by wars; and must in all probability have been frequently recommenced, ere they arrived at a ftate of any ftability. After many ages, an history somewhat regular and circumftantial, might take place of these regifters: in this, however, the falle and marvellous would be fubftituted in the place of truth, where the knowlege of the latter fhould be wanting. Thus we fee that the Greeks had no Herodotus till the 80th olympiad, above a thousand years after the firft æra recorded on the marbles of Paros. In like manner Fabius Pictor, the most ancient of the Roman hiftorians, did not write till the fecond Punic war, about 540 years after the building of Rome. If the two moft ingenious nations, therefore, in the world, the Greeks and Romans, our masters, began fo late to write their history, can it be reasonably imagined that the wandering Tartars, who flept in the fnow, the Troglodites who hid themfelves in caverns, or the itinerant Arabs, who fubfifted on theft, could have their Thucydides and their Xenophons? Is it poffible fuch people fhould know any thing with precision of their ancestors?

What if the Samoeids or the Efquimaux fhould prefent us with annals, antedated for many ages, and filled with relations of the most extravagant feats of arms, or a continued series of miracles and prodigies? Should we not very juftly turn the pretenfions of thofe favages into ridicule? At the fame time, if perfons, fond of the marvellous, or interested in promoting the credit of fuch fables, fhould torture their invention to render them plaufible, ought not we to laugh at their abfurd endeavours? Again, if to this abfurdity they should add the infolence to affect a contempt for the incredulous, or the cruelty to perfecute them, ought they not to be condemned as the moft execrable of mankind! Let us fuppofe, for inftance, that a Siamefe fhould come, and relate to me the fictitious metamorphofes of the Sammonocodom; threatening, at the fame time, to burn me at the ftake if I made any objection to his relation; can there be any doubt of what I ought to think, or how I should act, with regard to fuch an apostle?

The Roman hiftorians, it is true, relates of the god Mars, that he had two children by a certain veftal, at an æra when there were no veftals in Italy; that a fhe-wolf, inftead of devouring these children, gave them fuck; that Caftor and Pollux fought in behalf of the Romans; that Curtius precipitated himfelf headlong into a gulf that clofed up the moment it had received him; with many other tales equally unnatural and improbable. The fenate of Rome, however, did not fentence any one to death for doubting the truth of thefe prodigies. On the contrary, they were publicly laughed at in the capitol. We find in the Roman hiftory feveral events that are very poffible, but are by no means probable. The adven ure of the geefe, in faving the

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city, and that of Camillus who entirely defeated the Gauls, have been frequently called in queftion by the learned. Camillus's victory makes a great figure indeed in Livy; but Polybius, a more ancient and fenfible writer, directly contradicts it. The latter aflures us that the Gauls, fearing to be attacked by the Veneti, abandoned Rome, carrying off their booty and making peace with the Romans. Which of these hiftorians should we rely on in this cafe? or, if we implicitly believe neither, must we not entertain fome doubt of both Must we not equally hold in doubt the famous ftory, of the execution of Regulus; who is faid to have been inclosed in a cheft, ftuck full of iron fpikes? Such a kind of death is at leaft very fingular; and how comes it that this fame Polybius, who lived upon the f, ot, and was almoft contemporary, he who hath given fo mafterly an account of the war between Rome and Carthage, fhould take no notice of fo very extraordinary and important a fact; which would have juftified the conduct of the Romans on that occafion. It is farther hardly credible, that the Carthaginians would have fo grofsly violated the laws of nations, in the perfon of Regulus, at a time when the Romans had feveral of the principal citizens of Carthage in their hands; on whom they might have feverely revenged fuch outra e. The ftory of Regulus's torture, notwithstanding, gained credit; being confirmed by time, and the hatred which the Roman people bore to Carthage. Horace introduced it in one of his poems, and afterwards nobody gave themselves the trouble to call it in queftion. If we take a view of the earlier part of the history of France, we fhall find every thing equally falfe, obfcure and exceptionable. Gregory of Tours might be called the French Herodotus; with this difference, that the latter was neither fo entertaining nor fo elegant a writer as the former. The monks who fucceded him, however, were by no means better writers nor more authentic hiftorians. Nothing was more common for them than to lavish encomiums on villains and aflaffins, if they beftowed any thing worth while on their convent; and on the other hand, to load the best of men, and even the wifeft of princes, with opprobrium, if they contributed nothing to the emolument of their community. I am fenfible, that the Franks, who invaded Gaul, were more cruel than the Lombards, who took poflefion of Italy, or the Vifigoths that ruled in Spain. Hence the murders and affaffinations we meet with in the annals of Clovis, Childebert, Chilperic, &c. are as numerous as thofe of the hiftories of the kings of Ifrael and Judah. Nothing could pofiibly be more favage than the tranfactions of thofe barbarous times. And yet we may very fafely call in queftion the ftory of Queen Brunehaut, as the is faid to have been put to death, by the pious King Clotaire; notwithftanding it is alerted by Fredegaire and Aimoin; and ever Pa

quier tells us her catastrophe was foretold by a fybil. But Fredegaire and Aimoin have not the credit of a De Thou or a Hume; nor have the prophecies of the fybils half the authenticity of modern gazettes, much lefs of authorized registers of ftate. The barbarous ages, it is true, were ages of miracles and horrours: but are we to believe implicitly every thing the monks relate of them? They were almoft the only perfons in the world who could write and read, when the great Charle-. maine himself knew not how to fign his own name. Not that their hiftories are altogether ufelefs: they inftruct us in the chronology of fome remarkable events. We believe with thera that Charles Martel overthrew the Saracens; but when they tell us he killed three hundred and fixty thousand of them in battle, we are of courfe incredulous, and beg to be excufed. They fay that Clovis the fecond was afflicted with the lofs of his understanding the thing to be fure is not impoffible; but when we are told that it was a fignal judgment from God Almighty, for having removed from their church a relict of St. Dennis, the ftory becomes improbable. Nor are thefe the only falfhoods with which our hiftories of France abound. We are entertained frequently with regular fieges of caftles, that never exifted but in the air, and of towns that never were built or fortified but in the hiftorian's imagination. In a word, all our hiftories of the early times, confift of nothing but fables, and, what is worfe, of fables that are tedious and difgufting.

In the 49th chapter of this mifcellany, our Author difcuffs the following question:

Whether the Jews were originally inftructed by other nations, or other nations by the Jews?

As the fcriptures have not decided whether the Jews were the preceptors or the difciples of other nations, we are at liberty, it is prefumed, to difcufs freely this curious queftion. Philo, in the relation of his miffion to Caligula, begins with telling us that the word Ifrael is Chaldean; being an epithet which the Chaldeans give, to people confecrated to God; it fignifying, to fee, or have a profpect of, the deity. It appears hence that the Hebrews did not call Jacob, Ifrael, nor themselves Ifraelites, till they had acquired fome knowlege of the Chaldean tongue. Now, they could have no acquaintance with that language, till they were flaves in Chaldea; at leaft, it is highly improbable they fhould acquire fuch knowlege in the defarts of Arabia: Jofephus, in his reply to Appion, to Lyfimachus and to Molon, owns in exprefs terms, the practice of circumcifion was leained of the Egyptians, agreeable to the teftimony of Herodotus.' It is indeed hardly probable that fuch an ancient and powerful nation as the Egyptians, fhould adopt this custom from a paultry people whom they defpifed, and who, according to their own confeffion,

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confeffion, were not circumcifed till the time of Joshua. The facred hiftory itself informs us, that Mofes was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians; but it makes not the leaft mention of the Egyptians learning any thing of the Jews. We find, alfo, that when Solomon refolved on building the temple, he fent for artificers and artists to the king of Tyre. Nay, it is even faid, he gave twenty towns to King Hiram for cedar-trees and workmen. It appears to have been both a strange and a dear purchase; it may ferve, however, to clear up the point in hand; for we do not hear that the Tyrians ever engaged or required any artists of the Jews. The fame Jofephus acknowledges farther that his nation,, whofe credit he endeavours nevertheless to enhance, had for a long time no commerce with other nations; that it was in particular unknown to the Greeks, who at the fame time were acquainted with the Tartars and Scythians. Nor is it furprizing, fays he, that a people so far removed from the fea, and neglecting the cultivation of letters, fhould be fo little known. The same hiftorian speaks, with his ufual exaggerations, of the honourable and indeed incredible manner in which Ptolemy Philadelphus purchased a Greek verfion of the Hebrew text, tranflated by fome Jews of Alexandria. To this ftory, he adds, that Demetrius Phalereus, who caufed this tranflation to be made for the ufe of the king's library, afked the tranflators, how it came about, that no foreign hiftorian or poet had ever taken the leaft notice of the Jewish laws. To which one of them replied, that those laws being divine, and immediately derived from heaven, every one was juftly afraid to fpeak of them; God Almighty having fignally punished those who had been guilty of fuch temerity: that Theopompus in particular, having a mind to infert fomething of that kind in his history, was deprived of his understanding for thirty days; when, being informed in a dream that he was thus afflicted for his intention to pry into divinę things and impart them to the profane, he appeafed the divine indignation by his prayers, and accordingly recovered his fenfes. A fimilar judg ment befel Theodect the Greek poet, who, for profanely inferting a paffage or two from the facred writings in one of his tragedies, was ftruck inftantly blind, and recovered his fight only, by confeffing and repenting of his errour.' Thefe tales, as unworthy of hiftory as of any writer of common fenfe, invalidate in fact the teftimony given in favour of the Greek tranf lation above-mentioned: for if it were fo great a crime to tranflate a fingle paffage or two, furely it must be a much greater to tranflate the whole work! But be this as it may; Jofephus, in recording thefe ftories, fully confeffes that the Greeks had no knowlege of the Jewish writings: whereas it appears, on the contrary, that the Jews were no fooner eftablifhed at Alexan

dria, than they applied themfelves to the ftudy of Grecian literature. It is, therefore, evident that the Greeks could learn nothing of the Jews; while the latter learned many things of the Greeks; the Greek language fince the time of Alexander being univerfally adopted in Afia Minor, and in great part of Egypt.

Of the Customs and Opinions common to almost all the Ancient Nations.

Human- nature being every where the fame, mankind must neceffarily have adopted the fame truths, and fallen into the fame errours, in regard to thofe circumftances which are the immediate objects of fenfe and the moft ftriking to the imagination. It was very natural for them univerfally to attribute the roife and effects of thunder, to fome fuperior being refiding in the air. Those people, who lived near the fea, and beheld their fhores overflowed with the tide at every full moon, would as naturally impute to the moon the various effects which attended her different phafes.

In their religious ceremonies, almost all the ancient nations turned their faces to the east, not reflecting that there is no fuch thing in fact, as eaft or weft; paying a kind of homage to the rifing fun. In taking a view of the animal creation, the ferpent feemed to poffefs a fuperior degree of intelligence; for as it was feen fometimes to caft its fkin, it was very naturally fuppofed to grow young again; and by repeating this change, it muft of course be immortal. The large ferpents, which frequented the fountains, terrified the timorous from approaching them; and hence they were foon imagined the guardians of hidden treasures. Thus a ferpent was the fabled guardian of the Hefperian fruit; another watched over the golden fleece, and in celebrating the myfteries of Bacchus, there was carried the image of a ferpent appearing to guard a golden grape.

The ferpent paffing thus for the moft fubtle of animals, a very natural foundation was laid for the ancient Indian fable; in which we are told, that God, having created man, gave him a certain drug, the poffeffion of which would enfure him healtn and longevity; but that man, entrusted this divine present to the care of his afs, who, becoming thirsty on the road, was feduced to a neighbouring fountain by a ferpent, who pretending to hold his burden while he was drinking, made off with it and kept it himself. Thus it was, fays the fable, that man forfeited his immortality by his negligence, and the ferpent obtained his by his fubtilty. Serpents were found, indeed, to be mischievous animals, but as there was fomething divine fuppofed to be in their nature, nothing less than a Deity was imagined capable of deftroying them. Thus Python was killed by Apollo; and L14

the