pletion of it, as they ftand recorded in the Pentateuch, out of many that might be made. The terms of the prophecy, then, are not very clear; and the curfe pronounced in it, contradicts all our notions of order and of justice. One is tempted to think, that the patriarch was ftill drunk; and that no man in his fenfes could hold fuch language, or pafs fuch a fentence. Certain it is, that no writer but a Jew could impute to the œconomy of Divine Providence, the accomplishment of such a prediction, nor make the Supreme Being the executor of fuch a curfe.

Ham alone offended; Chanaan was innocent: for the Hebrew and other doctors, who would make the fon an accomplice with his father, affirm it not only without, but against, the exprefs authority of the text. Chanaan was, however, alone curfed: and he became, according to his grandfather's ophecy, "a fervant of fervants," that is, the vileft and worst of flaves (for I take these words in a fenfe, if not the most natural, the most favourable to the prophecy, and the leaft abfurd) to Sem, tho' not to Japhet, when the Ifraelites conquered Palestine; to one of his uncles, not to his brethren. Will it be faid--it has been faid---that where we read Chanaan, we are to understand Ham, whofe brethren Sem and Japhet were? At this rate, we shall never know what we read; as thefe critics never care what they fay. Will it be faid---this has been faid too---that Ham was punished in his pofterity, when Chanaan was curfed, and his defcendants were exterminated? But who does not

fee that the curfe, and the punishment, in this cafe, fell on Chanaan and his pofterity, exclufively of the rest of the pofterity of Ham; and were therefore the curfe and punishment of the fon, not of the father, properly? The defcendants of Mefraim, another of his fons, were the Egyptians and they were fo far from being fervants of fervants to their coufins the Semites, that these were fervants of fervants to them, during more than fourscore years. Why the pofterity of Chanaan was to be deemed an accurfed race, it is eafy to account; and I have mentioned it just now. But it it not fo easy to account, why the pofterity of the righteous Sem, that great example of filial reverence, became flaves to another branch of the family of Ham.

It would not be worth while to lengthen this tedious letter, by fetting down any more of the contents of the history of the Bible. Your Lordship may please to call the fubftance of it to your mind; and your native candour and love of truth will oblige you then to confess, that these facred books do not aim, in any part of them, at any thing like univerfal chronology and hiftory. They contain a very imperfect account of the Ifraelites themselves; of their fettlement in the land of promife, of which, by the way, they never had entire, and fcarce ever peaceable, poffeffion; of their divifions, apoftafies, repentances, relapses, triumphs, and defeats, under the occafional government of their judges, and under that of their kings; of the Galilean and Samaritan captivities, into which they were car

ried by the kings of Affyria; and of that which was brought on the remnant of this people when the kingdom of Judah was destroyed by thofe princes who governed the empire, founded on the union of Nineveh and Babylon. These things are all related, your Lordship knows, in a very fummary and confused manner: and we learn fo little of other nations by these accounts, that if we did not borrow fome light from the traditions of other nations, we should scarce understand them. One particular observation, and but one, I will make, to fhew what knowledge in the history of mankind, and in the computation of time, may be expected from these books. The Affyrians were their neighbours, powerful neighbours, with whom they had much and long to do. Of this empire, therefore, if of any thing, we might hope to find fome fatisfactory account. What do we find? The fcripture takes no notice of any Affyrian kingdom, till just before the time when profane history makes that empire to end. Then we hear of Phul, of Teglath-Phalaffer, who was perhaps the fame perfon; and of Salmanafer, who took Samaria in the twelfth of the æra of Nabonaffer, that is, twelve years after the Affyrian empire was no more. Sennacherib fucceeds to him, and Afferhaddon to Sennacherib. What fhall we fay to this apparent contrariety? if the filence of the Bible creates a ftrong prefumption against the first, may not the filence of profane history create fome against the second, Affyrian Monarchy? The pains that are taken to perfuade, F 4

that

that there is room enough between Sardanapalus and Cyrus for the fecond, will not refolve the difficulty. Something much more plausible may be faid; but even this will be hypothetical, and liable to great contradiction. So that, upon the whole matter, the fcriptures are fo far from giving us light into general history, that they increase the obfcurity even of those parts to which they have the nearest relation. We have, therefore, neither in profane nor in facred authors, fuch authentic, clear, distinct, and full accounts of the originals of ancient nations, and of the great events of those ages that are commonly called the first ages, as deferve to go by the name of hiftory, or as afford fufficient materials for chronology and history.

I might now proceed to obferve to your Lordfhip how this has happened, not only by the neceffary confequences of human nature, and the ordinary course of human affairs, but by the policy, artifice, corruption, and folly of mankind. But this would be to heap digreffion upon digreffion, and to prefume too much on your patience. I fhall therefore content myself to apply these reflections on the state of ancient history to the study of hiftory, and to the method to be obferved in it; as foon as your Lordship has refted yourself a little after reading, and I after writing, fo long a letter.

LET

I. That there is in Hiftory fufficient authenticity. to render it useful, notwithstanding all objections to the contrary.

II. Of the Method and due restrictions to be obferved in the ftudy of it.

WH

HETHER the letter I now begin to write will be long or fhort, I know not: but I find my memory is refreshed, my imagination warmed, and matter flows in fo faft upon me, that I have not time to prefs it clofe. Since, therefore, you have provoked me to write, you must be content to take what follows.

I have obferved already, that we are apt naturally to apply to ourselves what has happened to other men, and that examples take their force from hence; as well thofe which hiftory, as those which experience, offers to our reflection. What we do not believe to have happened, therefore, we fhall not thus apply: and for want of the fame application, fuch examples will not have the fame effect. Ancient history, such ancient history as I have described, is quite unfit, therefore, in this respect, to answer the ends that every reasonable man should propose to himfelf in this study; becaufe fuch ancient history will never gain fufficient credit with any reafonable man. A tale well told, or a comedy or a tragedy well wrought up, may have a momentary effect the mind, by heating the imagination,

upon