaicobad, the founder of this house, cannot be precifely fixed. Though hiftorians differ, however, with regard to the chronology of this prince; in one point, which may lead us to ascertain it with tolerable accuracy, they appear, in general, to be unanimous. Darab the Younger, dethroned by Alexander, is called the ninth sovereign of this line. He was affaffinated about 300 years B. C. If thirty years are allowed therefore as the medium of each reign, or 270 for the nine kings, Kaicobad's fovereignty may poffibly have commenced about 600 years before our era; which will comprehend the whole of that period of Persian history for which we are indebted to the Greeks. Sir Haac Newton, it may be objected, with other chronologifts, have allowed but twenty years to a reign, and made that the universal standard for all nations: but, with submission to those learned men, nothing carries with it a ftronger tendency to unhinge all chronology than such an unmodified fyftem. For if no collateral circumstances of fituation, manners, and government, are taken into the scale, much confusion must apparently arise. From Zeno till the taking of Conftantinople by the Turks, the Emperors of Greece reigned hardly fifteen years; and the Khalifs, from the death of

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Mohammed till the facking of Baghdad by the Moguls, little more than ten years each. But, in thofe and other countries, which have been remarked for a quick fucceffion of princes, revolutions and affaffinations, it will always be obferved, have ever difturbed the course of nature whilft, in regular governments, the medium of reigns has been often lengthened to periods nearly approaching to what is above propofed. From the murder of Henry IV. till the death of Louis XV. only three princes have filled the throne of France; making about fifty-five years to a reign: whilft, in the diftracted ftate of that country, previous to Louis XIII. five kings fcarcely completed twelve years each. As the Perfian hiftorians mention therefore no affaffinations, nor uncommon convulfions of government; and as the administration of public affairs appears in general to have been fortunate and steady; thirty years, in thofe ages, when at the fame time a greater fimplicity of life, perhaps, prevailed, feems to be a calculation by no means, ftretched beyond the probable line of nature.

THE Kaianian dynasty being fupposed then, to commence nearly about 600 years before the birth of our Lord, this brings us to the. reign of that king of the Medo Perfians, called by the Greeks Cyaxares; which, accord

ing to Sir Ifaac Newton's conjecture, is fupposed to have begun in the year of Nabonaffar 137 (about 610 before Chrift) From this period till the Macedonian conqueft, we have therefore the history of the Perfians, as given us by the Greeks; and the history of the Perfians, as written by themfelves. Between thofe claffes of writers, we might naturally expect fome difference of facts; but we should as naturally look for a few great lines, which might mark fome fimilarity of ftory: yet, from every research which I have had an opportunity to make, there feems to be nearly as much resemblance between the annals of England and Japan, as between the European and Afiatic relations of the fame empire. The names and numbers of their kings have no analogy; and in regard to the most splendid facts of the Greek hiftorians the Perfians are entirely filent. We have no mention of the Great Cyrus, nor of any king of Perfia, who, in the events of his reign, can apparently be forced into a fimilitude. We have no Cræfus, king of Lydia; not a fyllable of Cambyfes or of his frantic expedition against the Ethiopianş. Smerdis Magus, and the fucceffion of Darius, the fon of Hyftafpes, by the neighing of his horse, are to the Perfians circumstances equally unknown as the numerous affaffina