LETTER LXX.

ALL the knowledge which Europe formerly had of the ancient world, came from the writings of the Greeks, or from the Romans, who copied from them. These people beqeathed materials; but, they were ignorant of the nature, or at least of the extensive value of the legacy they bestowed. In the earliest accounts of the nations of the earth, we find only some circumscribed portions, the history of which has been deemed essential to hand down to posterity. But, because pride occasioned silence, are we to take selfish taciturnity for a proof that there were no other celebrated people, than those whom the Greeks and Romans thought proper to take notice of? How analogically might we exhibit instances of similar ignorance, were we to make deductions from similar premises! The Persians, who were an older, and at one period as flourishing a nation as either the Greek or the Roman, say nothing in their history of the other considerable empires of the earth. The Hindoos, who were a civilized, a VOL. IV, commercial,

X

commercial, and a warlike nation, long before the days of the legislator of the Jews, yet are silent in their annals on the subject of all others. The same may be said of the Chinese. Now, if a Persian, an Hindoo, or a Chinese, were only a very few years ago to have been asked, who were the inhabitants of the various parts of the globe? his answer would have been, He was really ignorant, but he understood it was stocked. with a few straggling, wild, and uncultivated savages, Was not this precisely the case with the Greeks? They in general disdained the study of any other language than their own. Absorbed in their own vanity, self-complacency led them to brand all foreigners with the epithet barbarian; and nothing is so certain, as that absurdity is the child of ignorance, and the natural result of confinement, both physical and intellectual.

It was not until the full maturity of Grecian refinement, that the most polished nations of antiquity thought of investigating even the nature and powers of man. The Asiatics had

arisen to the zenith of science, before the Greeks had learned their alphabet. In the more early ages of the world, while the forests that covered Europe, afforded a retreat to a few wandering

tribes,

tribes, the inhabitants of Asia were already collected into populous cities, and reduced under extensive empires, the seat of the arts, of luxury, and of despotism, An ancient chronologist, quoted by Velleius Paterculus, observes, that the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Macedonians, reigned over Asia, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five years, from the accession of Ninus to the defeat of Antiochus by the Romans, As the latter of these great events happened one hundred and eighty-nine years before Christ, the former may be placed two thousand one hundred and eighty-four years before the same æra. The astronomical obser vations, found at Babylon by Alexander, went fifty years higher,*

At the moment when the Greeks prided themselves as being the only great people upon earth, Solomon reigned in Palestine; Confutsee gave morality and good government to China; Persia exhibited every mark of culture and civilization; Hindostan was infinitely more enlightened than it is at this day; Egypt groaned under its vast antiquity; Phoenicia and Car, thage spread themselves round the known world even Romulus, with his band of freebooters,

X 2
Gibbon.

booters, was enriching himself by the pillage of knowledge from the more ancient and more refined Etruscans. How apt, therefore, the question, why do the greatest part of our modern writers, of all the academical seminaries of Europe, when they are employed in such researches as the antiquities of nations, rest contented with only what is delivered by the Greek and Latin authors? The answer is obvious. The education of the youth of all classes, throughout Europe, consists in the study of the Greek and Latin classics; and when they come to the higher links of this chain of learning, and are well versed in these two languages, the ne plus presents itself; and their future researches and lucubrations soar no higher.

It is very certain, that by limiting our studies to the Greek and Latin languages, we acquire a competent knowledge of those people: but, is it not equally certain, that by so doing we renounce all acquaintance with others? And why persevere in this predilection? The tyranny of the schools no longer exists. The hour is passed when we were compelled to as implicit a submission to the Roman letter, as ever our forefathers were to the Roman sword,

Let us, however, at the same time, in gratitude acknowledge, that had it not been for the preservation of these languages, the western world might still have been involved in darkness. It was necessary to have had occasion for receiving the Greek language and learning, which was conveyed to us after the sacking of Constantinople; for had it not been for this, fable and tradition might have still been our only portion.

Asia, whose limits it is unnecessary to define, has given birth to some of the greatest monarchies of the world. It anciently was divided into many different empires, provinces, and states, of which, among the most conspicuous, were the Assyrian and the Persian. The Assyrian monarchy, according to Eusebius, lasted one thousand two hundred and forty years; and according to Justin, one thousand three hundred years, down to the year of the world four thousand three hundred and eighty. The empire of Persia existed two hundred and thirty-two years, till the death of Darius, whom Alexander conquered. The empire of the Medes lasted two hundred and fifty-nine years, according to Eusebius, till the reign of Astyages, who was conquered by Cyrus the Great, who transferred the power from the Medes, and founded the Persian monary.

X 3