around: but they could not illuminate all the extremities: they could not throw light into every dark recefs. "Herodotus, the oldeft Greek hiftorian, knew nothing of Britain; and the Phenicians, who traded hither for tin in the earliest times, always concealed the name of the place, in order the better to secure so gainful a trade to themfelves, calling it the Caffiterides, or Tin Islands, without any other defignation. "The Britons themselves, from their first plantation here under the Tyrian Hercules, by Phenicians from the Red Sea and Arabia, had been fecluded many ages from the rest of the world; and as this plantation took place before Gaul was peopled, there was therefore the lefs chance of their learning from the reft of the world, any thing more than what they happened to have brought over with them." (e)-We cannot agree with the Doctor, that our Scythian Pheni were in poffeffion of the Britan. nic Ifles before Gaul was peopled. The Irish history declares these islands were inhabited when they arrived here, and confequently Gaul was alfo, from whence the firft inhabitants paffed over to Britain. σε The judicious Quintilian thought he paffed not too severe a cenfure when he wrote, Græcis hiftoricis plerumque poetica fimilem effe licentiam. And Strabo is yet more fevere. Though the Greek hiftorians have pretended "to give a history of Cyrus, and his particular wars with "those who were called Messagete: yet nothing precife "and fatisfactory could ever be obtained: not even in refpect to the war. There is the fame uncertainty "with regard to the ancient hiftory of the Perfians, as "well as that of the Medes and Syrians we can meet "with little that can be deemed authentic, on account "of the weakness of those who wrote, and their uniform "love of fable. For finding that writers, who profef"fedly deal in fiction without any pretenfions to truth, 66 were regarded: they thought that they should make "their writings equally acceptable, if in the fyftem of "their history they were to introduce circumstances (e) Dr. Stukely's Memoir to Soc, Antiq. Dec. 3d, 1761. "which they had neither seen, nor heard, nor received upon the authority of another perfon: proceeding "merely upon this principle, that they fhould be most "likely to please people's fancy, by having recourse to "what was marvellous and new. On this account we 66 may more fafely trust to Hefiod and Homer, when they "present us with a lift of demigods and heroes, and even "to the tragic poets, than to Ctefias, Herodotus, Hella"nicus, and writers of that class. Even the generality "of hiftorians who write about Alexander are not safely "to be trufted: for they speak with great confidence, "relying upon the glory of the monarch whom they ce "lebrate, and the remoteness of the countries in which "he was engaged; even at the extremities of Asia, at a great distance from us, and our concerns. This ren"ders them very fecure; for what is referred to a dif"tance is difficult to be confuted. (f)" In another place Strabo goes on in the fame ftrain. "The writers, who must neceffarily be appealed to, "were in continual oppofition, and contradicted one another. "And how could it be otherwife? for if they erred fo "thamefully when they had ocular proof, how could "they speak with certainty, where they were lead by "hearfay?" (g) The Grecians, fays Mr. Bryant, were grofsly igno rant in respect to foreign events, they were a bigotted people, highly prejudiced in their own favour; and fo devoted to idle tradition, that no arguments could wean them of their folly. (h) After fuch a weight of evidence, fays Mr. Richardson, is there great prefumption in fuppofing, amidst fo much error, fome amendment poffible? Can there be any impropriety in the enquiry, how far the records, and the hiftorians of a people might, in refpect to their own annals, corre&t the mistakes and the fictions of strangers? Or, can there be much harm, in directing, if poffible, (f) Strabo, Lib. ii. p. 774 (g) Lib. xv. p. 1006. (h) Mythology, vol. I. p. 100. and 143. the the attention of ingenious and learned travellers to the discovery of fuch ancient materials, as might tend either to authenticate, or to confute the hiftorians of more modern times (i)? How flender, indeed, were the best pretenfions of the Greeks to any real knowledge of the hiftory, language, or manners of ancient Perfia! Xenophon and Ctefias were amongst the few who could have even an opportunity of confulting authentic records; yet, by a fingular fatality, there are not two productions of antiquity more questioned than the Cyropaedia of Xenophon, and the Annals of Ctefias. Notwithstanding the fentiments of Plato and Cicero, the Cyropodia has been followed, as an authentic hiftory, by Africanus, Jofephus, Ufher, Prideaux. And the authors of the Univerfal History confider its authority as far preferable to that of Herodotus. Scaliger, Erafmus, and many others, look upon it, on the contrary, as a mere collection of figments. Dr. Jackfon, declaring it to be more feigned than real, fays, it has mifled every "writer who has attempted to follow it." The Doctor, at the fame time, ftyles Herodotus the most accurate and faithful hiftorian, and confiders Ctefias in a very different light from the learned in general. To Ctefias, on the other hand, Sir I. Newton pays fmall regard; but to Herodotus, notwithstanding the anathema of Strabo, he looks up with high refpec. He calls him, after Cicero, the Father of Hiftory, and endeavours to reconcile with him every point of early chronology. When fuch men differ, who can decide (k) ?—Ubi tanta eft contentio, ibi vel nullam vel incertam effe veritatem. (1) Yet, as St. Paul faid in another cafe, I think we may fay in this, That God hath not left us without a witness, but hath given us certain notes and marks, if we were fo diligent as to mark them, whereby we may easily point out the original habitations of the first colonies of mankind. Among the various expedients by which learned (i) Differt. p. 396. men men have tried to clear up the mist that hangs over the early accounts of all nations, none has been fo generally approved in theory, or fo fuccefsfully applied, as that which makes identity or remarkable fimilarity of language, manners, and religious obfervances, its principal foundation. Both ancient and modern critics, proceeding on this plan, have made such deductions from very fcanty premises, as almost challenge the certainty of ftri& demonftration. The fubject, however, is by no means exhausted: in the extenfive field of etymology efpecially, there is ample room for every proficient in every tongue to exercise his industry as well as ingenuity. Whoever will be at the trouble of comparing the common Irish, spoken vernacularly at this day, in the western skirts of Europe, with the languages of the Eaft now in ufe, and with those which for ages past have been preserved only in books, will not eafily be perfuaded that chance ever produced the plain analogies that every where present themselves to an observant eye. Chance may, and often does, produce resemblances; but whole tribes and fpecies of relatives and correlatives must have their foundation in nature, whofe works are variously uniforın. It is unreasonable to fuppofe, that the proper names of men, places, rivers, &c. were originally impofed in an arbitrary manner, without regard to properties, circumstances, or particular occurrences: we fhould rather think, that in the earliest periods, and especially where the use of letters was unknown, a name usually conveyed a brief history of the thing fignified, and thus recorded, as it were, by a method of artificial memory; manifest and numerous inftances of this are the Patriarchal names recorded by Moses. The poets were alfo the only hiftorians of the Heroic Ages; and they, imitating the former ufage, are full of epithets expreffive of remarkable qualities, properties, or local exploits. The first profe writers ftudied more to please after the manner of the Poets, than to inform their readers; and therefore are their works filled with improbable ftories, faid to be preferved by tradition, and with extravagant fiЯions, chiefly calculated for amufement. Even the most approved ancients must be read with extreme caution, compared with others, and with themfelves, fifted by the rules of juft criticifm, and fometimes fubjected to the fevere torture of etymological difquifition. (m) After this conceffion, the most fanguine advocates for the authenticity of the ancient Irish monuments, ftill remaining, cannot take it amifs that we apply the fame touchstone to domeftic as to foreign vouchers. By fuch analyfis perhaps fome rays may be admitted, whereby to difcover who were the ancient inhabitants of not only the "British Ifles, but of a confiderable part of Western Eu66 rope." And this is not the only advantage we fhall reap by fuch an investigation: many paffages, in the writings of the infpired penman, become elucidated thereby. (n) Religious customs and ceremonies, borrowed by the Jews from the idolatrous nations in the Eaft, are often expreffed by a fingle word, the true fignification of which is not to be found in the Hebrew, Chaldean, or Arabic languages: the fame words are frequently to be met in the Irish MSS. denoting the fame ceremony, and this so described, as to leave no room for conjecture; for example, Samac, Smac, or Smag, in Irish, is the palm of the hand at the coronation of a King, or the ordination of a Priest, the Chief Priest paffed the palms of both hands down the temples of the Prince or Prieft, and he (m) The Fafterns all wrote their hiftories in Ænigmas's. The Ægyptians had their 'ispatixa's isopías, hiftorias Sacerdotales, and in every temple were uyural Interpretes, as Clememens Alexandrinus calls them. The Greeks imitated the Ægyptians in writ ing historical Enigmas.—Ullos inter Græcos, qui fapientiæ famam adepti funt, res non fermone perfpicuo propofuiffe, fed ænigmatibus involviffe. (Paufan. in Arcadicis.) Hiftory informs us that the old Scythi were remarkable for their Ænigmas and Hieroglyphics; the modern Irish writers not able to discover this mode of writing, have understood their Seanaches literally, and hence flow the absurdities in the Irish hif. tory. (n) Quis hoc crederet ut barbara Getarum lingua Hebraicam quæreret veritatem? (Hieron. Ep. ad Sunniam & Fres. fub init.) was |