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 I'^'Wuu
 
 TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 STUDY OF ANTIQUITIES 
 
 ^S THE COMMENT^RT 
 
 TO HISTORICAL LEARNING, 
 
 Sketching out 
 
 A GENERAL LINE 'OF RESEARCH: 
 
 Alfo Marking and Explaining 
 
 SOME OF THE D ES IDE RJTJ. 
 
 With an APPENDIX. 
 
 N° I. On the Elements of Speach, 
 
 N° IT. On the Origin of Written Language, 
 
 Pifture, Hieroglyphic, and Elementary-writing, 
 N^ III. On the Ships' of the Ancients. 
 N? IV. On the Chariots of the x\ncients. 
 
 By T. P O W N A L L. 
 
 Archyras de Sapientla, Lib. I. quoreJ by Jamblicus. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 l^rinted for^. D O D S L E Y, in PaU-:.I^ll. 
 hM.DCC.LXXXII.
 
 , TO 
 ^BESIDENT, COVNCIL, AND FELLOWS 
 OF 
 
 THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQVARIES, 
 
 THE FOLLOfFiNG TREATISE 
 
 /.?, 
 
 SS A rESriMONT OF RESPECT 
 
 TO THAT LEARNED BOOT, 
 
 ADDRESSED AND DEDICATED 
 BY 
 
 T. POWNALL, 
 
 2215177
 
 t V ] 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 I That the Society of Antiquaries i:, pe* 
 cuHarly, by the nature of it's ei'a^ 
 blifhment and infiitutions, adapted for 
 the inveftigation of ancient learning; 
 and for that knowledge of antiquities 
 which may become the ground of the 
 Hijlor'ia propria et jufta, 
 
 3 Is one of the moil: ufeful Literary EJla- 
 blijhments which have been made in 
 this country ; is not only a repertory of 
 the colledlions of iVntiquarian Infor- 
 mation, but a6luates a principle which 
 hath a tendency to reftore and re edity 
 hiftory from the ruins amidft which 
 it lies. 
 
 ^ The two errors of the falfe antiquary 
 marked ; ift, That of terming too 
 haftily vifionary fjilems \ zii^. 2dly, 
 That of, making endlcfs and ufelefs 
 colle6l:ions of relics and fragments, 
 without fcope or view to any one 
 poiHt. 
 
 b 4 To
 
 W CONTENTS. 
 
 4 To exphlii the Principle of this branch 
 
 of learning; the Principle on which 
 the fociety is fuppofed to atfl ; and the 
 End towards which the inquiries and 
 labours of the Society ought to be di- 
 rected ; is the Jcope of this treatife; it 
 marks in its courfe fome of the /)<?- 
 fiderata in this branch of learning. 
 
 5 Two concurrent Hues of ftudy, that 
 
 of hiflory, properly fo called, both of 
 nature and man ; and that experi- 
 mental hiftory of the extending and 
 advai>ciug powers of man, as they 
 are elicited by the varying and en- 
 crcafing wants of his being. 
 
 6 1 hat there is, as it were, a golden 
 
 chain defcending from heaven, by 
 
 which all things are linked together 
 
 in a general lyflem ; and that man 
 
 hath powers to trace back the links of 
 
 this chain up to the primary principles 
 
 of this lyOcm ; and that the ftudy 
 
 of antiquities fhould be purlued in 
 
 this fpirit of philofophy ; and the 
 
 knowledge acquired thereby applied 
 
 (li the commentary of hijlory, 
 
 7 — 43. The work then commences, lu 
 tlie fpirit of this philofophv, and in 
 the line of the rule here laycd down^ 
 
 with
 
 CONTENTS, yA 
 
 Page. 
 
 with an Anaiyfis of the poivers of Emm^ 
 elation and the Elements of Sfcpch, 
 and endeavours to mark, both lu rea- 
 foning and by example, the ufe which 
 the truly philofophic Antiquary may 
 make in the reiblution and compo- 
 lition of thefe powers and elements, 
 to the inveftigation of ancient hiltory. 
 This part refers to N I. of the Ap- 
 pendix, which is a tr^atife wrirten 
 exprefsly on this fubje6r ; it goes to 
 an inquiry into the powers and acls 
 of vocal and arti' ilated enunciation 
 as they exift in the natifre of man, 
 and as the principles thereof are to 
 be found in all la-auages : this the 
 true ground oi Antiquarian E'ymoio^y^ 
 which, without it, will ever be the 
 mere ringing changes on one's own 
 ideas, and a wtetched punning. Under 
 this head the language of ?nen as 
 fpoken in the times of the kingdom 
 of Troy, the language of ancient 
 Greece before the arrival of the Hel- 
 lenifts, and the language of ancient 
 Europe in general, are confidered and 
 compared. 
 
 43 — 51. The Treatife then proceeds, by 
 
 the fame principles, and in the fame 
 
 line, to inquire into and explain the 
 
 b % various
 
 viiV CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 various efforts and inventiona which, 
 men in all ages and countries, have 
 made to mark tor dill:ant places and 
 times,, th? invifible tranfient expreilion 
 of ideas, which fpeech can only give 
 at the prefent time and place. This 
 part goes in general to an inquiry into 
 the origin of PiBure-writijig, into 
 that which is commonly called Hiero- 
 glyphics, and into the nature of the 
 Elementary, or what is vuJgarly 
 called Alphabetical writing ; fhows 
 how thefe in their reciprocal ufe and 
 interpretation have given occafion to 
 the deforming the true and diredl re- 
 prefentatlon of the Iiuman. Beln_[; and 
 Life ; and how by a philofophic re- 
 folutlon of the modes of the defor- 
 mation, joined to combination of fuch 
 fragments of fa^ls as remain amidft 
 tlie ruins ot hiftory, the Antiquary 
 may elicit truth out of fable, and re- 
 form, and re-edify ancient liiftory to 
 fome femblance at leall: of the (late of 
 things in fa 61, which it reprefents. 
 This part refers. for a more particular 
 account of thcfe points., of antiquity 
 to N^ll. of the Appendix, which is 
 s Trcatilc on this fubjccl in detail. 
 
 I 52
 
 CONTENTS. k 
 
 Page. 
 
 ^2 — S2' HIilory compared to a fhip fliillng 
 down the tide of Time, fraught with 
 every thing ufeful to he known, but 
 which hath fufFered fhip-wreck ; the 
 method of the ftudy of Antiquities 
 explained by alluiions to this fimile. 
 
 'r4*ui^5. The folly of merely making col- 
 lections of Antiquities, compared with 
 the right way of colle6ling and af- 
 forting the difcoveries of particulars 
 which the Antiquary may make, fo as 
 by an induction of thefe particulars to 
 lead to fome combination of the ge- 
 neral fyftem of fad. 
 
 56—57. Man is a finite Being circum- 
 Ibribed in his natural wants ; although 
 not eafily defined and circunifcribed 
 in his artificial Wants ; yet his im- 
 proved refources being proportioned 
 and adequate to thele, in the various 
 progreilions .and revolutions of his 
 exiifence, the line of inveftigation into 
 the one is marked by the knowledge 
 of the other, fo that the fludy of 
 antiquities, here in this branch, is 
 not a boundlefs purfuit but is defined 
 both in mode and extent. This ex- 
 plained by a reference to the cloath- 
 ing luited to the lame kind of limbs 
 in the lame animals in all ages, and 
 b3 to
 
 X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 to the Inftruments ufed by all people, 
 being '":njil?ir as luitcd to like hands 
 and like a£tions, let imagination or 
 caprice try never fo much to vary 
 them. 
 
 58 This Theorem applied to fhow that 
 there mav be an alcertained line of 
 developing the fabulous, and refolving 
 tlie mythic parts of Hiftory, fo far 
 as they refpeft the accounts of the 
 {u{\ advancing flages of human civj- 
 liz-uion. 
 
 5^ By a careful analyfis of human na- 
 ture, and by a combination from 
 analogy of fuch broken accounts as 
 the (hip-wreck of Hiftory affords, a 
 defcription, almofl hifloric, of the 
 progrels and firft ftages of human 
 life may be coirpofed ; luch as fhall 
 give a jufi: reprelentation of the ge- 
 neral courfe of events. 
 
 61 This exemplified in the fabulous ac- 
 counts given of the fettlements made 
 in the yEgean and Euxine Seas, and 
 coafts thereof by the Phoenicians, 
 i£gypnians, and Hellenics. 
 
 66 An i^^a, profcfledly an imperfecSl one, 
 thrown out of the commerce of the 
 F'lxine and Weflern ports of the 
 Mediterranean Seas ; the Chittim and 
 
 Tar.
 
 CONTENTS. xl 
 
 Page. 
 
 Tarflihh of the ancients ; and a vvifh 
 expreiled, that Mr. Clarke, author of 
 the Treatife on Remark, Saxon, and 
 Englifh Coins, would fupply the 
 Dejideratum in this branch of hiftoric 
 learning as to the one ; and that Mr. 
 Bryant would turn his thoughts to 
 the other. 
 69 When the hiftory of thofe parts and 
 periods are once developed of their 
 rnyfterious garb, we ftiall receive very 
 ditferent accounts from what the de- 
 formed and abufed fables now hold 
 forth ; this exemplified by an un- 
 ravelled account of the lettlements 
 and exclufife commerce of the Cycloj^ 
 and their courts of admiralty. 
 
 73 Ancient Hiftory compared to a deformed 
 
 pidiure^ and the philofophic reftau- 
 xation of it, to the mathematic mir- 
 rour, which will reflefl fuch deformed 
 pidure in its true proportions and 
 contours, tanquam in fpecuio. 
 
 The treatife next proceeds to con- 
 fider the mode in which the philo- 
 fophic antiquary may condud: hi:? 
 conrimentary on the Hiftoria propria 
 et jujla. 
 
 74 A knowledge of the component prrrts 
 
 aud living lyftem of the human com- 
 *> 4 munity,
 
 xii CONTENTS, 
 
 Page. 
 
 munlty, ift in Society, and zdly iin* 
 der Government, without which, 
 HiO-ory will be but a ftory of a crea- 
 ture little known to us, ftattd as a 
 Dejideratum. Here the Antiquary, 
 whofe commentary gi\^s the know- 
 ledge of this proaefs of the human 
 B-ing, becomes the interpreter, who 
 renders hijtory intelligible^ and makes 
 it become experimental knouledge. This 
 knowledge alone can explain thofe 
 vicijjiiuaines rerum et fund amenta Pru- 
 dentin ^ which Lord Verulam ftatcs 
 ■as the proper fruit of hlftoric learn-?. 
 ing. This exemplified by different 
 inftances in hif^ory ; in the cafe of 
 the Roman fubjed, as taken from his 
 civil rights, and fubje(5led to military 
 ifnpcrium : in the cafe of the ftate 
 and progrefs of the Grecian com- 
 munltv in the time of the Trojan 
 war, as explained by Thucydides ; 
 the flute of the ^2gyptlan commu- 
 nity ; that of the Jews, and that of 
 the Phoenicians. 
 89 I'hefe preparatory and explanatory in- 
 rtances lead to the application of this 
 Theorem, to the ftating of the {yi- 
 tem of meafurcs planned by Alex- 
 ander, who was the tirft prince-flatef- 
 
 maii
 
 CONTEfNTS. xlii 
 
 Page. 
 
 man who combined upon fyftem the 
 intereft and powers of commerce, 
 with the operations of pohty. 
 
 96 An actual knowledge (fuch on which 
 experience may be founded) of the 
 ancient commerce of the Eaft, of 
 Perfia, and of India, wanted. It is 
 from the local knowledge of fcientific 
 mercantile men alone, who have lived 
 in and had experience of thofe re- 
 gions, that the world can expedl 
 practical information on this fubje<5t. 
 
 07 The Treatife here clofes its obfer- 
 vations on the nature of the com- 
 munity, and of commerce, as the 
 fource of wealth and power to it ; 
 and proceeds to the confidcratlon of 
 the neceffity of underftandlng the 
 channels in which certain portions of 
 this wealth, as the revenues of the 
 10 1 ftate, ran. This line of relearch, 
 illuftrated by a fummiry defcriptlon 
 of the Roman Revenues md meajures 
 of finance, 
 1 1 6 The Treatife next proceeds to con- 
 fider the a£lual mechanical force of 
 the community of the ancients in 
 fome inftances not hitherto adequately 
 explained, nor precifely underlh;od. 
 The firil inftance is, that of our want 
 
 of
 
 XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 of information as to the JJ:ips of war 
 of the ancients^ their Tnremes^ ^i^' 
 drir ernes, rmd ^iinqutTemes. Tliedif- 
 covery and learned dcfcription of thefe 
 matters made and given by General 
 Mch'ille, here hrft pubUfhed, whole 
 Memoirc on the fubjed in N° III. of 
 
 120 the Appendix is referred to. The 
 lecond inftance is that of the military 
 Chariot of the ancients ; a particular 
 Treatife on this fubje^t is given and 
 referred to in N'' IV. of the Appendix. 
 
 122 Of the chronology of the Ancients 
 and its defeds, on which a comparifoii 
 of the Mythick or Fabulous, and of 
 the Hiiloric Narratives of the An- 
 cients, is offered to obfervation. While 
 
 124 on one hand the defects of hiftory, 
 which pretends to give the adual ftate 
 of fad and deed, in the true order of 
 time, arranged, tixed, and afcertained by 
 epochs, which it neither does nor can 
 fo give for certain, are confidered; the 
 Mythic or Fabulous Hiftory is ftated on 
 the other as giving a general reprefen- 
 tat ion of the general courfe of events, and 
 not a particular narrative of a particular 
 train of fids. In that view, the latter 
 is dated as giving fuffigient knowledge 
 to ail the purpofes of experience and 
 
 ule,
 
 CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Page. 
 
 ufe, equally as well as that which 
 affumes and pretends to give an a<Slual 
 flate of fad and deed. From this 
 opinion a rule is laid down, that 
 ijuhile on one hand we jhould not rejufe 
 all htjlorlc faith to what is reprefented 
 only in fable', fo on the other extream 
 *we muji not receive that as hiftoric 
 narrative of actual fadis and events^ 
 which is only rcprefentation in apologue 
 and muthos of the general flate and 
 courfe of events in the hijiory of man 
 and nature, 
 
 124 This dodrine exemplified firft ; by 
 an explanation of the fabulous hii^ 
 tory of the Argonautic expedition. 
 
 X281 — 144. And fecondly, by a philofophic 
 commentary on the Antidiluvian hif- 
 tory, which the books of Mofes give, 
 confidered as an apologue. 
 
 145 This rule further applied to thofe 
 Fables which feem to veil the know- 
 ledge of the ufe of the polarity of 
 the magnatic arrow, as known to 
 and ufed by the ancients in their 
 navigation. 
 
 ^ND OF THE FIRST PART. 
 i A P P E N-
 
 ivl <<: O N T E N T S, 
 
 A P P E N D I X, 
 
 •Analyiis of the elementg of fpecch, as ap- 
 plicable to Etymology in the Iludy of 
 Antiquities. 
 
 N° II. 
 
 A Treatife on pl(^ure- writing, liiero- 
 glyphick and elementary writing, fhew- 
 ing how the firfl arole from nature, the 
 fecond from art ; with an illuftration of 
 the efFedls which thefe have had on the 
 deviations and mutations of language ; 
 in a letter to Tho. Aflle, Efq. Oa. 25, 
 
 Read at the Society of Antiquaries, London, 
 Jan. 18, 1781. 
 
 N" III. 
 
 Memoi re.— Being a narrrttlve of the in- 
 veftlgations and difcoveries made on the 
 fubjccl of the Trirenies, ^adriremcsy 
 and ^}nqHere??jes, of the Antients, of 
 the nature of Row-gallery, of the poft- 
 ing the rowers, and of the mode by 
 which thefe vclTels were rowed, bv Lieu- 
 
 tenant
 
 CONTENTS. xviL 
 
 teijant General Mel v ILL. Communi- 
 cated to Governor Powna^-X-^ May 15,, 
 
 1781. .r 
 
 N^ IV. 
 
 Diflertatloii on the antient Chariot, the 
 exercife of it in the race ; and the ap- 
 plication of it to real fervice in war. 
 
 PART S E C O N D. 
 
 The obfervationa on the ftudy of An^ 
 tiqulties, as the commentary of hijlory- now 
 pafies from tliat period wiiich is called 
 Ancient HJftory\y to a fucceeding period, 
 wherein a fjew race oj men invaded the cul- 
 tured world, and overwhelmed,, as- with, a* 
 deluge, its civilization. 
 
 The fpirit ajid character of thefe tw^o 
 periods compared. 
 
 The fa<9is of this general revolution^ ifi) 
 the inhabitancy, the occupancy,, and gp*« 
 vernment of the world, are indeed gene- 
 rally and incidentally told by the Greek and 
 IxQman writers of hiflory ; but as tli^sj 
 fources and. firfl courfes of thefe people 
 lay beyond the. hiftoric horizon- \ as; the- 
 events were prior to the chronologic canon^ 
 of hiflory ; and the crilis of thefe events 
 u^t within the. fcope of the philofophy of 
 
 thefe
 
 xviil CONTENTS. 
 
 thele writers, this revolution hath been 
 rather looked up to with aftoniihment and 
 wonder, than inveftigated and explained. 
 
 The Philofophic Antiquary will, as the 
 commentator on hiftory, examine and 
 thence explain this, in a more detailed and 
 circumftantial manner, than the hiftorian 
 may perhaps think neceffary. He will, 
 from the fragments of fa£ls, as they lye 
 fcattered am'.dft the mafs of hiftoric ruins, 
 or buried and overgrown by the weeds of 
 fable, fo combine the accounts of this 
 great event as to recompofe them into fomc 
 femblance of the original faft. 
 
 The Treatife, after given the rule, pro-» 
 ceeds to the application of it, by an at- 
 tempt to defcribe the circumflances and 
 preparatory events, which led to this re- 
 volution of the world. 
 
 The Hlftoric Horizon defined in it» 
 northern limits, with reference to the 
 Cimri, Cimbri, Cimmerians, or Hyper- 
 boreans, who are fabuloufly defcribed in 
 ancient hiftory to have had their dwelling 
 beyond the bounds of the earthy beyond chaos, 
 m Tartaros; as alfo to the Teyts or Titans, 
 the Teuts or Dteutfch, whofe habitancy 
 ^nd the proccfTioii of whofe generations 
 were bounded by this horizon not beyond 
 but en the extrcam borders cj the earth. The 
 accounts given by Heliod of this firft in- 
 habitancy
 
 CONTENTS. xlx 
 
 habltancy nre explained and (hewn to 
 coincide with thofe given by our HS. 
 HiAory. 
 
 The Cymri traced in the proceffions of 
 their generations and habitancy (beyond 
 the boundary of the hiftoric horizon) from 
 the Moeotic Lake, to the Cimbric Ides of 
 the Baltic, and to the Wefteru Ifles and 
 coafls of Europe. 
 
 The Teuts in like manner traced along 
 the extremities of this horizon to the coafts 
 of the Baltic, the Saxon ihores, and into 
 the Britifh ifles. 
 
 The terminations Ingi; Ail, Aha or 
 JEtia ; Ones or Vones ; explained, as they 
 enter into the compofition of mofl of the 
 names of both thefe people. 
 
 The Treatife tlien proceeds to fketch and 
 draw out the lines in which the hidory 
 of the firft inhabitants, the proceflion of 
 their generations, and the final fettlement 
 of them as nations fhould be inveiligated. 
 
 The nature of their iituation, and of 
 the circumdaiice, of the regions in which 
 they dwelt, and which they occupied, de- 
 fcribed. The forming caufe of thefe people 
 becoming finally a great naval power, 
 hence derived and explained in its prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 The Cimbric Cherfoncfus, fhewn to. 
 have been an ifland, and the Low Coun- 
 tries,
 
 XX CONTENTS. 
 
 tries, now called Flanders, to have been 
 Sea, with fome exceptions of flooded 
 marfhes and iflands. 
 
 That the inhabitants of thefe regions 
 were fifhermen, marine navigators, rovers, 
 and pirates. 
 
 The nature of this ancient mode of life 
 defcrlbed as to its fpirit, character, and 
 naval operations. 
 
 Thefe Vies, WIggs, Wiggans, and Vi- 
 canders (afterwards called Pid:s), defcribed 
 in their roving excurfions, in their colo- 
 nial fettlements, and in their conquefts. 
 
 Concurrent with this, an account is 
 given of the fuppofed firfl: original, and 
 next of the earlieft adventitious inhabitants 
 of Britain ; of the Cymri, the Cotti, At- 
 tacotti, and Efcotti, as found tlierein ; alfo 
 of the Celtac and Belgae. 
 
 Hence a more particular account of the 
 actions, operations, and Icttlements, of the 
 Vies, Vickanders, or Pi£ls, in Scotland, 
 In the eaftcrn and fouthcrn ides and coails 
 of Britain ; and on the ^oafts of Normandy 
 and Aquitaine, where they were In tht? 
 earlieft times under the name Cyn-haid. 
 Cyn-a'it, or as Herodotus writes it Kunaiue. 
 
 The manner and line marked out in 
 which tlie origin, progreflion, ampllfr- 
 cation, and eftablifhment, of the xjreat 
 KORTiiKRN NAVAL POWER, may bc invef- 
 
 ligated ;
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXI 
 
 tlgated; according to which rule, an Effay 
 towards its hiftory, from the earHeft times 
 to the period when it was advanced, fo as 
 to come forward and difpute the empire of 
 the world with Rome, is inferted. 
 
 The terreftrial lines in which the pro- 
 cellions in generation and habitancy of 
 the Teuts or Teyts, of the Celts or Gauls, 
 may be inveftigated, are marked. In the 
 coiirfe of drawing which, an account is 
 given of thofe two fraternal branches of 
 the fons of Cottus, Gott-Teus, or Teu- 
 baal, the fon of Japetus or Japhet, as they 
 became in procefs of time the fettled inha- 
 bitants of Gaul and Germany, as nations. 
 
 The firfl: inhabitants of Europe and of 
 theWeftern part of Aiia, as deriving from 
 Gomer and Magog, the two fons of Ja- 
 petus, and their fons Madai, Tubal, and 
 Javan, particularly defcribed : herein of 
 the Tr'oTm, the Ach-aians, the Tr*achs 
 or Thraces, D'achs or Daci and Davi. 
 The GetiE, Teuts or Dteutfch, the Celts 
 and their proceflions, as Galli and Gall- 
 aitae ; ^oalians, or Gaeol. This account 
 clofes with an etymology, different from 
 what hath been hitherto given, of the ap- 
 pellatives German and Celt, as becoming 
 national names. 
 
 From the refearch who thefe people 
 
 wercj the treatife proceeds to mark the 
 
 c line
 
 xxli CONTENTS. 
 
 line in which the inveftigation into ijchat 
 they were (hould train ; that tliis ought 
 to he purfued hy a hue wherein principles 
 and facls combine. The exemplificatioii 
 and application of this mode of ftudying 
 this part of ancient hiftory : and firft of 
 the Sylvan Life inhabiting and occupying 
 the earth in its natural and original ftate — 
 of the Foreft- hunter, the nature of his 
 occupancy and population — of the Marine- 
 hunter, or Fiflierman and Navigator, of 
 his occupancy and population — of the 
 fcites, circumflances and principles which 
 give fource to population — of the ad- 
 "oanchig^ JJaiionary, and ded'niing Jiate of 
 population in the different nations at dif- 
 ferent periods, as thefc circumftances and 
 thefe principles operate : Herein of the 
 temporary plcthorijin of populoufnefs in cer- 
 tain periods of the progreliion of civili- 
 zation ; as alfo of the fluduation of in- 
 habitancy and dominion in the early ages 
 of I he world in confequence thereof. 
 
 The temporary Plethorijm of the northern 
 people who invaded and over-ran the Ro- 
 man empire, explained from thefe prin- 
 ciples by facts. The ftate of their com- 
 munity explained, from whence is de- 
 rived the reaion why they were enabled to 
 bring into the field fuch multitudes be- 
 yond any proportion of numbers which 
 
 fettled
 
 CONTENTS. xxlii 
 
 fettled and compleatly civilized nations 
 could bring there. 
 
 The eafe with which they could migrate 
 in a body, as a whole nation, explained 
 from the principle, which they invariably 
 and unalterably adhered to, that of not 
 becoming fettled landworkers ; the operation 
 and effect of this principle in th@ nature 
 of their inhabitancy, and in the forms of 
 their landed occupancy; their mode of life 
 and chara6ler, their community an army, 
 their inhabitancy a campaign ; and their 
 movements made by a fyftem of camps. — 
 Their habitual experimental knowledge in 
 the fupply of a moving body, their know- 
 ledge and pradtice in the Res Fnwtentan'a, 
 and Res Portoria. 
 
 This again more particularly exemplified 
 by the routs they took by fea and up the 
 great navigable rivers ; the ufe they made 
 of the naval power eftabliflied in the parts 
 they came from or palfed through. 
 
 As this treatife hath above explained 
 and defcribed the iiaval afcendant power 
 which exifted in the Baltic, on the Saxon 
 fhores, and in the weftern ocean ; it now^ 
 proceeds to defcribe that which exifted in 
 the Euxine Sea, and on the rivers which 
 run into it ; as alfo that on the Ifter or 
 Panube. The nature of the avenues and 
 water-carriage of the Rhine and Danube 
 c z as
 
 .xxlv CONTENT?. 
 
 ■as leading to the veiy gates of Italy ex- 
 plained. 
 
 The relative numbers and force of the 
 invading nations, and that of the empire 
 ot Rome, as they met on the frontiers, 
 put in appofition, by a comparifon of the 
 nature of a loco-motive community, not 
 yet divided into all thofe branches of » 
 labour, employ, and fervice, which form 
 the members of a perfe6lly civilized com- 
 munity of fettled inhabitants. 
 
 Of the nature of the line of the Roman 
 frontiers and its defence ; compared with 
 the nature of the attacks which it had to 
 re-rift. 
 
 The effect of dividing the ferviccs and 
 commands : The efFc6l of removing the 
 feat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, 
 called Conllantinople. 
 
 This fubjedt explained by an exami- 
 nation of the fyftem of dominions and 
 frontiers, adopted and formed by the ex- 
 perience an.d prudence of Auguftus. The 
 elTecl which the empire experienced when 
 the emperors quitted this iVltem ; this 
 excniplilied by an explanation of, and a 
 ciiticifm upon the third ode of the third 
 book of Horace. • 
 
 The condition of this Antiquarian 
 Commentary on this great Revolution, Jj 
 Jiir as rjpcls the caujcs of it. 
 
 The
 
 CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 The fame confidered In its effeSts as it 
 operated in the fucceeding period of the 
 world, to the eftabUftiment of a new 
 fyflem of occupancy, pohty, and govern- 
 ment. Herein of the feudal Jiate of pro- 
 perty in land, and of the military Jiate of 
 fervice in the perfon ; as a fundamental 
 eftablifhment of the new Imperium. 
 
 That the fpirit of the government, thus 
 wholly military, confidered the political 
 conftitution of the ftate, and the admi- 
 niftration thereof merely as ceconomical ; 
 and had therefore no conception that it 
 was of any import, or any ways neceffary, 
 that the political ftate fhould be co-exten- 
 five or co-exiftent with the fupream imperial 
 command of the fovereign. 
 
 This principle explained as the fource of 
 the various Curias, Jurifdi<flions, Laws, 
 Cuftoms, and even Governments, which 
 exifted in eodem Imperio at the fame time, 
 independent of each other, and paramont 
 within their refpeftive jurifdi6lions, as po- 
 litical ftates in their political ceconomv. 
 
 After having thus fketched out the line 
 of revifion by which the great revohition 
 of the inhabitancy and ftate of Europe 
 may be inveftigated, as to the eftablifh- 
 ment of the new fyftem which hath from 
 that period actuated it, the treatife pro- 
 ceeds to fhew how the Antiquary of each 
 
 country
 
 xxvi CONTENTS, 
 
 country may take his own peculiar courfc 
 of inquiry into the ancient flate of his 
 own nation and community, by what 
 means and by what modes of inhabitancy, 
 cultivation, and property, it was poffefled, 
 by the feveral fucceflive people who dwelt 
 in it ; as alfo what form the community 
 and government took under each ; in wha,t 
 flate thofe inhabitants, who are commonly 
 und vulgarly called the original inhabitants, 
 pofleffed and cultivated It ; how they lived, 
 and under what forms, and by what means, 
 under the Romans, the Danes, Saxons, 
 Normans ; how and by what ways and 
 means their conftitutions of government 
 took each in their refpedlive form thefe 
 fucceffions of revolutions ; how their man- 
 ners and cufloms. 
 
 All this applied to the Antiquities of 
 Britahi and England efpecially. 
 
 PART
 
 CONTENTS. xxvli 
 
 PART THE THIRD. 
 
 Inventarium opum humanarum quo ex- 
 cipiantur et breviter enumerentur omnia 
 homiiiiim bona et fortunae (five fint ex fruc- 
 tibus et proventibus naturae, five artis) quae 
 jam habentur et quibus homines fruantur, 
 adjedtis lis, qu2e olim innotuilTe conftat, 
 nunc autem perierunt, &c. Bacon de 
 Augment. Scient. Lib. III. c. 5. 
 
 Herein of the Antiquities of Abll:ra£t 
 Science; of Arts, neceflary or ornamental 
 in thofe articles by which Man is lodged, 
 cloathed, or fed. The commercial, me- 
 chanical, and agricultural Antiquary. 
 
 N. B. I give here the contents of the 
 whole work as finifhed ; although the pub- 
 lication of the fecond and third parts is 
 deferred. It is deferred, as my Bookfeller 
 doubts whether a work written on fubje6ts 
 of this nature, by a perfon of no literary 
 character, will become an article of fale 
 fufficient to pay the coil of publifhing, al- 
 though, as I never take any money from a 
 Bookleller, the copy cofts him nothing. 
 
 ^ The
 
 XXVlll 
 
 The Reader is dcfired to corred, previous to reading 
 the work, the following Errata^ which efcaped the 
 Author's notice in the courfe of correding the prefs, 
 a talk he is not much ufed to. 
 
 lege reprehenjtone 
 dele not 
 
 after the word /V, a full flop 
 after the word tifcd^ put a full Hop. 
 after the word of infert the 
 after the word of infert the 
 read Neptunia 
 
 for evacuation lege excavation 
 from the word voire dele e 
 dele of 
 
 lege complaints 
 
 after the word of infert the ' 
 
 dele again 
 ult for almo/i lege utmofi 
 for Paulus lege Pa/us 
 
 for ^«0(i f^? Fabricus lege ^««? /^ Fahriciua 
 for idtiaa lege ultima 
 iov feven lege k/w 
 after the word y^aj put a ; 
 
 page 
 
 line 
 
 7 
 8 
 
 24 
 13 
 
 35 
 
 22 
 
 :i6 
 
 26 
 
 29 
 
 18 
 
 31 
 
 4 
 
 33 
 
 23 
 
 54 
 
 II 
 
 55 
 60 
 
 9 
 
 28 
 
 79 
 
 S8 
 
 11 
 15 
 
 
 20 
 
 94 
 
 ult 
 
 95 
 
 I 
 
 III 
 
 9 
 
 
 14 
 
 120 
 
 10 
 
 »35 
 
 ^9
 
 i » ) 
 
 TREATISE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 feTtJt)Y OF ANTIQUITIES, &c, 
 
 THE Society of Antiquaries, a body 
 of men knowifig, fome from learn- 
 ing, others from experience, in alt tne 
 feveral branches of the hiftory of man, 
 and of the world his habitation, is, by 
 the confpirlng information, and mntual 
 communications of its members, as alfo by 
 its b'eing a Repertory of their collective 
 learning and difcoveries, peculiarly adapt- 
 ed to iriftitute and build up that Hifloria 
 propria et jufta^ which the Lord Veru- 
 1am does hold to be aloiie t5:ual and 
 praftick knowledge. 
 
 B I have-
 
 ( 2 ) ■ _ ^ 
 
 I have always confidered this Society in 
 its inftitiuion as one of the moft ufeful 
 liteiarv EruibJiniments which have been 
 made in this country ; as promoting and 
 encouraging true and ufeful learning ; as 
 aiding and conducting the refearches 
 thereof to real and practical knowledge ; 
 the knowledge of our country ; of our na- 
 tion ; of its actual hiftory ; of its laws and 
 rights; of its civjl conftitution : As alfo by a 
 hiilory of the proceffion of the encrcafuig 
 wants, and elicited refources of man, lead- 
 ing to an Experience, applicable in prac- 
 tice to the fratc of the fyffem in wdiich he 
 is placed ; leading by experience of what 
 has been under various circumftances at- 
 tempted, of what under various circum- 
 ftances hath been the effect of fuch at- 
 tempts, to information of what may and 
 can, or what cannot, be done with his 
 Varied and cncreafed powers in the vaiied 
 and extended circumltances of his being. 
 
 When I confider this Society as a Cor- 
 poration, I .fuppofe it to have been in its 
 infl:itution fomething beyond that of a 
 mere Repertory, I look to Ibme plaflick 
 principle, fome tendency to affort as well 
 as to collect ; lome recognizing principle 
 which may reform as well as revive fome 
 jof the multitude of m.aterials which are 
 
 every
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 every day brought to the mafs of cur 
 difcoveiics, with a view to thereiiorino- 
 from its rums, and re-edifvmg, that an- 
 cient Strudbure of which our number lels 
 collections are but the reliques and dif- 
 perfed fragments. 
 
 Did we follow tl:ie feductions of fancv^ 
 and quitting the fober fleps of experience,- 
 haftily adopt fyflem; and then from a dotage 
 on our own phantoms, drels iuch (y{k.t:va 
 out in the rags and remnants of antiqui- 
 ty, we fhouid only make work to mock 
 Ourfelves : or were we on the other hand 
 to perievere in making unmeaning endlefs 
 coUeQiions without fcope or view, we 
 fhould be the dupes of our own futility, 
 and become in either cafe ridiculous. 
 The upftart fungus of lyllem is poifon to 
 the mind; and an un nutritive mafs of 
 learning: m^av create and indulge a falfe 
 appetite, but nc'/er can fi^cd the mind, 
 TLoXuy.a.Sict. voov J:i ^(h:cy.ei "^''■. All the 
 learning in the world, if it flops (horE 
 and reils on particulars, never will be- 
 come knovv'ledge. To avoid then thefe 
 extreams of fel f-delufion on one hand^ 
 or of the falfe conceptions of barren folly 
 on the other^ v/e fhould keep our minds 
 
 * Heraciitus. 
 
 B 2 conflantly
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 tonftiintly fixed on the Principle and^ 
 End of. our iiiflitution. 
 
 To analyfe and explain this prhiciple^ 
 to delcribe that line of refearch which 
 leads to this ejid, and, in the way, ta 
 point out fome of the Dtjuierata of this- 
 branch of learning, is tiie purport ot this 
 Treatife. 
 
 The ftudy of the fvftem of the human, 
 being ; and of the Ifatc of nature, of 
 which that being is a part ; is the bu- 
 iinefs and duty of him who is to move 
 and a6t in it. If he would have a real and 
 practical knowledge of it, he mud Ibarch 
 and examine, not only the prefcnt ftatc 
 of nature, the actual and immediate Ifate 
 of his local or temporary lituation ; but 
 penetrate with philofopliic patience and 
 mquifition into ancient hiftory, ubi et 
 Hojjiinum et Naturae res gejlce et facinora 
 memorantur. 
 
 He fhould examine and analyfe this 
 fyllem, like a great machine in all its 
 parts, powers, operations, and relations: 
 he muil: endeavour to trace its nature in 
 every period of its progrelfive exigence, 
 and compare all with the prefcnt ftatc of 
 it. " D{§Liiilc cnitn cjl in Philofophia 
 I *' pauta-
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 ** pane a ejfe ei nota^ cut non funf ant 
 '* plura aut enmla *.'* Nor mnll: this 
 nnalyfis be made from any theoretick ab- 
 •{lra6t view of things in general ; but by 
 clofely following ftep by Itep the path in 
 which nature a6i'mg leads ; and by a ftri^l 
 indu6lion of her laws as found in her ac- 
 tions. " Omnes enhn artes al'tUr ab iis 
 ** tradiuntur qui eas ad ujum iransfcrii7it^ 
 " al'iter ab 'tis qui ipfarutn art'mm tradia- 
 ** tu deleblati nihil in *vita fiint aliud 
 *' adluri.^" In this line of refearch conducfted 
 by this principle, he may hope to arrive 
 at the true end of learnings the know- 
 ledge OF THE SYSTEM OF HIS EXIST- 
 ENCE ; AND AT EXPERIENCE IN THE USE 
 AND APPLICATION OF HIS POvVERS TO THE 
 RIGHT POSSESSION AND ENJOYMENT OF 
 IT. 
 
 There are two concurrent lines, in 
 which this knowledge may be traced. 
 The f rft is that of hiftory properly fo 
 called, the other an experimental hirtory 
 of the varying and encreafing wants, and 
 of the refourccs and various contrivances 
 and inventions of man; asthefehaye from 
 time to time been called forth by the dif- 
 ferent wants of the varying fituations of 
 Jiis_hei"g. This fecond line of refearch 
 
 '^ Cif. Tufc. Oiin^il. 1. ii, § i, 
 
 B 3 is
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 is to be purfued by forming what the lord 
 Verulam calls " inventariuiTi opuin hur 
 f* manarum." 
 
 If there was no ground as a bafis for 
 thefe experiments in aflbrting the fcatter- 
 ed fragm-nts and reliques of antiquity 
 to a Reinftauration of (at leaft) the know- 
 ledge of the fyftem to wliich they be- 
 long-ed ; the labours of iearnins: would be 
 but the building (as our proverb exprefles 
 it) caftles in the air : if there was no cer- 
 tain decided and dcfmed courfe in the 
 movements and operations .of nature, all 
 theory on which thefe experiments could 
 be Infrituted, would originate in caprice, 
 ?.nd mult end in empiricilm : but there 
 is in nature, a fyifem by which every 
 { being is defined in its own efl'ence, and 
 : in its relative exiflence ; by which that 
 being hath a certain energy and defined 
 extent of power, by which the direction, 
 which thofe powers in motion take, is 
 determined. This fyfiem confifts of a 
 IJsries of caufcs and effects, linked toge- 
 ther by that Q-o'dcn chain which defcends 
 from heaven. If then tliis fyftem exifts 
 by luch a Icrles in nature, there muft be 
 in the power of man a clue, by which 
 reafon in the patient fpirit of invefligatioii 
 may retrace back the hnks of tliis chain 
 
 . b tQ
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 tD the primary, if not the very firil: prin- 
 ciples on wliich the whole depends. 
 
 I will commence my application of 
 this theorem with the firft object of in- 
 veftigation that mull; occur to the Anti- 
 quary in his relearches into the hiftoric 
 traces of the human being. I fliall apply 
 it to that fpecies of hillory which may be 
 elicited by a truely philofophic etumo- 
 logy, and a fcientific examination of the 
 various modes of enunciation, by which 
 the primary elements of fpeech became 
 fo infledled as to form various dialects of 
 the fame language, and fo devicus as to 
 create various derivative laneuaffes. 
 
 " Humana voce nihil majus varium, 
 hujus tamen difcrimi-na in fmgulis per- 
 fonis facile Internofcimus. Nihil mnjus 
 varium quam foni artisulati, verba 
 fcilicet. Via tamen inita efl eam re- 
 ducendi ad paucas litteras alphabeti *. 
 In fonis qusedam eft antiquitatis Veritas 
 quam neque confuetudine diverlam, ne- 
 que rerephenfione nuUam, neque vo- 
 luntate noftra tranftatitiam efficere pof- 
 " fumus t-** 
 
 * Bacon de Augm, Scient. 
 
 f Sir T. Smith de vera pronundatione Linguae 
 Graces. 1542. 
 
 B 4 The
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 The line of this refearch mny be con° 
 ducted by an analyfis of the powers of 
 articulation in man, deriving from the 
 varying form and texture of tlie organs of 
 fpecch. The peculiar jointing and mov- 
 ing mufcles of the human limbs deci- 
 fively, determine the fpccific nificclion of 
 thofe limbs ; all tlie movements and at- 
 titudes therefore of all men in tlie world 
 mud be generically the fame : Particular 
 modes of exertion, caprices, and falhions, 
 and divers habits and cuftoms, may create 
 fome perfonal, profellional, or even na- 
 tional peculiarities; yet all' are reducible, 
 by a knowledge of the conftru6lion of the 
 machine, to the movements and attitudes 
 of the one defined animal man. The va- 
 riant enunciation of the elementary founds 
 of fpeech may feem almoft infinite and 
 infcrutable, not only as it arifes amongft 
 various races of men ; but alio in the fame 
 race of men at different periods of time, 
 and even in the fame individual, but they 
 are not i'o, nor will be found to be fo 
 when examined, either by the nature or 
 the exercile of the organs which found 
 them : various and almoft difcrepant as the 
 pronunciation of the i'ame language may 
 found, fpoken in different periods of time, 
 in various climates, and under divers ha- 
 bits ; different as the different founds ufed
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 by the various inhabitants of this earthy 
 riiay feem : yet when the powers of enun- 
 ciation, as they exifl and are capable of 
 being exerted, are analyfed, they will be 
 found all to be confined to, and circum- 
 scribed within, the fame elements of 
 fpeech ; and thefe elements alfo, how- 
 ever infinite the words of fpeech mav 
 feem, when refolved into their primary 
 and indivifible founds of voice, will be 
 found not to exceed fixteen. I fliall not 
 here enter further into the aftual analyfis 
 of this fubjed ; as No. I. of the appen- 
 dix is an exprefs treatife of this fubje<!l:, 
 confidered as one of the defiderata in the 
 fludy of antiquities. I ihall only obferve 
 that this method of refolution and com- 
 pofition of the elements of fpeech did 
 actually lead in the fixteenth century to 
 many difcoveries in the etymon and ortho- 
 graphy of the dead languages. The truely 
 phllofophic etymologies have, in many 
 infl-ances, traced back the deviations in 
 different dialefts of the fame language, 
 and the variations of different languages, 
 through fources which lay almofl buried 
 under the rulnes of time, fo as to dif- 
 cover the original root whence all deriv- 
 ed. The difcoveries made by thefe meri- 
 torious labours in this line of refearch have 
 }ed to the elucidation of the hiftory of 
 
 man
 
 ( 'o ) 
 
 man in many points effential to that hif- 
 tory ; to the afcertaining atid identifying 
 the people, the perfons, the country, 
 which were the objctSts of the narrative. 
 This philofophic etymology may tend to 
 explain many circumftances of the cuf- 
 toms, policy, and deeds of thefe people, 
 may in many cafes elucidate tlie geograpliy 
 and even chronology of thofe countries. 
 
 An attentive invePjgation, by this mode 
 of refolution and compofition, of the dif- 
 ferent manner in which different nations 
 pronounce reciprocally the words of each 
 the other's language ; repeated experiments 
 by the ear, made on the peculiarities 
 which each hath in founding the palatin 
 ebments of fpeech, with a varying guttural 
 catch of the voice, and in giving various 
 afpi rations, by which they furcharge the 
 dental, lingual, and labial elements ; will 
 elicited and elucidate many curious m.atters 
 which fhall continually arife to light by 
 thefe experiments fo condu6led. 
 
 The Principle, indlfpenfably to be ob- 
 ferved, and never to be departed from in 
 this mode of refearch, is, that the refo- 
 lution and compofition be condu6led in a 
 conftant reference of the flock and branches 
 (if I may io exprefs myfelf ) of the word 
 
 under
 
 iinder examination to the roots of the lan«' 
 guage, to which the word originally be- 
 longed. The firft ftep therefore is care- 
 fully both by internal and external evi- 
 dence to enquire, whether the word or 
 name is a native of, or foreign to, the 
 language in which it is found * ; whether 
 technical, and fpoken as foreign ; whether 
 adopted, and tranilatitious ; or whether 
 derived through the ordinary generation, 
 of languages peculiar to each race of men, 
 and naturali'zed ; whether the thing, place, 
 or perfon, which the word expreiies, be 
 foreign or domeftic ; if foreign, whether 
 the name be fuch, as the language, in 
 which the word is found, would invent to 
 defcribe fuch thing, place, or perfon by ; 
 or whether it is the word by which the 
 nation in which the obje6l exifls doth in 
 its own proper language exprefs it : if the 
 object is domeftick, vv^liether the Vv'ord be 
 defcriptive, or appellative ; if lo, whether 
 the word, exprefling the defcription or 
 appellation, be found amonglf, or was 
 ever known to, the language of the country 
 
 * Plato, in the Dialogue called Cratulus, fpeaking of the 
 etymology of 'he word Uvo^ i;::^iiis, fays, that being, as he 
 apprehends, a barbarous or Phrygian word, he (hall not 
 attempt the analyfis ot it by Grecian element.^, and then 
 lays down this rule, which 1 hce mention. Ei' rt. ^i?To» 
 
 ■Aa.7 iKinnf 1$ 1^ to bie^xat ivy^MH ov, cio-Sa oTi i^o^o* un. 
 
 or
 
 ( -o 
 
 <K' people that is or are named by it ; or 
 whether it be an afllimed appellative of 
 the peoples own invention, as a nomme de 
 guerre^ or a colony name. It it be de- 
 fcriptive, whether the defcription arilcs 
 from any real natural inherent Attri- 
 butes of the perfon or thing dcfcrihed ; or 
 whether the defcription is imputed, from 
 circumftanccs not inherent, but ariling 
 from habits of civil and military djlcipJine, 
 qr opinions nurtured in religious eilablifli- 
 ments, or merely from the caprice of 
 fancy. Addrefhng myfelf to a learned 
 Society, I need not obferve, that ail the 
 defcriptive appellative words, all com- 
 Hicrcial foedcral terms, in fliort, all word^ 
 ufcd by nations in their reciprocal inter- 
 courfe, expreflivc of things, places, or 
 perfon s, and which arc therefore capable 
 of being referred to two or more lan- 
 guages, fall under fome of thefe clafles. 
 ^luch lefs need I load this tra(5l with quo- 
 tations giving examples of fucb. Thefe 
 enquiries into the Etymon, which pro- 
 ceeds by tbe internal evidence of the 
 words, Ihould always be attended by the 
 practical comment of the external evi- 
 dence, which arifes from the hiftory of 
 the country or nation, in which the thing, 
 place, or perfon defcribed exifts, or is; 
 e/prelTed ; or at Icafl by fuch comment 
 
 as
 
 ( '3 ) 
 
 a$ can be formed from concurrent evi- 
 fences and analogy. Without a conflant 
 attention, referring alternately to both 
 thefe evidences, where they are to be had ; 
 and without a more than ordinary atten^ 
 tlon, watching with a jealous eye over our 
 imagination where w€ muft proceed only 
 by the one line of evidence ; the Anti- 
 quary will- become a mere futile punfter, 
 ringiMg changes with iyllables on the 
 tinckling carillon of his own fancy. But 
 as the deviations of language do not, fo 
 neither does not the labour of analvlnij?; 
 them end here. Knowledge of the an- 
 cient ifate of things comes to us, com- 
 municated by language written and not 
 fpoken. It is not fufFlcient that the An- 
 tiquary be converfant with the nature of 
 the variations of the elements enounced, 
 but a very attentive obfervation, how dif- 
 ferent nations or tribes, or even indi- 
 viduals in different climes, and at different 
 periods of their progrefs in civilization, 
 apply and ufe the lame fyftem of ele- 
 mentary chara6^ers to exprefs that which 
 is meant to be the fame found. No two* 
 perfons receive exactly the fame imprefiion 
 from the fame colour, nor will any two 
 (if they are to exprefs that from memory J 
 exprefs with a pencil the fame preclfe/o«of 
 colour : no two perfons hearing the fame 
 
 found ^
 
 ( u ) 
 
 iound, of a word ftrange to them, will 
 receive the fame imprefiion, or imitate it 
 by the fiime enunciation ; much lefs will 
 they, if they are of a different nation, 
 having a different language, write it down 
 in the fame manner. When the elements 
 of fpeech, furcharged with the guttural 
 catch of the voice, or with the afpirates^ 
 as the lingual dental, and labial elements 
 are affeded by them, come to be written 
 down, accordingly as the more or lefs at- 
 tentive habit of the ear catches the found, 
 and according to the idea which each na- 
 tion hath of the powers of the elementary 
 characler, by which they mean to exprefs 
 that found; the words thus written, and 
 thus compofed, undergo fucli metamor- 
 phofes as to retain fcarce any of that out- 
 ward form with which their Ipirit was 
 originally cloathed ; bcfides, there is iii 
 every particular race of people fome pe- 
 culiarities of enunciation, which another 
 people or nation are not capable of ex- 
 prefllng precifely, for wliich peculiar tone 
 they always fubftitute fome other tone,- 
 lomewhat (according to their own ear 
 and exprefiion) fimilar : For example, 
 *' the American Indians," (fpeaking of my 
 own knowledge, I fpeak particulaily of 
 the five nations", and by way of con- 
 firmation, write from the teftimony of one 
 
 whtf
 
 ( '5 ) 
 
 who perfectly underftood their atFairs *) 
 " have no labials in their, language, nor 
 ** can they . ^erfoddy pronounce a word 
 *' wherein there is a labial, and when one 
 " endeavours to teach them thefe words, 
 " they fay they think it ridiculous to Ihut 
 ^^ their lips tq fpeak. . Their language 
 *' abounds with gutturals, and firong af- 
 '' pirations." To the fame point, '• The 
 '* Chinefe," fays Pallas -f, in his Journal 
 through Siberia, " are not. able to pro- 
 *' nounce R,,^biit .inftead.of it, make 
 *' ufe of L ; and when two confonants 
 *' come together, which frequently occurs 
 *' in the Ruffian languge, they divide 
 " them by the interpoiitiou of a vowel." 
 On the contrary, the Northern Greeks 
 , generally inferted between two vowels their 
 di^ganiiTiti, in order to aid them in ex- 
 purelling thofe emollient founds of the 
 more fouthern Heiienifis, which their 
 grofler rigid organs of ipeech could not 
 well exprefs w^ithout it, Mr. Bayer, in 
 his Mufeum Sinicum (fays Mr. Cox), 
 gives feveral curious inftances of the Chi- 
 
 * Lleurennnt -Governor Colden. 
 
 f Not having the book by me, I take my account froni 
 Mr. Cox's account of the Ruffian Diicoveries, in which he 
 iriTerts a Hiitory of the Trtinractioiis and Commerce be- 
 fivten the Pvufliuns and Chinefe, a worlc containing many 
 curious matters coUeded with great judgm.enr, and ex- 
 plained wi.h leariiinsi. 
 
 r 
 
 nele
 
 ( J6 ) 
 
 heCe mode of articulating thofe foun"d(^ 
 \vhich they have not in tlicir own lan- 
 guage ; for inftance, they change B, t), 
 R, X Z, into P, T, U S S. 
 
 For Crux they fay Culufu; 
 Baptizo - - - Papetifo. 
 Cardinalis - - Kia-iTl-fi-na-li-fu» 
 Spiritus - - - Su-pl-li-ti-fu. 
 Adam - - - * Va-tam. 
 Eve - - - -f Ngeva, 
 Chriflus - . - Ki-H-fu-tu-fu, 
 
 " Hoc eft corpus meum — Hoke J nge- 
 futu co-ulpufu mevum." 
 
 From the uncertain and undefined idea 
 which each nation, or each tribe, hath of 
 the powers and combination of the ele- 
 mentary chara£lers ; fome ufe one, and 
 fome another of the fiime, or even dif- 
 ferent claffes, in their writing, when all 
 mean to exprefs one and the fame found ; 
 fome even ufe particular marks, which are 
 not defined letters, peculiar to themfelves, 
 in order to exprefs their peculiar guttural 
 catchy or the afpirations^ with which they 
 
 * Here is the initial, and f here the interpofed di-^amma. 
 
 J G in the two inlhinces mult be only the mark of 
 the diyamma, and nit a conlbnant, and imill be pronounced 
 as Y. as wlicn ihc Englifli in Yurklhne lay Yale lor Gar-;. 
 
 fur»
 
 ( '7 ) 
 
 furcharge their enunciation. I have my- 
 felf been an ear-witnefs to the matters 
 here flated. When prefent at the treaties 
 or conferences with the Indians of North 
 America, I have obferved that every feveral 
 interpreter has received a very different im- 
 prefiion of the found uttered by the Indian 
 ipeaking ; and hath alfo ufed a different 
 mode of exprefling the fame name, when 
 endeavouring to enounce the fame found. 
 The found that ftruck my ear did alfo 
 feem, at the fame time, very different 
 from the tone feemingly impreffed on the 
 ear of the interpreter, or exprefled by 
 him ; and if I had endeavoured to enounce 
 what the Indian uttered, I fhould have 
 exprefled it very differently from what the 
 faid interpreter did : fo that the fame name 
 or word becomes, when thus transferred 
 from one lauguage to another, quite a 
 different thing. But when thefe words, 
 thus differently receiv^ed by different ears, 
 and thus differently exprefled, come to be 
 written down, the confuiion redoubles in 
 perplexity : when however one is once ap- 
 prlfed of the fad, that thefe Indians ufc 
 no labial elements of fpeech, and that they 
 cxprefs a greater variety in the ufe of the 
 clis'£imn2a, and in the afwats than the 
 Europeans know ; and that the Europeans 
 C do
 
 ( iS ) 
 
 do fubilitute, in order to exprefs thefe pe- 
 culiar founds, each nation very different 
 letters, to exprefs the fame word, which 
 ytt do not really exprefs them ; one can- 
 not but Ibe how the barbarifms mufl mul- 
 t".ply upon each other. One can however 
 obfcrve that there is generally a kind of 
 uniformity in thefe deviations, both in the 
 impreflions received, and in the pecuHar 
 utterance and writing of each nation. 
 To mark this fpecifically is the indifpen- 
 fable duty of the philofophic Antiquary 
 in his operation of etymology. Analyling 
 hence any name or word, according to 
 the peculiar texture of thofe fubftituted 
 elements of the language, wherein the 
 word is received; and recompoiingit again 
 arrcording to the peculiarities of the lan- 
 guage to which it originally belonged ; 
 luch words may generally be relfored ta 
 their original etymon. 
 
 r>lay I here be permitted to fuggefh an 
 Idea which in the courfe of the experience 
 above-mentioned has often ffruck me ?" 
 My idea is, that the diverging of the 
 human fpcech into various languages hath 
 arifcn more often, and gone into greater 
 diverfities, fince the invention of elemen- 
 tary writing, than flcm any other caufe 
 
 whatever*. 
 2.
 
 ( '9 ) 
 
 whatever. I think that the iimilarity 
 which mufl:, as an a6lual fa£t, be fup- 
 pofed to exifl: in the languages of different 
 people, who underftood one another prior 
 to any account which hiftory gives of the 
 'Dulgatc ufe of letters ; and the great dif- 
 crepancy which we know did aftualiy 
 exifl in the languages of thefe fame na- 
 tions after the vulgate ufe of letters, is a 
 proof of this. 
 
 If the various languages of the antient 
 w^orld were in this line of refearch, by 
 this refolution and compofition, recipro- 
 cally compared, at or about that period 
 when civilization began to fru6luate in an 
 exuberance of population ; when the civi- 
 lized were ifluing forth colonies in va- 
 rious emigrations, and forming various 
 fettlements, amongfl the yet uncivilized 
 natives o{xh.Qfylvan world: If this analyfis 
 at every flep it took looked to the hiftory 
 of thofe times, although expreffed in me- 
 taphorical piciures^ although cloathed in 
 fables, and thofe fables afterwards de- 
 formed by filly devices of mvihology; many 
 very interefling fads in the Hiftory of 
 Man would be brought to light, which 
 have long lyen and muft lie buried under 
 the ruins that the devaflation of their 
 C 2 wars
 
 ( ^° ) 
 
 wars and pkiiidcrings have made over thcr 
 whole fiiGc of the earth. 
 
 I mav here, referring to an incontro- 
 vcrtiblc proof in an illuftrioiis example, 
 aliert, that fuch a line of refearch, con- 
 dueled by fuch philofophiek etym.ology, 
 will lead to fuch difcoveries ; for in Mr. 
 Bryant's analyfis .it hath in fa(5l done fo. 
 His very fuperior literature, led by un- 
 common ingenuity, hath through the 
 jources of ancient learning, opened, as it 
 were, the fountains of antient knowledge; 
 difpelied that more than Egvpti-an dark- 
 ncis, under which the learned therafelvcs 
 have been fo long loll. He hath given 
 fuch elucidation to the clouded hiilory of 
 the ancient world, that it fhnuld feem, 
 that truth, like the fun, is beginning 
 now to rife on our hemifphere. The 
 more however that I hope from this firft 
 dav-i'pring, the more anxioudv do I fear, 
 lel^ anv intervening medium Ihould over- 
 ij3.il the dawn. I lee no cloud, no fpot, 
 •in our horizon, that can objlnidi', and 
 Vet there is fome thing that feems dif- 
 p'ofed lo-rcfrati and may pervert thefe rays 
 ^f Opening light. It were much to be 
 AJii"'4fhed, that in the ufe and application of 
 hh Icar-ning^to his argument, he would 
 ^Koiitively re-examine whether there be 
 
 11 ot
 
 ( 2' ) 
 
 not fbme refraftioTos caufing fome aiycv- 
 rations from the find: right line of de- 
 inonftration. Where any thing has come 
 fo near perfeftion in its way, thofe, who 
 admire it, cannot but wiih it to be, if 
 poffible, abfoliitely fo. 
 
 If by tliir, mode of refolution and com- 
 pofition of language, conducled by thefe 
 philofophic principles, the feveral individual 
 Literati were feverally to purfue the ety- 
 mology of thofe languages, which thev 
 are moft converfant in ; and if univer- 
 fally the LitsrrJi, in different parts of the 
 world were by some established So- 
 ciety reciprocally to communicate to 
 each other the modes of their reftarches, 
 the inftitution and iffue of their experi- 
 ments, and the refult in their difcoveries ; 
 there would be found a much greater 
 analogy, and a much nearer agnation, 
 amongfl the different language^ in the 
 world, than their firfl appearances offer : 
 fuch an agnation at lead as, fairly traced, 
 would by degrees tend to remove that al- 
 moil: infurmountable difficulty, which Hes 
 in the way of learning, " 'J' he variety of 
 languages thrcii^h which that way leads to 
 knowledge^ Although an univerjhl pbilo- 
 Jjphic language^ is rather to be wiihcd than 
 obtained ; and, if obtained, would be 
 C 3 found
 
 ( " ) 
 
 found not to be retained unchangeable; 
 although I have not, In what I here write, 
 the leall reference to any fuch idea, yet I 
 think luch a general knowledge of terms 
 and names, in the various languages of the 
 earth, might be obtained ; as that * " men 
 " might more immediately apply to 
 *' things, whereas now a great parr of our 
 ** time is fpent in words, and that with 
 *' fo little advantage, that we often blunt 
 *' the edge of our undcrftanding by deal- 
 *' ing with fuch rough and unplealant 
 *' tools." As Cicero fays of Memory, 
 that it is of two forts, the one more 
 adapted to receive and retain the im- 
 preffion of words ; the other that of 
 things t : So are the minds of men 
 thus differently formed, or thus differently 
 trained, that thofe who have exercifed 
 themfelves in, and devoted their ftudies to, 
 the purfuit of things, are fcldom fo at- 
 tentive to words, as to become good lin- 
 guifls : and on the contrary, thofe who 
 have kept their minds amufed and exer- 
 cifed within the claffic pale of words, and 
 
 * Baker's Reflexions on Learning. 
 
 •f Lucullus habuit divinam quandam memoriam rerum, 
 veiborum majorcm Hortenfius : fed quo plus in negotiis 
 gcrendis, res quam verba profunt, ha:c erat ine:«oria ilia 
 piaeilaniior. 
 
 com-
 
 ( ^3 ) 
 
 compofitions of language, are felclom much 
 converfant with that phllofphy which 
 looks to things. A phdojophk Fol\gJott^ 
 formed by means of fuch intercourfe and 
 communication of the Learned in divers 
 nations, might thus be eftablifhed. Such a 
 Polyglott, examined by refolution and 
 compofition of the terms and their com- 
 ponent elements, in the correfponding 
 words of each language, by fair reference 
 to the forms and tone, which thefe ele- 
 ments either alone or in compofition, 
 take, in the fafliion or habits peculiar to 
 the enunciation or orthograhy of each 
 language ; by a fedulous and cautious en- 
 quiry through means of fuch an efta- 
 blifhed communication into the external 
 circumftances which might originally 
 caufe or afterwards affe6l thefe terms, as 
 names or appellatives given or affumed ; 
 fuch a Polyglott 1 fay might greatly clear 
 the path of learning, and render miore 
 praclicable the pafs to knowledge, and 
 anfwer all the practical purpofes of an 
 univerial philofophic language. I have 
 been informed that there was, but fince 
 dead, a learned ecclefiaftical Regular in 
 Italy or Germany, who, on the bafis of 
 his own iingle learning and information, 
 vvith undaunted courage and indehuigable 
 C 4-' per-
 
 ( u ) 
 
 pciTeverance, had laboured in a line of re- 
 icarch, into all the languages of the 
 world, fomewhat fimilar to what is here 
 fuggefted. If my information be right, 
 and there now exift any relicks of thefe 
 meritorious labours, they ought not to be 
 fecrcted, or neglc6led, or loft to the world; if 
 they were fuch as the accounts given repre- 
 fcnt them to have been, they might be 
 made the ground-work of fuch a lettered 
 eftablifliment as I have pre fumed to form 
 an idea of. There are many learned men 
 now living, peculiarly trained in their eru- 
 dition to become members of fuch a cor- 
 refponding fociety. Lieutenant - colonel 
 Vallency,Mr. Bryant, Mr. Richardfon, the 
 Profeflbr at Gottingen, Mr. Gebelin, Mr. 
 Pallas, and the learned members of the 
 fociety at Peterfburg, have (hewn in their 
 works, and by what they fingly have done, 
 what might be done by luch a Society, 
 I yabourers are not wanting ; the harveft is 
 abundant : and tliis period, in which the 
 ievcral great nations of Europe are affidu- 
 oully invcftigating the various regions of 
 this our planet, and the various people who 
 inhabit it, fcems to be the feafon, when 
 the gathering into ftores for ufe, the 
 fruits of thefe labours, fhould be begun, 
 at leail Ihould be thought on. 
 
 From
 
 ( ^5 ) 
 
 From what has fallen hi the way of 
 a very fuperficial curfory readuig, fuch as 
 the writer of this paper, who is neither 
 lettered nor learned, in his detached 
 hours of leifure has been capable of pur- 
 fuing, I am convinced that a certain, 
 degree of agnation may be traced between 
 the languages of the north- eaftern and 
 Chinefe Tartars with the weftern Indians 
 of North America ; that a very clofe ag- 
 nation between the languages of the 
 ancient northern nations of Europe, with 
 the Greeks and Latins, would arile and 
 perpetually occur in every line of this 
 refearch. 
 
 The earlieft reference that can be made 
 to that ftate of civiUzation which gave 
 fource to the antient governments of 
 Europe, commences at that period, when 
 a race of ftrangers, advanced to a degree 
 of civilization and improvement in the 
 arts, either as an emigrating tribe, or as 
 a colony of adventurers, lirfl: fettled in 
 Phrygia amongfl: a people then living the 
 fylvan-hunting, or roving paftoral life. 
 Thefe flrangers, either from an afllimp- 
 tjon of the title taken up of themfelves, 
 
 or
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 or * receiving it from the fervility of a bar- 
 barous people feeling their inferiority, or 
 from a tranflation of a real name, mean- 
 ing quite a different thing, were called 
 €)£0i, or Gods. They taught the inhabi- 
 tants Agriculture, whence they became 
 fixed to their habitation, and whence of 
 courfe arofe Civil Society. Over thefe civil 
 focieties they eftablilhed Polity, and be- 
 came their Kings and Governors, Who 
 this race were, whether an emigrating 
 Tartar tribe, or whether a Syrian or 
 Egyptian colony, is not as yet beyond 
 controverfy fettled. Who the people 
 were, amongfl: whom thefe gods fettled, 
 may, I think, be fairly deduced by a re- 
 ference to their language in the manner 
 above fuggefred. Homer, who writes of 
 thofe times, tells us, that the names of 
 perfons, things, and fome animals, were 
 different in the language of the gods from 
 thofe names by which the race of men 
 called the fame things. In the courfe of 
 his poem he takes occalion in two or three 
 inftances to mention both names, which 
 each refpeftively ufed, whether thefe gods, 
 fpeaking in common ufe the fame lan- 
 
 * Thus Caliban in Shakefpcar makes the diunkea 
 Trircalo his god. 
 
 That'b a brave god, and bears celeftial liquor ! 
 Halt thou not dropt I'loin heaven ? 
 
 guage
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 guage as the people, had (as the Indians of 
 North America have) a council-language 
 different from that which was in common 
 life, or whether being of a different race 
 they actually fpoke a quite different lan- 
 guage, is not clear. The language fpoken 
 by men, their fubje6ts, was the fame in 
 Phrygia and Thracia, and I believe ori- 
 ginally in all the inhabited coafts of the 
 ^gean and Euxine feas. What this lan- 
 guage was may be fpecified from the fpg- 
 cifick words mentioned as peculiar to that 
 language. Homer fays, that the appel- 
 lative by which Briareus (fo called by the 
 gods) was named by men, was Aigeon ; 
 now Eigeon in Welfh iignifies the Ocean, 
 an appellative exactly fuited to the cha- 
 racter, refidence, and particular power of 
 this great officer, who fuperfeded Nep- 
 tune. He fays, that the river called by 
 the gods Zanthus, was called by men 
 'Scamander : now, cammendwr means 
 crooked or winding water, an exa(5t de- 
 fcriptive appellative of this winding river 
 full of vortices. It is common with the 
 Welfh in many inflances to prefix the 
 particle Ys to many words. Prefix now 
 this to cammendwr, and pronounce it, no 
 uncommon way, as we pronounce efquire, 
 and you have 'Scammendwr, 
 
 Homer
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
 Homer fays, that the night-hawk was 
 called by the men cumindis ; but by the 
 gods c.ilchis\ now calleaa is in Welfh this 
 very bird. The fa£t here reverfes my 
 dedu<5tion. 
 
 The poet fays, there w^as a Taphos in 
 the plain of Troy, which the gods called 
 the tomb of Myrinne, while men called 
 it fimply Batteia : Now Beth in Welfli is 
 a grave, and Beddiad (the fame as Bettiat) 
 is in the plural a collective burying- place. 
 The people thus called this burial Taphos 
 by its geiierical name, while the gods in 
 naminji it had reference to fome old ftorv 
 of its being a burying-place ot merchants, 
 who came there formerly to trade with 
 this foreign people. HorappoUo fays, that 
 the fymbol in piclurc-writing for mer- 
 chants trading in foreign parts, w^as the 
 AIu:a?:«, or lamprey. 
 
 Homer in his Odyifee gives the name 
 of a medicinal plant as called by the gods 
 Moli. He does not mention any diftinel: 
 name by wliich men called it. Moft likely 
 they adopted the name when they learnt 
 and adopted the nfe of it, fo as to call it 
 by the fame. There was a fecret in ga- 
 thering this plant known only to the gods; 
 
 and
 
 ( ^9 ) 
 
 and the commentators fay it is an Egyp- 
 tian plant ; its root was black, but its 
 head or flower as white as milk. Now, 
 Moll fignifies in Welih a white fcurf, 
 efpecially about the eyes. I could not 
 but mention this latter inftance, though, to 
 fay the truth, I repofe not much upon it. 
 
 Plato difcourfing of etymology, in his 
 Cratylus, fays, But how fhall we refolve, 
 or to what fhall we refer, thofe words 
 which are barbarian ; as the word Uvp^ 
 for inflance, which is Phrygian. We 
 fhall be all wrong if we refolve this to 
 Grecian elements. Uvp then flgnitying 
 fire, is a barbarous word, or of the lan- 
 guage of the race of men. Now, the 
 language which has this word with the 
 n afpirated, is the language of north of 
 Europe, univcrfally for Fuer in German ; 
 and Fir in Swedifh is fire. 
 
 We all know that the region which 
 was vulgarly and by relative appellation 
 called Theflaly, was originally named 
 Aimonia [Dionyf Halicarm, lib. I.] Now 
 ©stJuXicc or Qa.r]a\ici^ and ©zcrcro'Skici, are 
 the fame ; but T'uat'dale in the Celtic 
 means, relatively fpeaking, northern dif- 
 tri6l. Will any one deny that QcnTJuXioi 
 and T'uat'alia' are the fame. So much 
 
 for
 
 ( 3° ) 
 
 for the language of men, in contradi- 
 flin£lion to the language of the gods. 
 
 In like manner many of the names and 
 appellatives given to the heroes a6ling at 
 the fiege of Ilium may be traced dire6tly 
 to their Celtic etymon. 
 
 He£lor's fon was called by a compli- 
 mentary appellation in Hellenic, 'Ag-uaraf * 
 which Plato fays is fynonymous to that of 
 He(5lor, to the meaning of which latter 
 name. Homer almoft always adds, 
 Otog yxp eovTO iXiov Ektoid — 
 or Oiog yoifi (T(piv epvcro "nroKocq ?(, ni'xjicX' ficucpdj 
 who alone was the city's defence ; or who 
 alone was the defence of the curtain, as 
 modern engineers would exprefs, Tetx^a 
 fjcuKpcc, "Epvf^xi is cuftodio Protego, &c. and 
 "EfUitca is munimentum, pracfidium. In 
 this fenfe in general the word is always 
 taken, and in particular is applied to mi- 
 litary ideas, as for inftance, ^Mpayceg are 
 called in Xcnophon's Cyri Paed. epvixxra 
 tTu^a.Tujv applied to the defences of a 
 town, it exprefsly means a tower or tur- 
 ret (or that projetfting defence called by 
 modern engineers a baftion). Thus Xeno-' 
 phon in his Hellenics mentions "E^vt/.(x. 
 rziynPoflig^ and ru~g TtroXsav cPUfjiccja 'uTBoi^ 
 QxXXovjcci ; fomewhere in Homer, but I 
 
 do
 
 ( 3' ) 
 
 do not jufl recollect where, it is faid ToT<^s 
 <r(piv Uupyo^ oiTfcoXsro, &c. which is a me- 
 taphor dire6: to my analylis. Plato, as 
 above, fpeaking of word Hector fays, 
 AoJcEi f^oi raro ■sroipxTrXTjcnov ri eivut ra Ag-v- 
 avccicjiy Xj £oiZ£V HXXTjviiiGTg tocuto^ tcc ovoy^ccToc 
 ycx.p Agvoivu^ ^ o KxTc^p c^'^oov n tuvt»v 
 cifjfzoiivEi (SoiCtXiKa apcpoTepa eivoci Tot evou.oiTU 
 cof^oog rccvTov crvj^czv^i. Scil. A^zoiroXig. Xhe 
 etymon of the name Aflyanax is plain in 
 the Hellenic language : But Plata, though 
 he fays that Hedtor means the fame thing, 
 does not attempt its etymology. He 
 certainly thought it to be (as he fays of 
 the word Uvp) of barbarous original ; had 
 he underftood the Celtic, the language of 
 men, the etymology would have been 
 equally plain to the idea of his com- 
 mentary. Sciz. Ach-'Twr. populi, feu tri- 
 buum, pricfidium. 
 
 Paris is in the Hellenic language called 
 Alexander, which is Praefidium Hominum, 
 Priam from •arp.'a/.cJy^ protego. 
 — • — og <T(piv apivyca 
 ti^ap cuvayKcciGV 
 
 means the fame thing ; and comes from 
 the fame roots in the Celtic, and is of 
 the fame compound, Sciz. Bri, Primus 
 Honor-dignitas, &c. and Amvvn or Amwg 
 to defend ; and means in the compound 
 
 tlie
 
 ( 5^ ) 
 
 the principal or fupream defender. There 
 is a peculiar coincidence in matter of fa6l 
 with this notion, that is, that Priaf or Parif 
 is the Welfh (or Celtic) pronunciation of 
 Priam, fo that we fee thefe royal titles, 
 though feemingly different words, have all 
 the fame meaning, and are, as Plato fa^s, 
 fynonymous. Inftead of uiing as we do 
 George the firft, George the fecond, the 
 third, and fo on ; the richnels of their . 
 language enabled them to diftinguifh the 
 perfons of the royal family, although 
 having the fame or fynonymous fjucrtXiKx 
 cvoy.ciila, by differently exprefTed appel- 
 lations. 
 
 The country or region, which was the 
 fcene of this decifive war, is always called 
 by its Celtic name. Tre-o'im, which fig- 
 nifies the habitation or fettlements of the 
 Oim or Ovim, or Goujim and Magoujim, 
 for fo thefe people were called ; aTcc or ey, 
 ia or ea, are terminations, when added 
 to a name, that means country. The 
 etymon then ftood thus, Tr'6-ia. 
 
 Ilium fignifies in the Hellenic language, 
 the /jo/y dwellings or holy city, 'ispov -^o- 
 ?,/s9^ov, and "iXiog ipvi, or HX—^'flov, jufl as 
 Beth-el, God's Temple. And the city is 
 
 generally
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 generally called by it's Hellenic nzme'^lxiog 
 or 'Wiov. 
 
 it was faid to be built by Neptune; a 
 great naval commander, a god-, and to be 
 lacred to 'Rk"i\Xioc, or Apollo : and from 
 the concourfe of commercial people o^ 
 different nations refiding or trading here, 
 it was defcribed by Homer as YloXig yA^oiToov 
 
 When I firfl wrote this, Ihadfaid, that 
 this city was nhvays called by its Hel- 
 lenick name, llios ; but mentioning it to 
 Mr. Bryant, he reminded me of two places 
 in Homer, where the city is called Troia *, 
 'Txl^UuXog TpciT]. I do therefore* in tran- 
 fcribing this, ufe the exprellion gefierally* 
 RucCJs is of the fame opinion as Mr. 
 Bryant, that Ilium m.eant fpecially the 
 tower or citadel, while Troia was the 
 name of the citv, 
 
 — — — ceciditqiie iiiperbum 
 lUiuni, ct onmis hiimo inmat Ncptuiiis Troja* 
 
 Per Illiiim, arx; per Trojam, urbs fignificatur f . 
 
 But this diftiuvf^ion does not appear to 
 me, to be well founded; the direct coa- 
 
 "^ Lib. XVI. V. 68x and L. XXI. v. 54^. 
 t N\Jt. itd Vi;g^. Lib. III. V. 3. 
 
 D trarr
 
 ( .^+ ) 
 
 trnry hivft feenis to rtililt from tlie ct^-pref* 
 iu)ns ul'eJ* However the c'lcv mio^lit on 
 lonie occulions, and by Ibn.e Ipeiikcrs, be 
 calJed the city ot Troja, ns 'Y^oir,g 'srcKic^ or 
 Tc,c!!oov 'urcA<,-, as in the Otlyfley, Lib. IV. yet 
 I Hon was the city, and fo it was generally 
 enlied, wiiile tlie region was called Troja. 
 Homer, (in Ivib. XX. IHad) Ipeaking of 
 the orjo-in of llion, lavs, 
 
 Kr^VcTfi Aoipduv'rv iTrsi i^TToo'lXiog t^rj 
 
 Here liion is expreiTly called the city, 
 inhabited by men of various langua- 
 ges. The capital of Trov, before the 
 i)uilding of Hios, was up in the high- 
 lands near mount Idvo ; but Hios, built a3 
 a commercial city, was built in the plain ; 
 
 >ia\ov ZTBdiov^ iXioy stti Xo(?ov nva. ova v^jrjXov. 
 (Plato dc Leglbus, 1/ib. III.) In the lame 
 book, a little further on, he expreffly di- 
 Ifinguifhes the region Troja from the city 
 llion by their Ipecihc names. Of the 
 region, he lays, Tc^oiuu uvucdjcv Inroi'/idav^ 
 h.y.cx, erri ur« usivocvjcc. They kept the region 
 Troja under a {late of devaluation for ten 
 years together : but of llion he fays, to 
 "iXiov IttoXio^kiIto ; the citv was blockaded. 
 Herodotus alio (Lib. 1. § 5.) calls the 
 
 taking
 
 ' , ( 35 ) 
 
 bkiiig of the city -^ 'iXta uXcjfnc, and plalnh- 
 fpecihes the city Ilium to be diftiiid* 
 from the country (Lib. II. § ii 8.), where 
 he lays - - - exSsTv y.hu yap sg tY;v 'T'£u-;yp{Sa 
 Ti]v 'F-XX/jViiv Xroocff/jv' eH.&oi<ruv ds ig yrjV m 
 l^fjv9lT(ra,v rr/v g-jSarn;?, -zri^iTr^v^ Ig to "IXlcv 
 ^ArynXag. Tliat lUum did not mean the 
 citadel is as clear as language and defcrip- 
 tion of circUmihances can make any thing 
 fo *. He6tbr is laid to have taken his 
 pofition 'ix/y 'WfOTTa^o.Qs. It the city haa 
 been taken, and tho citadel was ftiil de- 
 fended by Me6lor, this would have been 
 proper ; but he ftood before the city. The 
 great riches of the populous city Ilium are 
 ipoken of 
 
 yc! OCX (poKTiV 
 
 ' iXiov lx.TY,(7^ai ivvaicusvov TS-joXfsQpov • 
 
 This expreffion is proper for a great 
 city, but not for a citadeh 
 
 But Id proceed with further Inftances 
 bf //j/J Lingiiiige of men fpoken in thefe 
 parts. The Pelafgic Temple, built 
 amongfl: thefe fylvan inhabitants of Epi- 
 rus, was called by tlie people, amongfb 
 whom it was built^ the Oi-acle DodonLi, 
 wbich in Welch is literally Dmvdeivhi^ 
 God's Oracle. The priefts v/ere called 
 
 * Lib, XV. V. 66. 
 
 D 3 Sell'jii
 
 ( 36 ) 
 Scllol. • Now Sclkvr is in Welch one 
 that feeth things at a dillance. Calidonia, 
 Cr.lJdun, Duncald,G\valtdiin,TheWolds, 
 or wooded hills, is a name found in every 
 part ot Europe, from eaft to weft ; and 
 it is remarkable, that in the weftcrnmofl: 
 point of England, and in the mountains 
 of Cilicia, there fhoiild have been two 
 caftles of the fame name, Pendennis ; 
 that in Cornwall now exifts ; that in Ci- 
 licia is mentioned by Cicero. I mention 
 thefe things, not as facls eflablifhing 
 proof, but as inftances of the \\{q of 
 reafoning from the agnation of languages. 
 And may we not here venture to luggefl:, 
 without being liable to the imputation ot 
 whim., that as far as it appears from thefe. 
 words, fpecified as peculiar to the lan- 
 guage of the people, which are now found 
 I:\ in«^, the Celtic lanpuao;e was the lan- 
 guage of thofe fylvan people, then called 
 Coilte, Co'itiE, Kergcif, Cnialta?, or Gallati^e, 
 meaninj^ Woldfmen, and afterwards in the 
 weil of Europe called Cclt£ and Galli : 
 There arc many arguments w^hich arile 
 from geography and hiflory, which lup- 
 port thi:. idea. 
 
 Reafoning on the fame principles, and 
 by tlic fame ctvmologlcal deduv5tion, may 
 1 not acknowledge an agnation, to a cer- 
 tain
 
 ( =1 ) 
 
 tain degree, between the language of tiie 
 Indians of North America and that of 
 the Tartars of the north-eaflern parts of 
 x^fia, when I find them ufing the fame 
 kind of prefixes and affixes in compound, 
 to defcribe the relatives and circumftances 
 of perfons, places, and things ; when I 
 find the one and the other uling the fame 
 or fimllar appellatives, in many cafes the 
 lame words, and in the numerals fome 
 words too fimilar, and, too fimilarly fol- 
 lowing in their feries to be, imputed to ac- 
 cident ? May I not impute this coinci* 
 dence to fome agnation in the language 
 of thefe different people r But when I 
 view them both of the fame copper-co- 
 loured tint, both having the fame texture 
 of hair, both oi the fiime model of fcull, 
 I cannot even doubt of the agnation in 
 the race alfo. 
 
 Both the Tartars and Indians, when 
 they mean to fpeak of a people as to their 
 tribe or nation, compound their name with 
 tlie word ach, ack, acha, or aga, which 
 people of different countries and climates, 
 jrom an almoft impofiibility of founding 
 the guttural exactly alike by organs of a 
 different texture, pronounce very ditfer- 
 ently ; fome founding it ax, others aga, 
 agua, others aks, iki. When the Europeans 
 endeavour to pronounce or write the Tar- 
 D 3 tar
 
 ( 3S ) 
 
 tnr nnmcs of their tribes, they fpell them, 
 Oiti ack, Bucizi-acki, Coil-ack, and Crols- 
 aqui, Carakelp-Iki, Calm-iicks, Com-uks, 
 Perm-iki, &c. The European interpreters 
 in America (generally pedling traders, very 
 iliiterate and ignorant) when they at- 
 tempt to exprcfs the Indian pronunciation 
 either in fpcpch or writing, make alio va- 
 rious terminations of the lame word. 'Saki, 
 Siffis-aki, Meihg agaes, Sen-ac^a, or Sen- 1 
 
 ake, Ononda'-agaes, Cayug'-agaes, Canyr I 
 
 ung'-agaes, Aban-aquis, Aban-ikis, Che- 
 rekees, or Chara-agaes, which the Spa- 
 niards pronounce Cheri-aguas. What in 
 copying the Tartar word is written, Sayoth 
 a hunter in Europe, is by the French^ 
 in North America vvrltten Sieux. I muft 
 obferve c?i pajjlnf, that ach in Welch and 
 Irifh fignifies trihe, race, or people. 
 
 * Ski written variouflv, as ikoi and ikoia, 
 fki and Ikie, ikaia and Ikaja, when affixed 
 at tlie end of a Tartar word, fignifies the 
 area or diftricl fo called. To quote examples 
 of this would be endlefs ; ^he reader needs 
 only to throw his eye on any map of 
 Siberia or Tartary : fki in the Indian lan- 
 guage varioufly pronounced, and written 
 by our interpreters, as fkey, Ikeag, ikaid, 
 fcot, fcut, affixed to ends of words, has 
 
 * Thus S!y in EnglifVi does not mean the iirmament, the 
 heavens; bi.: the e;:paure-"ihe celcllial horizon. 
 
 the
 
 ( S9- ) 
 the faine meaning; muhitude of initaiice? 
 of which the reader will Und iii aiiy map 
 of North America. 
 
 The Tartars, originallv call Oiia:i, Oji:::, 
 Ouim, Gojem ; Tjeudi^, Tjeut;^, ufe par- 
 ticles of words, which, pretixed to the 
 names of places and people, ilgnity relaiive 
 poiitioiis, as, gh tbhjiJe, or :fi tbe ether /iJ^^ 
 ewer^ SeycnJ, alio a particle W'hich feems 
 to fignify umier, or beic-:-. Theie particles 
 are ma, mai, maje, or maeil ; es or cfk ; 
 and ja ; as ^la-gougi, I^ougi, and la- 
 gougi, Schin, Maeichin, Zchin, Schei^di, 
 Ja-dfceudi, and Ala-dfcudi. The Indians 
 of North America have the lame prefixes, 
 witli this obfervable circumitance. that ia 
 pronouncing the es or elk, thev accom- 
 pany the enunciation with the motion of 
 the hand from them ; in enouncir.g the 
 mai, with a motion towards them. 
 Whether the Tartars aid their Ipeech in 
 like maimer with atlion I know net. To 
 give one or two inliances rather as ex- 
 planation tlian proof, we have ieen above 
 that ack, aks, aqui, or aga, micans in the 
 Indian language, tribe or race. Now, the In- 
 dians, by adding 'sk,'s, and ma to thi:? .' ord, 
 expreis the remote or hither t.i.es ; 'i-uks 
 means the tirir, and maiiafaki the fecoad ; 
 both which relative sppelktions ^e found 
 D 4 amoDgfl
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 amongfl: the VVcftern Indians. Oghncghta 
 is a pine-tree, Oghneght'ada is a country 
 of pine-wood, 'Sk-oghncght'ada is the 
 country beyond, or on the other tide of 
 the pine-wood ; hence conies the name of 
 the town on the Mohawks nvcr in New 
 York, called Sheneftady ; hut to mark 
 the power of this affixed particle the 
 ilronger, it is to be oblerved, that whea 
 an Indian at Skencdady fpeaks of Albany, 
 he calls Albany 'Skoghneght'ada. Cani- 
 aderi is a lake, Caniaderi-ada is the coun- 
 try of Lakes, 'Scaniad-eri-ada is the region 
 beyond the country of Lakes. Watchulet, 
 or Watfliufed, is a great mountain, fo 
 called, in New England. The country 
 next the fea, when the firfl fcttlcrs lought 
 the name of it, w^as called Maeftchuled, 
 Maef-tchufet, Maflatchufct. The names of 
 that tribe of the five natjton Indians, who are 
 byEnglifh and Dutch in New England 
 and New York called Mahawk and Ma- 
 quas, is Can-yongwc-aga, t6e people who 
 are at the head of men ; but the appel- 
 lative given to them by the River and 
 New England Indians, was Ma-aga or 
 Ma-^q^^a, and Ma-ach', w4iich fignifies the 
 hithermoft tribe, or that tribe of the Five 
 Nations which was neareft to them ; and 
 in the like manner, the tribe whofe a£lual 
 appellative was Tfononteouana-aga, fig- 
 
 nlfying
 
 ( 4- ) 
 
 nifylng the tribe winch lives on, or over, 
 the great higli nioiintaiii, or on the height 
 of the land, called by tlie French Tibnon- 
 tnans, and by the Englifh and Dutch vul- 
 garly Senekaes, is lb called by the rekti\'e 
 appellative *Sei^-ngaes, or the furthermoft 
 tribe. 
 
 In like manner, confidering the inde- 
 fined impreiiion which tlie founds by 
 which the name of the Tartars were ori- 
 rinally exprefled, and the vague ufe made 
 of the elementary charaders by thofe wh3 
 firft wrote them, Oim, Ojim, Ogim, 
 Ovim, Goigim, Tjeiidim, or Tjeudae, and 
 Tjeutce. I fee the very Tartar name in 
 the word Tjeti^, Tjeut^e. To this apply- 
 ing* the prefixed particles exactly and pre- 
 cifely as before, I hnd the 'Stjeuthae, Mais- 
 Tjeuthae, the Scythjf, and MalTageta:, 
 the yo72der and the hither Geta?, Goethas, 
 or Jeuts. And to go one ftep further in 
 this explanation, when I Inid the Geta^ 
 written by the Greeks Ksr/e/c, and by the 
 Hebrews, Chittim, or Chedim ; and then 
 fee the name of the people of Mecedonia, 
 written MotK-s-flug ; I do not hefitate to 
 analyfe this word Ma-chedim, or Ma-ce- 
 dom, the hither Chedim or Chittim. 
 There is another very lingular circum- 
 ftance of hmilarlty between the names 
 
 of
 
 . ( 43 ) 
 
 of the numerals of the Wcflerii Indians 
 of North America, the Chipouacs, and 
 thole of the Northern Tartars of Kamf- 
 chatlki. 
 
 Ind'ran Tartar 
 
 One Peikick Innen 
 
 • Two Necch Neach 
 
 Three Nizouy Nioch 
 
 Four Ni^annin Nizach 
 
 The fingular circumftance, which ftrikes 
 me, is, that of the unit feeming in both 
 to belong to a ditFerent feries from thofe 
 of the two, three, and four, and in both 
 changing to words beginning with Ni or 
 Nee, inllances which I delire may be 
 underftood to be adduced as examples or 
 illuftrations, not proofs. I think the ufe that 
 t he truly Analy tick etymology (not theSyn- 
 thetick one taught to fchool-boys) may be 
 of to the philofophick Antiquary, will evi- 
 dently appear. 1 have prefumed to poin'c 
 out the nature of the refolution and com- 
 pofition by which this analyfis fhould pro- 
 ceed, as depending on an experimental 
 knowledge of the efforts and operations of 
 the organs of fpeech, articulating the ele- 
 ments of words according to the internal 
 conftitution or external circumftances by 
 which they are affe6ted in different coun- 
 tries and climates, and at different periods 
 
 of
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 pf civilization. I have nlfo prcfumed to 
 iUv'geflan idea of a method by which this 
 truly analytick etymology may be con- 
 ducted to general purpoles of knowledge, 
 by fuch a ttgrnparative polyglolt of the 
 terms and names of things in different 
 nations, as (liall anfwer to the purpofes of 
 that great defideratum, an unlverjal lan^ 
 gucige of philcfopby. 
 
 Another, and indeed the next branch in 
 |:he analyfis of the philofophic Antiquary 
 goes into the inquiry after the various 
 methods by which men in the early 
 periods of their civilization, aimed to fix 
 the fleeting expreflions of fpeech in per- 
 manent palpable lymbols, that fhould re- 
 main under the eye. TbJs refearch will 
 ihew, that the firil efforts which men 
 have made in all countries to m.ark for 
 fiiftant places and times, the invinble tran- 
 fient expreliion of ideas which ipeech gives 
 at the prefent time and place, have been 
 exerted by making general portraits of 
 the ideas ^ not by detailed c-aracicrs of the 
 elements of fpeech, compoundal inio piBiircs 
 of words. 
 
 The writinp; of all people in their fird 
 efforts has been invariably a pi6lure re- 
 prefentation of Time ; of the leaio.ns ; of 
 
 coneomi-
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 concomitant circumftances of the feafons, 
 exprelictl bv various pictures of the fun, 
 moon, anti flars, of birds of paflage, of 
 the animals pecuHarly attendant on times 
 of inundation, or drought ; by various 
 plants ; and by many other objcfts. When 
 they endeavoured to hx a record of perlons, 
 things, and aftions, exhibiting to the cor- 
 'poreal eye piclurefque aUufions to thofe 
 conceptions, which could be ieen only by 
 the mind's eye ; they then hmply and na- 
 turally tranllated and {^rew in pidiures the 
 metaphors and fymbolick charav^crs, wluch 
 in their language, they ufed to expreis 
 their ideas by. Actions they expreflcd 
 by the inftruments ufed in exerting 
 thofe a<fl:ions : And the temper or defi^',ns 
 of thofe actions, or a«Stors, by pictures 
 of animals, in whom decidedly this or 
 that temper was fuppoicd to predo- 
 minate. 
 
 I proceed no further liere in tlfis re- 
 fcarch ; as I have in a tradl exprelfiy written 
 to explain the origin, nature,, and Inter-' 
 pretation, of picture-writing *, nvA here- 
 unto annexed, gone into a fall exami- 
 nation of it. I will therefore beg leave to 
 refer the fociety to that tra^t, and v\ 111 
 
 * Appendix, No. II. 
 
 pn-
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 proceed to explain the ufe which I think 
 may be derived from thus conlidering the 
 piclure-wricings of the ancients, com- 
 monly called Hieroglyphicks. It appears 
 to me, that if the Antiquary would hope 
 to coUev^l any information from thefe an- 
 cient infcriptions, he Ihould, inll:ead of 
 fearching amongfl: the Stoicks, the latter 
 Platonifis, and the Trifmegifric Philo- 
 fophers, for myftical allegories, and di- 
 vine romances, endeavour to colle6t all 
 the collateral accounts which are anv 
 where to be met with of the civil and 
 natural hifiory of thofe countries, where 
 any of thofe pi6:ure-writings do remain ; 
 as alfo (if it were poffible to find fuch) 
 to learch out the 2;radations of the feveral 
 Ihiges of the community in its civili- 
 zation ; the progrefs of the clearing and 
 cultivating the land, and particularly the 
 ftate of its cultivation and produce ; the 
 inftruments of huihandry, the machines 
 and tools of the arts ; the weapons of 
 their nuHtary, and navy, the enligns of 
 office ; their mode of numeration, weight 
 and meafure ; their opinions, external 
 forms, and ceremorjies of religion, with 
 utenfils and inffruments ufed in their 
 fites; and wheie it is poilible the turn and 
 phraie of their language. If the Anti- 
 quary could obtain any actual informatioi> 
 
 in
 
 ( 46 5 
 
 in tliefe particulars, and (hould then go tS 
 the reading this pii>nre writing, without 
 any previous prejudice or impreffion of 
 their containing nbftrufe and myrtick 
 doclrines, he w^ould mofl likely find thele 
 infcriptions to be plahi and Ibhcr records 
 of the hifrory of the country or people ; 
 or rcgirters of the ftate of it, or regulations 
 refpedting it ; or memorials dedi^rlated to 
 fhe honour of fome king, contain'nig the 
 ftate of his adminiftra'ion, and the hillory 
 of his actions, thus held forth to the ad- 
 miration of the people in the I'ulgate 
 p'lciure-ivriting ; or rolls of the public 
 revenues, and payments to be made let 
 down in numbers, weight, and meafure. 
 Kircher, and all the Trifniegillick dodlors,^ 
 down from Jamblichus, copying the whim- 
 fics or defigned perverfions or the Phi- 
 tonifts, have not only made fuch unin- 
 telligible ftuif of thefe infcriptions a^ 
 nobodv ever could be, or ever was, fatif- 
 fied with ; but have created even a defpaii* 
 in the learned of ever finding out any in- 
 terpretation at all, if thele infcriptions" 
 are to be {fill viewed as the imag-es of an 
 intelledlual fyifem of incomprchcniiblc 
 myfteries. As thefe learned romancer^ 
 have had their full fcope of experiments,- 
 Tvhicii have ended in the abortion of 
 phantonij if men will at length venture to 
 
 think 
 
 d
 
 (_ 47 ) 
 
 think for themlelves on fa£ls as they 
 come before them ; they will find that all 
 this contemptible fluff, about which lb 
 many bulky books have been made, be- 
 gan with the philofophers who wifhed to 
 throw a veil of Phyfislogy over mere fables^ 
 w^hich fuperftitlon had fan^tified ; and 
 hath been derived down from them, and 
 from no where elfe» 
 
 That the Egyptians had in their picture- 
 writings fymbols by which to exprefs 
 their ideas of the Supreme Being, and 
 of the var.ous manifeftations of his Pro- 
 vidence, is certain, as well as thofe of 
 any other idea; and the images and idols 
 of thofe ideas led both to the grofs mid 
 the ihyjlkk idolatry^ and were perhaps in 
 „/Egypt the caufe of it : but that all their 
 infcriptions were facred, and cabaliitick 
 Icripture of their religion, and nothing 
 elfe, was an After-thought of later phi- 
 lofophers, in order to cover the grofinefa 
 of their idolatry by a veil of phyliology. 
 
 One infcance will, ^as I tliink, who 
 venture to think for myfelf, be fufficient 
 to the purpofe. Let any man of {qv\{q and 
 learning read Kircher's interpretations of 
 the Obelifk which he calls thePamphylian 
 Obelilk, and be willing to believe ail that 
 
 Kirche:^
 
 ( 4S ) 
 Kircher makes out. I will defy any flich 
 man, iinlels be be predetermined, to rtii 
 latished, or to tbiuk he has learnt any 
 thing, even one iuriplc idea, from ali that 
 is thus interpreted. But even if he fl-iould 
 aifccl, becaufe he would be thought learn- 
 ed, and in the fecret, to lay that he is 
 much informed, and lias acquired know- 
 ledge from what is interpreted ; 1 Ihould 
 then hope to be taught from luch learn- 
 ing and knowledge what all thofe ele- 
 mentary charafters and lineal diagrams 
 mean to exprels, which Kircher has paiild 
 by unnoticed, as though making no part 
 of the infcriber's intention. If none of 
 thefe learned men can latisfy me, as I 
 know none that can, or that htith at- 
 temj^ed it ; and if i then look upon thefe 
 infcriptions, and compare the figures and 
 diaprams with things bmilar, which 
 have been in ufe amongft men in otbcr 
 parts of the world ; I fee clearly in fome^ 
 parts, elements or letters ; 1 fee numerals, 
 and ccmbincd numeratioji ; 1 fee meafures 
 of weight, capacity, and cxtenlion ; and 
 I ice thefe numbers applied to the num- 
 bering thofe mcalures, and lee them va- 
 lioufly combined, and repeatedly occur- 
 in.o" in thele combinations. When with 
 
 O 
 
 thefe ideas I view at the top of the 
 obeliik the enthroned figure fitting and 
 
 receiving
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 receiving the offerings from perfons ap- 
 pearing to be of the different claffes of 
 iiibje6ls ; as priefts, foldiers, &c. I cannot 
 confide r the whole of this ObeUfk other 
 'than a mere regifler, or record, ot the na- 
 ture, force, revenues, and regulations of 
 the king there, in his feveral capacities, 
 reprelented on the ievcral fides of it. I 
 cannot but fee that each fide refpecls each 
 refpeilive order or clafs of the fubjecfls of 
 the kingdom. When I look to the un- 
 doubted and decided fymbol of the fu- 
 preme, eternal, univerfal, intelledlual, firft 
 caufe, at the top of the Obeiilk, over his 
 head, and view this king and his fubje(51:s, 
 by one fuperfcribed and comprehending 
 line, collected into one group, or as one 
 objecl under the providential care or in- 
 fluence of this firfl caufe, I cannot but 
 conlider this record and rcgifter as mean- 
 ing to give and to hold forth the moft 
 eiiential true principle of all juft and right 
 government, as fubfilfing under God and 
 his Providence. And when I fee the 
 lymbol of the vivifying Spirit of this 
 material world, attendant on a crowned 
 hawk, at the head of the record or re- 
 gifter, I cannot but remark how decidedly 
 this iiiarks the derivation of this animating 
 fpirit into the adlual exercife of the govern- 
 ment itfelf, of which the following in- 
 E fciption
 
 ( 5° ) 
 
 fcrlption is the record. In order to give 
 my idea of thefe characters and diagramSy 
 which 1 fuppofe to be, Ibme of them ele- 
 ments or Utters ; others to be numerals ; 
 and by their combinations various nume- 
 rations ; alio of the others, which I fup- 
 pofe to be mcafures of weight, capacity, 
 and exterifion, which alfo are varioufly 
 combined, and which alfo, together with 
 the numerals, form again various combi- 
 nations ; I beg leave to refer to the draw- 
 ings which I have annexed to the Treatife, 
 N"" II. of the Appendix. i\s I have made 
 fo free with the interpretation given by 
 others, and even with tliofe of learned 
 men, 1 do with the fame freedom acknow- 
 ledge, that I give this of mine as a mere 
 experimental elfay in the application of the 
 principles above flated, and not as a mat^ 
 ter either proved, or capable of proof : 
 fully however as capable of proof, as any 
 of the old adopted interpretations : capable 
 of proof * by analogy to fimilar things 
 actually exilling, and not from the after- 
 thoughts of myftic prices and philofophers 
 making comments of pcrverfion, not in- 
 terpretation. I find myfelf however, fup- 
 ported in my manner of interpretation by 
 the funilar interpretation which Herma- 
 
 * Vide N° II. A] pendix. 
 
 piou
 
 ( 51 ) 
 jiioii (as quoted by Ammianus Marcellinus) 
 gave of the Obellfk in the great Circus. 
 There is on each fide, or face of this Obe- 
 llfk, a mitred perfon, fitting on a throne j 
 v/ith a perfon of inferior • fubje£l- rank 
 kneeling before him, and ftretching forth 
 his hands, as in the a6lion of offering* 
 And Hermapion begins his interpretation 
 jull: as I have done. 
 
 The things here infcribed are what we 
 have given to the king RamefleS;, &e. 
 
 As the language of men in the firfl 
 gradations of their civilization is all me* 
 taphor and fimile, and the writing of the 
 fame, in their progrellive advances, is all 
 pidture and painting ; {o the memorials 
 and hiftory of thofe times muft of courfe 
 be mere aiUegory and fable. If now the 
 unprejudiced Antiquary Vv'ill here eonfider 
 things to be as what they adlually are, and 
 muft have been ; if he will condu6l his 
 refearch into the interpretation of the 
 Ancie?it fabulous hiftory, as originally, and 
 (imply the pidlures of a rude people; he may 
 arrive at very diftindt accounts of the firil 
 Sges of civilization ; of the eftablifhrnent 
 of government; of the progrefs of Com- 
 merce ; of the fettiement of colonies, and 
 E 21 of
 
 ( 5^ ) 
 
 of the caufes and effcifls of piracies and 
 wars. ] mean to be underftood as fpeak- 
 ing here of the accounts of the fcite 
 and circumftances of the people ; of the 
 fpirit and nature of the times ; and of the 
 various revokitions amongfl mankind in 
 thefe their firfl progreflions, although per- 
 haps not of the acflual perfons and ai^ors 
 in this drama, which by the bye is of 
 very little ufe, except to aid and fix the 
 memory. 
 
 Hiftory hath been compared to a great 
 fhip floating down the tide of Time, 
 fraught and replete with the precious 
 cargo of knowledge ; but if this repre- 
 fentation of hiftory be true, and if ever 
 fuch a (hip was fo freighted, unhappily it 
 hath never reached thefe our ports. The 
 vellel has fuffeied {hipwreck ; and the 
 valuable ilores, which it is faid to have 
 contained, are funk and overwhelmed 
 under the waves of deep oblivion. Some 
 fragments of its bill of hiding have come to 
 hand; fome parts of the drifred wreck have 
 by the tide been thrown upon our coafls ; 
 fome buoyant parcels of the cargo have 
 been found floating on the furface ; and 
 fome even valuable articles have been 
 fifhed up out of the wreck : but none fuf- 
 ficient as yet, to give a clear and precife 
 
 idea
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 idea of the veffel which was f^'eighted for 
 us ; nor of the cargo wliich was meant to 
 have fuppHed the wants of this knowledge. 
 Here then the ftudies and refearches of 
 the Antiquary come in aid ; it is his office 
 to coUedl all the fragments he can find 
 drifted on the wide ocean ; to dive for, and 
 to fi(h up from the wTeck, every thing that 
 can be recovered: And finally, when that 
 can be done, to aflbrt all thefe together 
 by various repeated experiments, led on 
 by what their matter and forms promife, 
 fo as to form fome theory at leafl of the 
 fyflem of which they were parts. If he 
 be but a fuperficial, or a hafty theorill, he 
 will moft likely be miflaken ; yet the cor- 
 region of his miftakes may lead to better 
 knowledge. If future dilcoveries evince, 
 that even thofe conjectures which were 
 formed under the moll: patient and philo- 
 fophick temper of invefligation, are wrong; 
 the correftion of the error will at leail: 
 liave been a {l:ep in the gradation up to 
 knowledge. It is by thefe collections of 
 the multitudes of parts and parcels ; and 
 by the thoufand varied experiments in 
 aflbrting them ; tliat the fludy of Antiqui- 
 ties is in a gradual, although perhaps flow 
 approximation to knowledge. To make 
 cumbrous colledlions of numberlefs par^ 
 ticulars, merely becaufe they are fra^- 
 E 3 meats ;
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 m-ents ; and to admire them merely a^ 
 they are antique ; is not the fpirit of an- 
 tient Itamir.g, but the mere dgating of 
 fuperannuatlon. It is not the true r'digious 
 {|-udy of antlc^ultiesy but a devotion foi; 
 rellcks : It may make us enthufiafti;^ fa- 
 natic triflers, or dupes, but can never ad- 
 minifter real and fober knowledge to- our 
 undcrftanding. Great and meiltorious 
 pains are taken to collect every, fpeqimeu 
 of antiquity which arifes by the evapyj^tion 
 of the ruined Herculaneum and Pompeii^ 
 When the true Ipirit of the Antiquary pre- 
 fidcs over thefe work?, the refcarches are 
 condu6^ed by fyftemG that lead to know- 
 ledge; when that is abfcit, the true vulgar 
 idea of making ColUBlons of /l?itiquities 
 Leads to examples of genuine abfurdit}^, 
 like the followins:, wdiich I was told as a 
 flicl *. In the courfe of their works the 
 labourers met with an infcription, the let- 
 ters of which were brafs fixed in marble ; 
 thefe brazen letters they caret'uUy picked 
 out of the marble, put them into a bafket, 
 and in that Aatc they remain depofited in, 
 the king's library, as examples of curious* 
 antiquity, in hopeful expectation of the 
 return oi fome Sibyl, who, rcftoring the 
 
 ' ■* I do not m )ke myfelf anfwcrahle for tVicTai^, but rf- 
 fep t<> ths ilory MS an •iliulhunnn ot ihat riiliovikius fear>.h 
 iiup apti^uicici which 1 ipouu to t(.j>iob.iti.\ 
 
 ' Jaoai ' ^^^^^^ 
 
 X
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 letters, like her diffipated leaves, to their 
 order, may give the fenfe of the in- 
 fcription, which was forgotten to be no- 
 ticed at the firil difcovery. Should the 
 wreck of an ancient fhip ever be difcovered, 
 a coUeftion of a multitude of its timbers, 
 knees, ribs, beams, flandards, fragments 
 of mails and yards, bolts, planks, and 
 blocks, would be une choje a voire, and 
 would make the learned as well as the 
 unlearned flare and wonder : but the eye 
 of knowledge would find no reft nor fa- 
 tisfadion there. Where the truly learned 
 Antiquary (by an analyfis of the firft 
 principles of naval architecflure, and by 
 tracing thefe principles in all poffible 
 combinations which the materials admit 
 of) attempts various experiments of 
 combining thefe fragments into fome 
 form, which, as parts, correfpond to fome 
 whole * — there arifes the true fpirit of 
 antiquarian learning ; there begins genuine 
 and ufeful knowledge. It was in this ge- 
 nuine temper of experimental reafoning, 
 that the fpirit and genius of the Romans, 
 analyling the principles of naval archi- 
 tedlure, and combining the fragments of 
 a wrecked galley cafi: upon their fhore, 
 
 * Vide below the example given from fj^neial Melville'3 
 Jparning and Icience on this very point. 
 
 E 4 com-*
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 commenced with fuch fucccfs aiul glory 
 their naval power. As of the example in 
 fact, which the reafoning on the foregoing 
 metaphor had led us to ; fo hy the like 
 analvfis, and combination, may the re- 
 mains of every branch of antiquity be 
 reftored, at leaft to fome femhlance of its 
 original. 
 
 Man is a being finite and circnmfcribed 
 in his natural ivarJs and delires, and in 
 his powers, which are however always 
 proportionable to the fupply of thefe wants. 
 View him in the various progreilions and 
 revolutions of his being, through the con- 
 tinued encrcafing feries of his artj/iciat 
 ivants^ and of his improved refources ; iHli 
 his fcitc and circuniftances mark the firft, 
 and the limitation of his powers make 
 not the enquiry after the fecond a bound- 
 lefs purfuit. Thofe, who in dilf'erent ages 
 have reviewed this being in ditterent re- 
 gions, under different habits and modes of 
 life, know how little he is able to vary, 
 how little to expand his powers. Being 
 the fame kind of liunter, or herdfman in 
 fylvan life, through all ages and countries 
 of the like circumftances ; he becomes, 
 when he quits that life, the lame kind 
 of landworker ; the fame kind of fubject 
 of lociety ; the lame warrior ; in every 
 
 a"^e 
 ■•o
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 age and region under the like circum- 
 ftances. Could we have a veftiary of all 
 the cloaths of every country, in all pe- 
 riods of its cultivation, we might at firft 
 be ftruck with the variety of appearances; 
 but a ferious attention would find little 
 difference in all this variety of forms, ex* 
 eept what heat or cold, wet or dry, called 
 forth. Whenever we have been able to 
 compare the domeftic utenlils and inftru- 
 ments which real ufe hath given invention 
 to, how little do they vary ! They are 
 almoft the fame with every kind of people. 
 However much the warrior has endeavoured 
 to add terror to his force, in the inven- 
 tion of new ways of murdering, yet how 
 little hath he been able to vary thefe in- 
 ventions! The inftruments of war, as of 
 like ufe iji like hands, are fimilar, and 
 fcarcely varied, in any the moft differing 
 nations. Nay, where vanity has grown 
 wild in fancy, and ra:ked invention to 
 produce a motley frippery of ornament, 
 the ornaments of all nations, from the 
 favage to the mofl: refined, are much the 
 fam.e *. 
 
 * 
 
 See the various fpeclmens of utenfils, habits, weapons, 
 iiC. of lavagf s, in Sir Afliton Lever's MuutLim ; an'-i o." r 
 pare thofc in the light ot uTe ;ind in their eHential circ.i.ii- 
 llances, with the hi^heft refineiiients of the moft civilized 
 iiauons, iuid you will find that they fcarcely diifer, 
 
 6 It
 
 ( 58 ) 
 
 It is from principles which condr £1 '"hisr 
 realbning that I venture to deduce tne lol-! 
 lowing theorems. Thai even where hiftory 
 has fuftered fliipwreck, as the allufion 
 above defcribes, and where only a few 
 reliques and fragments, buoyed up in 
 fables and mythology^ have come down 
 to our age ; yet where thofe fragments 
 mark the particular flate in the progrefs of 
 human life which they refer to, I fay, 
 reafoning from the analogous fimilarity 
 of man, much more even of hiftorick de- 
 fer! ption of that flate can be formed 
 from thefe broken deformed materials, 
 than the firft fuperficial glance of undif- 
 cerning literature would imagine. What 
 can be the events of the fylvan life, 
 "whether it is carried on by clans of 
 hunters, or hordes of herdfmen ? The 
 firft may make war upon the beafts of the 
 foreft, or quarrel with their neiglibour 
 hunters about their game or their hunt. 
 The fecond may endeavour to drive the 
 beafts of prey from their quarters, or 
 quarrel v/ith like herdfmen about paf- 
 ture and water, or about their cattle, 
 which liave ftrayed, or have been ftolen. 
 This is but a fingle drama, and has 
 l^een adcd over and oyer a thoufand times, 
 
 in
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 in different periods and regions of the 
 world. The firft will war, as they have 
 been ufed to hunt, by covert flratagem, to 
 utter extirpation. The fecond will, by 
 open force, attempt to drive their enemies, 
 as they have been ufed to drive their herds, 
 but their war will end in negotiation and 
 fettlement. This we have known, and 
 ido know, to be the cafe, wherever we 
 have been able to trace the hiftory of any 
 fuch nation, in fuch ftated progrefs of its 
 being. If therefore any fragments and 
 relicks of antiquity point to this period in 
 the progreflion of human life, we cannot 
 be much at a lofs how to recompofe 
 thefe into the fyftem, of which they are 
 parts. If in very antient books, as thofe 
 pf Hefiod, Homer, and Herodotus, we 
 read actual portrayed defcriptions of this 
 life ; if we trace, although in fables, 
 draughts of the hiftory of fmall companies 
 of wandering hunters and navigators, car- 
 rying all the lineaments of that portait, 
 we cannot be totally without a line, by 
 which to finifh the imperfedt Iketch from 
 point to point, as the fcatrered fragments 
 lead. By a careful analysis therefore of 
 human nature, and by a combination from 
 analogy of fuch broken accounts as the 
 ihipwreck of hiftory affords; a defcription, 
 
 Ihad
 
 ( 6o ) 
 
 I hnd almoft fiild nn hiftoric defcription, 
 of" that firft, original ftate of the human 
 life, which ^\'e infolently call favage, and 
 even many footttep traces of their mo- 
 tions and a61:ions, to all the purpofes of 
 ufefnl knowledge, may, by the truly 
 philofophic Antiquary, be obtained. If 
 we read in never fiich oblcure frag- 
 ments, and but in tables, accounts of man 
 quitting his woods, and beginning to till 
 the earth, cleared of its original vegeta- 
 tion ; if \v^ read of the individual thus 
 become ajixt Be/ng, and, by intercommu- 
 nion of mutual wants, coalefcino; into So- 
 crety ; and of that fociety, by the progrefs 
 of human nature, forming into an or- 
 ganized body ; a very few traces of that 
 procefs will lead to a juft idea of the 
 whole operation. 
 
 Knowing from fact how thinly fcat- 
 tered through the woods and wilderncfs 
 the individuals of the lylvan life always 
 are and muftbc*. with what luperabundant 
 population the firlf frucluation ot an ad- 
 vancing lociety is loaded ; and that the 
 furplus parts of this plethoric body always 
 have and muif emigrate, going into the bor- 
 ders of and anion u,fi the rude inhabitants 
 of the yet uncultured world ; fometimes 
 
 as
 
 ( 6i ) 
 
 as armies, fomctimes as merchants, fome- 
 tlmes as colonizing fettlers ; knowing, I 
 fav, this to have been in fact the invariable 
 hiftory, and the repeated drama of the 
 early liages of life, we can be at no lofs 
 to imderihmd, although it is recorded by 
 piclnr.'S, and told in fables, ' the com- 
 mencement of hiftory in the fabulous 
 ages, at the commencement of civiliza- 
 tion in the countries bordering on the 
 Mediterranean and Euxuie Seas. Thefe 
 fables reprefent gods and heroes as going 
 forth from fettled civilized flates, to 
 travel about the lylvan world, either with 
 armies as deftroyers, or with colonies as 
 benefadlors of mankind ; in one cafe, re- 
 ducing the poor aborigines to flaves ; af- 
 fuming to be of a fuperior race of beings ; 
 calling themlelves gods, and becoming 
 real tyrants : in the other, like the Su- 
 preme B-iing himfelf, inftru^fting them in 
 all the arts of cultured life, and commu- 
 nicating the benefits of it to them ; the 
 culture of bread-corn, of the grape, of 
 the olive, of the propagation of the fruits, 
 legumes, and efculent roots, of the earth; 
 the propagation and nature, the life and 
 fervice, of the domiciliated animals ; the 
 communion of fociety, the protedion of 
 government. Although this is told in al- 
 legories
 
 i 6i ) 
 
 iegories and fables, altho\igli the foppery 
 of the learned workuig upon the homely 
 tiiTue of thofe early ages may have em- 
 broidered it with fyftems of mythology^ 
 and finally of ph\fiology \ yet whoever 
 gives unprejudiced attention to, and views 
 with untainted eye, the fafts which torm 
 the fond of thefe fables, and compares 
 them, in the true fpirit of analogy, with 
 the aceuftomed and known courle ot the 
 human fyftem, may draw a very'flrong 
 likenefs, if not an actual portrait, of the 
 hiflory itfelf. 
 
 When I read of the firji voyages into' 
 the ^gean, Euxine, and Mediterranean 
 Seas, made by the various adventurers 
 who were afterwards, although perhaps 
 of different nations, certainly living in 
 very -diftant periods, tied up together in 
 that hiftoric bundle,- called the Argos, 
 canonized as a fign in the heavens, and 
 who were called Argonauts ; whether 
 that fable be meant to defcribe the pro- 
 greffive voyages of a nation (as Mr. Bryant 
 fuppofes), or whether the aftions of a par- 
 ticular band, or a feries of adventurers ; 
 whether the perfonages there charafterifed 
 were Greeks, or (as I rather believe) Et'yp- 
 tkns, or Syrians, makes no difference: 
 
 when
 
 ( 63 ) 
 
 when T read this, and compare it witli 
 the voyage of Columbus and other Ad- 
 venturers to the New World, I am at 
 no lofs to undcriland the nature of the 
 adventures, as v/ell as of many parts 
 of it. When I read, although in fables, 
 of the Egyptians, Edomites, and Ty- 
 nans, fettling on the coafts, and in the 
 iflands of the ^gean Sea, and of their 
 pailing.the Bofphorus, and forming various 
 fettlements in the Euxine Sea, particularly 
 their great fettlement at Colchis : Vvhen I 
 read this, and compare it with the voyages, 
 adventures,' and lettlements of the Por- 
 tuguefe in Afia, and then purfue the ufe 
 of all this by a detail of their trade, I am 
 at no more lofs to comprehend the for- 
 mer, though told in fables of golden 
 fleeces and golden apples, than of tlie 
 latter, delivered in fober hiftoric journals. 
 When I read of the travels and conquefts 
 of Ofiris, Bacchus, Seloftris, &c. and the 
 various Hercules, and fuch like perlonified 
 charatlers, and compare this with fmiilar 
 travels, voyages, adventures, and conque-f}:, 
 of Cortes, Pizarro, and other Spaniards, 
 how is it poflible not to fee the real hii^ 
 tory through the veil of metaphors and 
 allegories, which have transformed it into 
 Fable I 
 
 When
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 When I rend of a fct of foreign adven- 
 turers making fettlenients in the iflands, 
 and on the coafts of the ^^gean ; of fcttlers 
 coming from fome country advanced in 
 civiUzation to a country vv'herein the in- 
 habitants flill hved the fylvan and paf- 
 toral life : when I read of thefe calling 
 themi'elves ^o/h, children of the fun, or 
 Hellenoi, taking the lead and government 
 of men ; when I find thefe gods and their 
 fons fettled in different parts, in Phrygia 
 on one fide, and in Greece on the other 
 (become in the courfe of their tranfa£lions 
 different and rival powers with different 
 interelfs) quarrelling with each other ; 
 when I read this, and compare it by ana- 
 logy of fa els, which we know have ac- 
 tually happened ; with what the Spaniards 
 amongft thcmfelves, and the Europeans 
 amongft one another, have done In their 
 lettlemcnts in the Eafl and Weft Indies ; 
 I am at no lofs in underftanding the facfts 
 of the IVar cf the gods^ nor why Neptune, 
 or rather Pofeidon, took the oppofite jfide 
 againft Jupiter ; he was at the head of a 
 feparate iiiteref}:, and had been fuperfeded 
 in his command of the 7$lgean by the 
 nomination of Briareus * to that command. 
 
 ^ LiaJ, B. I. ver. 40^. 
 
 Oi
 
 ( 65 ) 
 
 Neptune had built Ilium near the mouth 
 of the Bofphorus, which might command 
 the exclulive navigation of the Euxine, 
 and fupport his interefl amongfl the 
 northern people there ; but he was de- 
 ceived in the efled: ; he got a quarrel with 
 the Trojans, and he loft his intereft and 
 office at Jupiter's court: And had become 
 the avowed enemy of Ilium, the building 
 of which was his own plan and meafure. 
 In the next generation, when thofe gods 
 had left the earth, this Ilium became (as 
 Carthage was to Rom.e) a rival objecft to 
 Greece that muft be deftroyed ; it was 
 that which had robbed them of, and 
 held them excluded from., their deareft and 
 moft beneficial connections of commerce. 
 The Greeks carried their point, and for 
 agcs after, efpecially the Athenians, lup- 
 ported on this baiis of the commerce of 
 tlie Euxine Sea, their government, riches, 
 and power. The conftant and invariable 
 meaiure of the Athenians, to maintain a 
 commanding (if not an exclufive) intereft 
 in thefe regions of this fea, and the va- 
 rious attempts of other powers, Grecian 
 as well as Afiatic, to wreft this from them, 
 or at leaft to fhare it with them on equal 
 terms, became the repeated occaiion, and 
 F certainly
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 certainly the deciflve point of the future 
 wars which they were engaged in. 
 
 A knowledge of the nature and extent 
 of this Euxine commerce and navigation, 
 adequate to its importance, and to the 
 effesfts of its operation, is no where ftated 
 in ancient hiftory ; and yet information 
 on this important point would prove the 
 beft comment and guide to the knowledge 
 of fome of the moft interell:ing parts of 
 the Hiftory of the Greeks and Afiatics. 
 There are many fragments and fcattered 
 parts of fuch information, which lie de- 
 tached ; many other parts interwoven as 
 mere circumftances in affairs of another 
 nature ; many that might be fairly de- 
 duced ; and many that would give and 
 receive reciprocal illuftration to and from 
 matters they are conne<SVed with. Here 
 opens a path of curious and interefting re- 
 fearch to the learned philofophick Anti- 
 quary. The hiftory of anticnt commerce, 
 \Vritten by Monfieur Huet, bifhop of Av- 
 ranches, treats of this generally, and in- 
 deed but fuperficially ; but from what 
 the very ingenious and learned, Mr. 
 Clarke *, in his Treatife on the Roman, 
 
 * Re(Elor of Bvixtcj^ and chancellor and refidentiary of 
 tl.c church of Chichclter. Printed for Bowyer, i '67. 
 
 6 Englifh,
 
 ( 67 ) 
 
 Englifli, and Saxon coins, has in part, 
 and merely as a collateral argument, ex- 
 plained on this lubjeifl ; He has not only 
 ihown the importance of it to the know- 
 ledge of Ancient Hiftory, but has in 
 great meafure by his learning and know- 
 ledge fupplied this interefling Defide- 
 ratum. He has done fo much, in fo clear 
 and diilindl a line of demonflration, that 
 there is no one, who has read the few pages 
 which he has written on this fubject, but 
 muft wi(h that the fame ingenuity, the 
 fame learning, the fame knowledge, was 
 engaged to write a ipecial treatife on 
 it ; from the firfl: Egyptian or Syrian 
 trade and fettlements, to the breaking up 
 of it .by the Roman arm.s ; and the final 
 deftruQiion of it by the recoil of the 
 deluge of northern people who over- 
 whelmed all. Thefe regions, and thefe 
 commercial fettlements, were the Chittim 
 of Sidon and Tyre ; the America of the 
 ancient commerce : the merchants carried 
 thither all the fame fort of wrought goods 
 and articles of improved civilization and 
 manufactures as the Europeans carry now 
 to America ; and brought from thence, in 
 the rough, lumber, efpecially fliip timJoer, 
 peltry, furrs, wool, thread, yarn, corn in 
 immenfe quantities, and flaves. One can- 
 not but wiili alio, that Mr. Bryant ^vouid 
 F 2 employ
 
 ( 68 ) 
 
 employ his great talents, and litera- 
 ture, to a like explanation of the weftern 
 regions of tlie Mediterranean and At- 
 lautick. Tliis was early diftingiiifhed by 
 being called, in the triple divilion of Sa- 
 turn's empire, the diftric^ of Dis, or Pluto, 
 .the God of Riches. This was the other 
 great commercial region of the Ancients, 
 the Tarfhifh of the Phoenicians and Tyre, 
 No man has read mnre, or with more 
 precifion in the ancient accounts of thefe 
 matters ; no man is a better judge of 
 them; and furely there is no literary or 
 perhaps no practical ufeful point of know- 
 ledge to which his literary refearches 
 could be more beneficially directed. The 
 principal exports from hence were fdver, 
 tin, and mod otlier minerals and metals ; 
 timber, corn, oil, fome butter, wax, pitch, 
 and tar, fattron, the ocrcs, and wool. The 
 people who fettled and polTelied thefe 
 regions, employed a multitude of fhipping: 
 and lettled many rich and flourifhing co- 
 lonies, as well many entrepots, and out 
 dlftant fa'flories ; and held all thefe fettle- 
 ments and this commerce as exclufive 
 againft all ftrangers : 1 believe alfo it will 
 be found, that many of their regular 
 priefls, the Magi or Gours, did (as the 
 regulars of modern times and religions 
 have done) Icttle mifiions amongO: the 
 
 natives
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 natives in tliefe mofl diftant parrs. The 
 original Druids (however their fuccefibrs 
 iTiav have become corrupted) will, I am 
 perfwaded, turn out to be thofe very 
 priefts, eftablilhing juft fuch miffions, on 
 exactly the ilime principles, as the Jefuits 
 have done in Paraguay, under a like hier- 
 archy. 
 
 When this fubjecl comes once to be 
 confidered as the exertions and tranfactions 
 of man (always the like being in like cir- 
 cumftancesV all the metamorphofic fables 
 of the Ancients turning policied and com- 
 mercial people into liorrid and favage 
 monfters, will, like clouds before the fun, 
 difpel and evaporate before the light of 
 truth. We (hall hear no more of a great 
 and fcientifick people employing the fu- 
 periority of thjir knowledge in catching 
 men as their food ; no more of beautiful 
 accomplifhed women employing the magic 
 of their charms to entrap men, to eat 
 them ; no more of a race of innocuous 
 fhepherds and goat-herds who expreflly 
 lived on milk and ciieefe, the produce of 
 their flocks, being delighted with the 
 venifon of human fledi. We fiiall fee all 
 thefe pervT^rted and exaggerated traditions 
 (pafiing from tiie accounts of the very 
 interlopers and pirates, againil whom 
 F 3 their
 
 ( 7° ) 
 their laws were made and executed), ex« 
 plained from the plain fimple ftate of the 
 exclujive pojfejjions and commerce^ which 
 thefe people, as colonizing nations do at 
 prefent, aflbmed and n\aintained : many 
 of the ftories, told as the cruelties of far 
 yages, will turn out to he the feverities 
 and the rigid executions of the courts 
 of jufticc, which thefe people eredled at 
 their maritime flations to try offences 
 committed againfl: this their eftablifhment; 
 and to punifh pirates, to whom they gave 
 no quarter, as the common enemies of 
 the communion of manldnd ; as wretches, 
 ' * qui fublatis commerciis, rapto fcedere 
 ' generis humani, he maria hello, quaii 
 ♦ tempcftate pr^cludunt.' I could here, 
 myfelf, prove (I think beyond contra- 
 diction) in fome of the ftrongeft cafes, 
 which feem to bear the hardefi: on thefe 
 people, I mean in the cafe of the Cyclops, 
 of jMinos and Rhadamanthus, That al- 
 thoup'h thev fuffcrcd no ilranffers to come 
 within their fettlements, and punKhed all 
 fuch as they found interloping there ; yet 
 ti"icy made adlfiinclion in the cafe, whether 
 fuch came with dcllgn to trade ; or were 
 driven thither by accident ; and more ef- 
 pecially between thele and dire^n pirates. 
 
 * L. Ann, Florus, Lib. III. c. 6. 
 
 This
 
 (71) 
 
 This appears from the inquifition taken 
 by the Cyclops on Ulyil'es and his aflb- 
 ciates *: 
 
 Xi ^^Tvot, Tiveglg-e; Tirodsv ts-XsTS vfptX'KeX&vdot'f 
 
 Okztb Aiji'fjjpsf VTrep ccXtx, tol t a.Xocovjoci 
 fvX,<^g TirccpQi^evoi, kockov aXXoo(X7ro7a-i (pepovjsgl 
 
 Thefe (liftin£lions in the cafe of the pri- 
 fbners are here formed ; and even, as will be 
 feen afterwards, difl:in6lions as grounds of 
 mercy are fuggefted by this horrid, pro- 
 fane, blafpheming favage Canabal, as he 
 is called. Where, fays he, have you 
 Rationed your naval armament that brought 
 you here ? is it on or beyond the borders 
 of thefe regions, or is it within our pre- 
 cin£ls t ? 
 
 AXX(Z fJiOi u(p 'oTTT} eo/sj tccu^tve^ynx vvix', 
 
 H TuH STT e(rx<x.Tir,g, 7} y^ (r^sdov , o(ppM dueioij. 
 
 Could they have proved that they had 
 not entered the precincts of his jurifdidion 
 with armed force, he here feems to lay 
 the ground for tlieir acquittal : But if 
 there was no diil:in6lion made in the cafe 
 of ftrangers found within their fettle- 
 ments, there is neithei* ufe nor common 
 fenfe in the queftlons aiked. 
 
 * OdyZ Lib. IX. . t ibid. 
 
 F 4 i\l though
 
 ( 7^ ) 
 
 Although INfmos was rep re fen ted by 
 thofe ancient rovers and pirates as a man *, 
 (iTTondE'Sjcg, ^aXsTTog^ (pcivhog; and that lie -f 
 Avas rv^ci'jyiy.oc, (3ia,io; x^ ho'i^oXoyog, although 
 Rhadamanthiis, whom he appointed as 
 judge in his courts, th.ere held 
 
 i di-irijfima rcgna, 
 
 and was hard and fevere, even to cruelty ; 
 yet Homer and Plato both bear tcflimony, 
 that every thing which Divine Wifdom, 
 God-like Benevolence, and the cleareft and 
 pureft Jull:ice could give to man, was the 
 c'nara(rter of Minos, the paflor, prote6lor, 
 and governor of his people : and that the 
 other was a wife and juf!: judge : — and fee 
 from Thucydides the effetb of thefe efla- 
 bliriiments made by Minos J. " He 
 *' formed a navy, and cleared the fea of 
 *^ pirates ; he expelled the robbers out oi 
 *' the iflands, and fettled colonies of in- 
 " duftrious people in their room; fo that 
 " the feas were open and free to conir 
 *'• merce, the p'^ople could become fettlers 
 *' and dwell with lafcty j and became 
 *' rich and happy." 
 
 Jt tiiis mode of invef^igation and con- 
 fcquent explanation of this fubje<£l: be pur- 
 
 • I'latonib Mjuus. ■(• Strabonis, I.. X. 
 
 I Lib, J. 
 
 fupd
 
 ( n ) 
 
 fued by fuch analogy as compares man, 
 his being, and aftions (iiich as we have 
 actually known him to be) witli what he 
 may fairly be fuppofed to have been in 
 thole times, although deformed and mif- 
 reprefented in fables, even truths ufeful to 
 mankind may be elicited out of them. 
 
 There are rules in the fcicnce of optics, 
 by which the lines of a pi6lure may be fo 
 drawn, as that, although they give every 
 point of that picture, the bearing of each 
 point fliall be fo diftra»5led, and the iout- 
 enfembk be lb deformed, as not to retain 
 the leaft fembiance of the original draught ; 
 this deformed pidlure may how^ever, be re- 
 formed to its original draught, by being 
 feen in a mirrour peculiarly, by the fame 
 rules of fcience, conftrutled to reflect 
 back thefe lines, reduced to their proper 
 traltes^ and thele proportions to their jufl 
 correfpondence. Juft fo (with allufion to 
 this miathematick fad;) I conlider the hif- 
 toric fables, the pictures of the early ages 
 of the w^orld. The picture has been de- 
 formed in all its trades and proportions ; but 
 if the truly philofophic Antiquary can by 
 analogy, and fair comparifcn of that Being 
 which man always has been, find out the 
 mode of the deformation, he will be at 
 no lofs in applying the fcientifick mir- 
 rour,
 
 ( 74 ) 
 rour, by which this picture fliall be tan- 
 quam hi fpcculo^ reflected buck, reiorined 
 ill nil its out-liiies and relations, to all the 
 purpofcs of iifeful experience, the only end 
 of real and actual hiftory. 
 
 We will next, leaving the fabulous^ 
 proceed to confider the mode of the philo- 
 lophic Antiquary's refearch into that pe- 
 riod of hiilory \\hereof (the materials 
 being fuppofed to be intire, and the order 
 and feiies of the fiids in fome meafure 
 preferved) the narrative is luppofed to be 
 the atflual portrait of tlie things and times 
 which it reprefents, and is therefore called 
 and underll^ood to be the juji and true 
 bijlory. When I confider that he, who 
 writes profefl'edly to give fuch information 
 of the ilate and actions of the human life 
 and fyliem as fliall enable us to form that 
 k!iowlege of it, wdiich is experience, 
 Ihould not only tell us what has been 
 done (as chronicles and regifters do), but 
 {hould mark to us how the agent was 
 able to do it, how it was done, and what 
 was the effcifl: : I {:{\\ when I confider 
 hiilorical knowledge in this light, yet find 
 that he who writes of ancient times, long 
 pafi'ed, knows not often the hoii^ and that 
 he who writes of the living times, as they 
 are paffing, heeds not the koWy but goes 
 
 on
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 on as of courfe ; I feel that I want fome* 
 thing more to raife my learning up to 
 knowledge. The hiftorian, either totally 
 ignorant of, or living amidft the ordinary 
 movements, and under the confliant and 
 mechanick influence of the fprings an4 
 principles, which, as things of courfe, 
 operate on the human actions, does no 
 more think it necelTary, or even proper, to 
 trace and mark the ftate, organization, 
 and procefs of the community whofe 
 fictions he is defcribing, than he would 
 think it neceiUkry to give an analytic de- 
 fcription of his watch, in order by it to 
 tell vou what the hour of the day w^as ; 
 his office being to relate the operations of 
 the machine, not the compofition and re- 
 folution of its powers. Pie luppofes the 
 knowledge of this to have been acquired 
 in fome other line of learning, or to lead 
 to other purpofes, or to be obvious in every 
 courfe, and open to every eye. While we 
 fee palpably the organization of the com- 
 munity, the particular ftate of its procefs ; 
 fo long as we feel the impulfe'of the prin- 
 ciples by which it is influenced ; and are 
 either actually or fcicntifically mixed iir 
 with the circumftances amidll which it 
 operates ; fo far the: narrative may be per- 
 fedly intelligible : but it may fo happen, 
 ^lat the hifrory of the fa els may remain, 
 
 v.'hen
 
 ( 7« ) 
 
 when the principles (hall have ceafcd to 
 operate ; when the particular ftate of 
 wants which called forth thole relourccs, 
 from whence particular powers, z6ls, and 
 rights, are derived, Ihall no longer in-ge 
 their demands ; when the manners and 
 cufloms have died away, and are utterly 
 forgotten : The hiftorv tlien, without that 
 comment, which the living; manners and 
 adtivc drama give, fpiall become ufelefs, 
 and unintelligible. The attlons and ope- 
 rations, appearing ungrounded, fhall be- 
 come inapplicable ; and the moft uleful 
 arts and heft exerted powers feem a wan- 
 ton wafte of caprice. 1 dare fay every 
 one who reads can here recolle6t many 
 thing?:, many aclions, many operations, 
 which appear fo to him, which yet could 
 not have been fo. Here then the Anti- 
 quary becomes that Interpreter by whom 
 hiftory is rendered intelligible ; becomes 
 that Commentator by whom alone it can 
 be conducSbed to ulc and praftical know- 
 ledge. The Antiquary lets before our 
 eyes, and puts Into our hands, in a way 
 that the hiftorlan does not, everv com- 
 ponent part and wliole frame of the 
 auxins: Ivilem. He makes his reader live 
 as it: were in the times, and through the 
 fcenes he defcribcs : /Ifiinium in Jcnbemh 
 
 ad
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 ^id praterita retrahere, et velutl antiquum 
 facere rnagni utique /aborts et judkii eji *. 
 
 The Antiquary will {o defcribe the 
 community, vvhofe a6ls are the lubjed: of 
 hiftory, in the fcite and circumftances of 
 the country which it inhabits, in its mode 
 of poffeffing, and in its manner of living 
 on it ;• he will give a detail of its wants, 
 and of its refources, both in nature and 
 art ; he will lb defcribe the component 
 and ad:ing parts, fo mark its organization, 
 its vegetative and animal proceiiion, its 
 growth, its utmoft perfe£l Irate ; and its 
 decav, its defe<fls, its difeafes, and all the 
 accidents which give occalion to the work- 
 ing of its natural or violent deceafe ; that 
 every fpring and movement, every acci- 
 dent, a£t, and operation, the caufe, the 
 reafon, the end and effedt of all, will be 
 equally known to the reader, as though 
 he was living amidft them, and under 
 their influence. Without this knovviedge 
 we may read hiflory, but it will be the 
 ftory of a creature little known to us. 
 We have all read the Periian, Egyptian, 
 Grecian, and Roman Hiftory ; but will 
 the belt verfed in thefe matters fatisfv 
 himfelf that he has any fuch habile idea 
 
 * Bacon de Augm. Lib. II. c. 5. 
 
 of
 
 ( -78 ) 
 
 of either of thefe people and their fyftein, 
 
 as above required ? will he, when I alk for 
 
 intormation, be able to tell precifely what 
 
 was the ftate, what the fupply and con- 
 
 fumption of this ftate, while their labour 
 
 was confined folely, or principally, to the 
 
 earth ? why fuch and fuch poffeffions of 
 
 lands, waters, and things, became neceflary 
 
 to them r how they occupied and mriintain- 
 
 cd them ? how the interior fprings, and 
 
 exterior momenta arofe and a£led under 
 
 thefe circumftances ? how they wexe able 
 
 to put themfelves into fuch form as to 
 
 acl towards obje^ls ^^ extra F how under 
 
 thete forms the diftribution of powers 
 
 and duties amongfl: the individuals in the 
 
 communities of Greece, but of Bonie 
 
 more ei'pecially, w^ere made, and yet the 
 
 political liberty of the ftate, and the per-^ 
 
 ional freedom of the individual, prefervcd ? 
 
 how citizens of equal rank and libevtlcs, 
 
 entitled to equal choice in a fhare of the 
 
 civil government, could (having been either 
 
 drawn out by lot, or prelled, to bear arms 
 
 as privates) be continued during long 
 
 wars, and retained for a feries of years 
 
 under the defpotiim of the militdry Impe- 
 
 rium, confiftent with that liberty of the 
 
 • flnte, and that freedom of the citizen, 
 
 coniill:ent with the avowed rotation of 
 
 ele£lion to civil offices open to all? how 
 
 they
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 they could be thus fecluded from their 
 rights and excluded fo long fronn re-en- 
 teinig into their civil order? will any 
 hiflory explain this to me ? I know none 
 that does. I look to the learning of the 
 Antiquary for this information, but as yet 
 I know none that gives it. There are 
 many inft.ances in the Roman hiftory of 
 the people and the foldiers revolting again ll 
 this unequal grievance. To quiet com- 
 plains on this head the fenate was forced 
 fo early as [U. C. 246.] the Etrufcan war, 
 to liberate the Plebeians from paying the 
 Portoria and tribute, in confideration of 
 their perfonal fervices *. " The rich, 
 " who were able to bear this burthen of 
 *' taxes, fliould pay their contributions in 
 " this form ; while the people who were 
 *•= poor, fliould be confidered as paying 
 *' their fliare by bringing up children who 
 *' were to ferve the ftate." This is the 
 only paflhge which I can recollect, which 
 looks like an explanation of this difficulty: 
 and yet this was only a partial and tem- 
 porary fliifting off the complaint (^I'lcindi- 
 menta Plcbl per Id tempus ah fcnatu dataj, 
 for we find again the Portoria and vefli- 
 galia in colie.51:ion. A pay or fubiiftance 
 
 * Ut dlvires conferrenr, qui oneri ferendo eflent, pau- 
 peresfatis fripendii pendere, ii libeios educarent. 
 
 Tir. Liv. lib. TI. § g. 
 given
 
 ( So ) 
 
 ■given to the loldlers was afterwards efla* 
 bllfheJ ; this and the ftate of dependency 
 to which the people were reduced by their 
 debts and general poverty, feems to be a 
 reafon of the claim to their perfonal 
 lervice, as private foldiers, being fub- 
 mitted to. The difficulty however of re- 
 conciling this military imperium with 
 the freedom of the citizen, and the liberty 
 of the conftitution, ftill prefles. There are 
 many other curious difquifitions which 
 arife in this branch of learning : as, how 
 thofe communities divided into thole who 
 labour on the earth, into thofe whofe 
 labour is employed on the produce of the 
 earth, thofe who adminifler the civil 
 powers of the community, thofe who are 
 either permanently or occalionally let apart 
 for the defence of the community ; 
 how, after the community is fo divided, 
 thofe, who do not produce what can be 
 eaten, are fed ; how the lurplus produce 
 of labour which can be of no ufe to the 
 community can be exchanged for what is 
 of ufe ; liovv this leads to commerce ; how 
 commerce extending the communion, en- 
 creafes, by its naval adventitious members, 
 the power of the llate : without fome 
 dejrree of this information of the com- 
 munities and growing ftates of the ancient 
 world, we may read and learn a great 
 
 deal
 
 ( 8i ) 
 
 deal, but {hall know very little ; we fhall 
 continue reading about a creature that we 
 do not underftand the nature or conftitu- 
 tutlon of; we fhall neither conceiv^e the 
 fprings, the means, nor the ends of its 
 actions; we fhall neither fee the purport of 
 the wars, nor the reafons of the fcederal 
 connexions it may make, nor the grounds 
 on which it flood by means of them. 
 We may travel in hiftory for ages through 
 many regions, but it will be always as in 
 a thick fog. We may fee in fucceflive 
 fteps the groups of thofe figures and fa£ls 
 onlv which are immediately local and 
 temporary ; but the enfemble of the piece 
 will be hid from us and unintelligible. 
 We muft here have recourfe to the learned 
 Antiquary ; the light of his difcoveries 
 nauft difpel the cloud; when it does fo, the 
 profpeft will open upon the minds eye in all 
 its extent, in true perfpediive, and cloathed 
 in all its genuine colours. The obje^Vs 
 and figures in the piece will be feen in 
 their proper bearings and proportions; afyf- 
 tem as pervading the whole will be feen in 
 the defign ; the connexion betv/een caufes 
 and efte6ls will be feen in the execution ; 
 and hijlory may thus become experimental 
 knowledge, 
 
 G If
 
 ( 82 ) 
 
 If I know the ftate of the produce o£ 
 a community, either by grazing, tillage, 
 bunts, lifheries, or mines ; and the ftate 
 ©f its manufaftures as framed upon this 
 produce ; the divifion of the individuals of 
 the community into hufbandmen and 
 manufacturers ; the refpeClive proportion 
 of thefe ; the furplus labour employed, 
 and the iiirplus flock of labour created ; 
 whether this continues to circulate as a- 
 living or is flored as a dead flock ; I fhall 
 be able to eflimate the internal capabilities 
 of that community, its happinefs, its 
 wealth, and its power of external exertion. 
 This information is not found collcdled in 
 any hiflory; and yet, the being pofieiled' 
 of it is nccefTary to a real knowledge of 
 the actions of that political being, whether 
 prince cr ilate, which one is reading of.. 
 The Antiquary colled:ing and combining 
 many of thcfe .fcattered and negleded 
 . fafts, which, feparate as tliey lie, are not 
 either relevent or applicable, will give me 
 this information. Hiftory is in general 
 only the reCital of the brutal part of man's 
 fyflem, his robberies, plunderings, and 
 wars, mixed with fome temporary inter- 
 vals of neceflary truce called peace ; which 
 lafts no longer than till the power of war 
 I 4 has
 
 ( H ) 
 
 has acquired fome frefti ftrength, or new 
 means of exerting itfelf again. Two of 
 the principal drifts of true experimental 
 liiftory fhould be pointed to give Us infor- 
 mation, and lay, as in a map, before the 
 mind's eye, the vicijjitudines reriim, and the 
 fundament a prudent t^e : Yet the narrative 
 of hiftory feldom enters into thefe mmuti^o 
 So far from giving the changes and revo- 
 lutions of things, it does not (generally 
 fpeaking) give the a(3:ual ftate of them at 
 any one time : inftead of pointing out the 
 fundamenta prudentia, it feldom enters into 
 the rationale. It is employed to invent 
 inyfterious reafons for what was mere 
 |)affioni, and to give an air of policy to 
 the violences of man ; to paint their ope- 
 rations, to trace their courfe, or to ftate 
 the efFedl, as a6ls of glory which form the 
 ftatefman and the hero. It is the pomp and 
 circumftance of aftion, not the principle 
 of the reafoning part, that is the general 
 objed: of the hiftorical drama. An analytic 
 hiftory of the progrefs, growth, expaniion, 
 and decay^ of the civil community, la 
 whatever external form it exiils, can alone 
 explain the vic'iffitudmes rerum^ or trace the 
 fundamenta prudentiie. The very creature 
 whofe a(5iions We view, is, without this 
 knowledge, a creature quite unknown to 
 us : Could I have any idea of man, feeing 
 G 2, only
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
 only a pi.fLure of him as a fprawling 
 child,. or in the helplefs decrepitude of 
 age r Could I have any idea of the pro- 
 greliive {tate of his being; of the ne- 
 ceffity of attentive nurture to his child- 
 hood ; of the necefTity of fupport and aid 
 to his old age ; if I law, at one view only, 
 the portrait of his manhood ? As of man, 
 fo of the human community, thus fuper- 
 ficially or partially Iccn, I lliould neither 
 fee the different wants in the different 
 flates of its being, nor have experience of 
 the fupplies which Ihould correfpond to 
 thofe wants ; nor of the fources which 
 might produce tliofe fupplies. If this 
 point of knov/lcdgc (1 mean the analytic 
 kijiory oj the human con'.nmnity) be a 
 Ucjuitraium in the hirtoric line of learn- 
 ing (as to mc it feems to be), what' a 
 glorious and extenlive field is here open 
 to the learned Antiquary to fpatiate in ! 
 
 The vegetative fyftem of the commu- 
 nity (if i may fo exprels myfelf), the in- 
 ternal living and growing part of its being, 
 may be compared to the roots of a tree^ 
 which fupport the prefent plant, and are 
 continually, though unfecn, extending 
 the means and maintenance of its future 
 expanllon in its branches. If the roots are 
 not extended in the earth below, the 
 7 . ' branches
 
 ( 85 ) 
 
 branches can never extend their growth 
 abov^e. A lurplus and colle6live flock, 
 created hy agriculture and manufaOures, 
 can alone give aftivity of power to numbers 
 of people in any degree : but commerce 
 alone is that vegetative iyftem of the com- 
 munity, that can give a permanent fource 
 to this aftivity : a knowledge then of the 
 commercial movements, operations, and 
 powers of the ancient communities, leems 
 abfolutely neceffary to any one who would 
 underftand the a6tions of tbofe commu- 
 nities. In order to explain myfelf, when 
 I refer to the ufe that this knowledge 
 would be of, I will illuftrate thefe fug- 
 geflions with an example or two. 
 
 Does it not appear unaccounted for, and 
 unaccountable, that alter the Grecians had 
 pofl'eflion of the Trojan port and flation ; 
 after they had driven the Trojans out of 
 the field, had laid liege to Ilium, and had 
 an army numerous enough to have made 
 a perfedl blockade ; that the Trojans and 
 all their auxiliaries maintained their fup- 
 ply, and continued in this flate of re- 
 fiftance for ten years, without a dearth or 
 famine inaking any part of the diftrels 
 which they laboured under. Tliucydide^s, 
 who is our Antiquary here, explains this 
 hCx* Giving fome prefatory accouiit of 
 G 3 the
 
 ( 86 ) 
 
 the antiquities of his country, and of th6 
 ancient ilate of it ; he fpeaks to this very 
 point of the ftate of the community ; of 
 the nature of the fupply ; and of that 
 part of the people whofe labour was ne- 
 cefl'ary to produce that fupply. The di- 
 vifion of the people into hulbandmen, and 
 Separate manufaclurers of tlie flock of the 
 produce, was not yet made, fo that there 
 was neither a fuperfluous flock of labour, 
 or of hands, which could be fpared for 
 war, in fuch manner as that the fupply 
 could be continued and kept up. 
 
 There v/ere, he fays, men enough in 
 the country ; and though the ilates fent 
 out above one hundred thoufand men, 
 they could (he fays) have fent out many 
 more, could they have created a furplus 
 fupply for this number, while thefe hands 
 became thus unproductive of their own 
 fupply, being filled with arms and em- 
 ployed in war. Not much more than a 
 third of thefe, vi^ho formed this armameiit^ 
 could be reckoned upon as effective in the 
 lines. One part, he fays, was employed 
 on the Cherfonelus, to raife and maintain 
 a fupply for the army ; another was em- 
 ployed in their flilpping, and as marines, 
 to coilccl fupplies by trade, or plunder, as 
 they could. Thus the blockade was not 
 
 only
 
 ( 8? ) 
 
 fOnlj incompleat, but the Grecians were 
 at times fo weakened with thefe detach- 
 •ments, as well as by death and licknefs, 
 that the Trojans were able to reprefs thenx 
 i)ack within their lines, and even to beliege 
 them there, in their turn. 
 
 That the Egyptians, Gn the .other 
 hand, had in the mofl: €arly periods a 
 fuperfluous =ftock of fupply equal to the 
 fupport of multitudes of unprodudive 
 hands, the eredion of their pyramids, 
 obelifks, and other great works ^of archi- 
 tecture, is a proof;: but it is a melancholy 
 proof at the fame time of the perveriion 
 of the produ6Uve powers of man in ibciety* 
 when we fee fo much labour, which, by 
 .a right turn -of the wealth and induftrious 
 enterprize of a populous community might 
 iiave produced and advanced the flate 
 of happinefs to mankind, thrown away, 
 and wafted in works which now remain 
 only monuments vof the defective ftate of 
 their political ceconomy. However (takin.g 
 things as they clearly were and mull be) 
 thefe monuments bear everlafting tefti- 
 mony to the goodnefs of the hearts of 
 ;thofe minifters, or thofe kings, who did 
 :thus employ the fuperfluous idle hand«?, 
 .and luperabundant ftock of fupply, which 
 ^he fertility .of the country gave, in works 
 .G 4 .of
 
 ( 88 ) 
 
 of harmlefs parade and vanity : inftead of 
 being a61:uated by the common ardent am- 
 bition of tyrants to empV^y them in the 
 dcftruclion of the human Ipecies. 
 
 Let the ftudent in hiftory conilderac^ain, 
 in a different view of things, the nature 
 of the ftate of the Hebrews, prior to the 
 time of David and Solomon ; and the 
 growing extent of the wealth and power 
 of that ftate, when (under the govern- 
 ment of thofe enterprizing princes) they 
 got pofleffion of the Red Sea ; aftuated 
 its navigation ; and profited of the cir- 
 cuitous commerce of the Arabian and 
 Pcrfian Cnilfs, and of Indian Seas. Let 
 him view them em.erging, as it were by 
 magick, from an inconiidcrable inland 
 (late, to a commercial naval and powerful 
 empire ; and how again upon the lofs of 
 this they funk as fuddenly again to their 
 original littlencfs. 
 
 When, in another iiiftance, he fees how 
 a collection of merchants (one can fcarce 
 call that community a nation, or its civil 
 corporation, a Hate, I mean the Phoe- 
 nicians), fet down on the line of inter- 
 courfe between the great trade of the eaft 
 and that of the wcfl:, and a6luating the 
 nioven:e.;ts of this combined commerce, 
 
 foon
 
 ( 89 ) 
 
 fooii acquired an afcendeiicy in and took 
 the lead of the interefts and powers of the 
 then great world, he will no longer 
 wonder at the eifed', he may derive know- 
 ledge from experience in the caufe. He 
 will fee the fame effect connefted with the 
 lame caufe in the eftabliflimcnt of the 
 power of the Hanfeatic league in Europe. 
 If contidering this and purfuing this line 
 of refearch, and examining it by this train 
 of reaibning, the learned Antiquary will 
 review the plan, and fyftem of meafures, 
 which formed the conduiSl of Alexander, 
 truly called the Great, the ufe and impor- 
 tance of this information, in this branch 
 of learning, will appear ftill more evident. 
 
 It will be feen that this great prince and 
 his council perfectly underfliood the ope- 
 rations and eiteds of this fvftem, as it lay 
 in nature ; as it was interwoven into the 
 affairs of man ; and as it nurtured, ani- 
 mated, and aduated, the interefts and 
 powers of ft::tes ; as alfo how this might 
 be wrought to confpire to the eftablifli- 
 ment'of an univeiial empire of the world. 
 His knowledge of the real weaknefs which 
 there was in the impofing grandeur of 
 thofe ftates that he a^ted ap;ainft:, led him 
 to the conqueft of them. His conquefrs 
 led to afi'ured knowledge on. experience of 
 
 the
 
 ( 9° ) 
 
 the powers whereon thefe Aates fhould 
 have been founded. His progrefs, fucceff- 
 ful as it mufl: be, being guided by fyftem, 
 founded in adual truth, opened to him 
 every ftep he took, and every day which 
 rofe, more and more extended views of 
 the expanded intercourfe of commerce as 
 it actually moved and a<Sled ; and of the ' 
 univerfal communion to which it was 
 capable of being extended ; all confpiring 
 to one great Lead^ which, while it was fup- 
 plied by the co?nmercc^ might a6t with the 
 naval power of the whole world. 
 
 This great prince w^as the firjl Jlaiefman 
 . 'ivho from fyflcm in knowlege, founded on 
 actual experience of the movements and 
 tranfactions of men, in the various lines 
 of trade, combined the inierejls a7id powers 
 of commerce with the operations of polity, 
 fo as by the true attractive fpirit of 
 communion, as it a6ls in nature, to form 
 that organifed imperitim, whence com- 
 mand and government would, through 
 the laws of nature, derive upon all the 
 communities who became parts of this 
 combination, and who moved within the 
 fphere of this attra6lion. Having luiited 
 the naval power of Greece, raifed and 
 maintained by tlie afcendent commerce of" 
 the Euxinc and ^^Lgean Seas ; he foon 
 
 drew
 
 ( 9" ) 
 
 ,drew the naval interefts of the lonians 
 within the orbit of his revohdng powers. 
 And thefe combined did, as they muft in 
 the natural courfe of things, create a 
 center to which the commerce of Tyre 
 muft become fecondary and fiibordinate. 
 In this natural progrefs of his fyftem, 
 Tyre muft, as it did, fall under his do- 
 minion. The merchants of Tyre had 
 -a^^uated and commanded, what the ftatei- 
 men of Perfia fhould have done as an 
 eflential part of their political fyftem, the 
 commerce of the Indies. This coming 
 under the command of Alexander, Perf a 
 became nothing in the fcale againft the 
 afcendent and predominant power of this 
 great ftatefman and warriour. The fteps 
 which led to, and effe£led this conqueft, 
 did, as in a courfe of experiments, mark 
 out to his genius a fyftematic knowledge 
 of the bafis whereon this Perfian empire 
 fhould have been fet and would have ftood, 
 and whereon a great empire might be 
 formed and founded. 
 
 His fixing on the fpot, whereon to huWd 
 Alexandria, as the center of commercial 
 fyftem, and making that, perhaps, the 
 only fpot on the globe to which all the 
 three great departments of the commerce 
 of the ancient world could have mutual, 
 
 com-
 
 ( r- ) 
 
 commercial, and even naval communi- 
 cation ; to which the diredions of all 
 their reciprocal lines of movement might 
 concenter ; and in v^'hich all their inter- 
 woven intereils might combine : His fix- 
 ing upon this fpot ; and forming and efla- 
 blilhing this glorious lyftem of commerce 
 thereon ; and uniting tliis fyftem to the 
 conftitution of his Imperium^ had this effedt 
 in all his meafures, that while he was the 
 a(fluating foul, the circulation of commerce 
 (like the circulation of the blood in man) 
 was the life of the whole. The forming 
 fuch a fyftem of communion as the bafis, 
 and the building his fuperflruclure of go- 
 vernment thereon ; diftinguifhes this great 
 prince from all other heroes the conquerors, 
 in order to be the tyrants of men : while 
 inflead of being the mere conqueror, a6ting 
 with the brutal force of man, to deftruclion ; 
 He (I had almoft faid) like a divinity actu- 
 ated, and aCled with, the powers of nature 
 to the eftabiidiment of nature's fyflem in 
 communion. It was on this fyltem, and by 
 a linked progreiTion of meafures founded 
 thereon, that he made fuch inquifition 
 and fearcii into all the fources and chan- 
 nels of the trade of the Indian feas and 
 regions : that upon the reililt of his dif- 
 coveries he eftablifhcd that great Eajhrn 
 branch of the commerce oi" the wo "Id ; 
 
 and
 
 ( '93 ) 
 
 and that he interwove and combined this 
 at one center of attraction with the trade 
 of the north. This center to which all 
 conlpired ; and from which power thus 
 collected diverged to all parts of the com- 
 mercial hemifphere was Alexandria in 
 j^Egypt. Thofe extenfive plans were, how- 
 ever, but links of the chain, but parts 
 of his general fyftem. While by the 
 entrepots, which he created and fixed be- 
 tween ^gypt and the Eaft ; by the trading 
 fettlements which he eftablifhed in the 
 Eafl, under the protection of his arms ; 
 by the faClories which he advanced in 
 every remote fource under the cover of 
 his outpofts ; while by thefe meafures this 
 great machine was getting into motion 
 and beginning to aft ; He was forming 
 the plan of drawing the late Tyriafi and 
 remaining Carthaginian Commerce of the 
 JVeJi into the fame vortex. 
 
 Having put his meafures refpeCling 
 commerce and the naval power- into 
 execution, he defigned, when the opera- 
 tions of thefe mealures had brought for- 
 ward and prepared events for it, the in- 
 vafion of Carthage and its fettlements. 
 Afting by an afcendent fortune, and be- 
 come predominant, he muH: ia all human 
 probability have fucceeded, -•-^•^ 
 
 Such
 
 (' 94 j 
 
 Such were his a'flured fleps, that this' 
 trade alfo, conue6led at the root, deriv- 
 ing its nouriture frorri the fame fources, 
 extending its branches interwoven over 
 the fame regions, moving within the 
 fame circulation, mud: have come within 
 the fphere of the fame attradion ; mufl 
 gravitate to and revolve about the fame 
 center ; and become thus a part within 
 the univerial fyftem or a very Ibbordinate 
 and fecondary lyftem of itfelf ab extra. 
 In either cafe, the trade of the Cartha- 
 ginians mufl have been impoverifhed, 
 their naval power weakened and reduced, 
 and the dominion itfelf fuccumb to the 
 nniverfal Impcrium oj this great states- 
 man PHINCE. Sed Diis aliter v'lfum. He 
 died ; and the foul, which was the center 
 of vitality, and the fpring of adtion to' 
 this fyflem, departing, the unity of the 
 fyftem was broken ; leparation, like ano- 
 ther confufion of Babel revcrfed the 
 %vhole. 
 
 Lx>oking then up to this great com- 
 mercial triangular pyramid, as it would 
 have ftood on a bale, one point of which 
 proje6tcd beyond the Straights of the Me- 
 diterranean on the 'u:efl^ while another 
 advanced to the almoll: bounds of the 
 
 Euxiiie
 
 ( 95 ) 
 
 -Euxine and Patilus Maeotis on the norths 
 and the third to the remoteft regions of 
 Jndia eafl ; looking up to this great colojfal 
 Jy/iem of empire thus founded on com- 
 merce ; and feeing what the city of Rome 
 was at that time, fighting for the very 
 icite of its future empire, on its own nar- 
 row world Italy, not only furrounded hut 
 liemmed in hy warlike, jealous, and hoftile 
 neighbours on all fides ; one may, without 
 incurring much the imputation of pre- 
 fumption,^ decide upon the ipeculation 
 which Titus Livius, lib. IX. § 17. in- 
 ftitutes and difeufles on this curious quef- 
 tion • — ^inam event us Komanis rebus, Ji 
 €iim Alexandro bellatumforet, futurus erit. 
 The hiflorian's reafons are thofe of a good 
 citizen, and an ingenious, advocate in the 
 cafe : but his fpeculation does not feem to 
 have comprehended the whole cafe ; and 
 his reafoii.3 feem- to have reverfed the 
 courfe of the meafures which he was exa- 
 mining, fpeaking of the meafures of 
 monarchs like Alexander, he fays, Domini: 
 reriim tempor unique t rah ant conjiliis cun5ia^ 
 nonjequuntur; whereas the very fpirit of the 
 meafures and fyftem, planned and purfiied 
 by th-i-s great prince, were dire<^ly the 
 reverfe * : He did not, as mere Quixote ad" 
 
 * Se, qua; concilia magis res dent hominibus, quam ho- 
 mines reJaiis, ea arir^tempus pra:;iiati:ra,.non pra:ceptuium. 
 
 Tic. Liv. lib. 2i.§ 38. 
 
 venturers
 
 ( 96 ) 
 
 ventureres in politicks do, labour to make 
 occalions, but as all truly great Genni'fes 
 do, leize and profit of times and occa- 
 lions : He did not by force attempt to 
 command nature, but by courage ~ and 
 wifdom to follow her to execute her com- 
 mands. Had he lived to have put in exe- 
 cution thofe meafures which he had in 
 contemplation ; and had the train of thofe 
 meafures once brought him into the field 
 with Rome ; the fyilem of that ftate, then 
 in its infancy, muft have fuccumbed to 
 the power of Nature, and the fpirit of 
 Alexander, which combined were in the 
 afcendcnt. 
 
 But to return. Having mentioned what 
 appears to me to have been begun, or to 
 have been in part done, and what is ftiil 
 wanting of refearch into the great northern 
 and weftern courfes of the ancient com- 
 mercial world : It cannot but occur to 
 the Society and to the Reader of this 
 paper, how much is alio wanting of infor- 
 \nation in that extenfive multifarious and 
 rich commerce of the ancient Eaft Indies. 
 Monfieur de Huet has entered into the 
 difquifition of this branch more in detail 
 and with more precifion than in other 
 parts, and, as his extenfive reading and 
 great ingenuity enabled him, has gone 
 
 great
 
 ( ^1 ) 
 
 gl-eat lengths in this inquiry ; but tlicrs 
 are many materials which afford fiiil 
 further information ; and much remains 
 to Ce as yet explained. This inquiry has 
 much to tempt the curiofity of the learned 
 Antiquary. Jlnd much to exercile his in- 
 genuity. It feems to m^e, that the An- 
 tiquary^ who can alone undertake this 
 refearch with fuccefs, and to effl61:i muft 
 be fome one who is perfedl mafter of the 
 eaftern languages ; wlio is, from a courfe 
 of experience, acquainted with thofe 
 Gountriesil thofe people, their manners and 
 habits ; and fniaily one who has been a 
 pradlical merchant, or connected with 
 luch. There are many ingenious, learned, 
 fcientlfick, mercantile men, who live, or 
 have lived in, and had experience of, thefe 
 regions ; and it is from the learning and 
 experience of fuch alone, that the world 
 may expedl knowledge on this fubjedt. 
 
 Clofmg here our qbfervatlons on the 
 nature of commerce, as the fource of 
 wealth and power to the community, we 
 are naturally led to confider thole dufts 
 and channels, derived through which a 
 certain portion of the produce of this 
 fource is, as it were, fecreted from the 
 general circulation, and converted into re- 
 venue of the ftate. 
 
 H The
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 The ordinary ftudents in hlitory read, 
 as of matters of courfe, of the wars of 
 nations, and of the conquers of the hero 
 of the ftory ; of the marches and mul- 
 titudes of the armies, and of the activity of 
 the general ; with as much fcope of ima- 
 gination, as the pen an with eafe mul- 
 tiply numbers, or annihilate fpace : But 
 if the ll:udcnt by reading hiftory means to 
 acquire a real knowledge, founded in ex- 
 perience and applicable to pra6lice, and 
 not to collecSl a fet of crude and inappli- 
 cable ideas merely as a fupply to the fhln- 
 ing in converfation ; he fhould dire£l his re- 
 fearches into the a£lual fl'atc of the fourccs 
 which create and maintain this power 
 of ailing ; he fhould know the nature of 
 the fupply, and the form and extent of 
 the revenues, of the political Being whoie 
 actions he is ftudying. Very few writers 
 have pointed out, and fewer readers con- 
 sidered, thofe previous requifites. They 
 find no occafion for, and lb no difficulty 
 in the matter of fupply ; and yet it is 
 an obfervntion not more ilirewdlv ct)n- 
 ceivcd than fu rely grounded which Sancho 
 Paunch makes, that he was. always 
 ftrUrk with admiration of the vigour, ac- 
 tivity, and adventuring fpirit of th" heroes, 
 vet foilowins; them careful-iv in their 
 ri marches
 
 ( 99 ) 
 
 marches and excurfions, as he never could 
 jfind where they dined or fupped, or took 
 their reft, he did always Inppofe that 
 thel'e fuperior Beings had no occaiwn for 
 thele neceiiaries, without which men of 
 the ordinary race could not get on : under 
 this folution he could eafily give his faith 
 and alien t to all the marvellous, on which 
 otherwife he fliouid have entertained 
 fome fmall doubt. Men mufl: eat, and 
 food is not to be had without the means 
 of collecting it, as Cicero fays in a letter 
 to Atticus *, Res frumentaria nuilo modo 
 adminiftrari line vedtigalibus potefl ; and 
 in a letter to Brutus oblerves -f--, Maximus 
 autem (nifi me forte fallit) in republica 
 nodus eft inopia rei pecuniariye; and we 
 find the Scipios in the career of their 
 victories in Spain, writing to the Senate j, 
 " Pecuniam in ftipendium veflimentaque 
 " et frumentum exercitui, et fociis na- 
 ** valibus omnia, deeffe ; ab ELoma mit- 
 *' tendam eH^Q nee aliter aut exercitum 
 *' aut provinciam retineri poffe." Without 
 fome account therefore of the Revenue^ 
 of the {fates whofe aCtions we read of ia 
 ancient hiftory, we (hall be very little- 
 able to judge of the competency of the; 
 
 * Epift. ad Atr. Lib. IX. Ep. IX. 
 
 t Ep. VIII. 
 
 ; Tir. Liv. lib» XXIII. ^ 48. 
 
 H 2 flats
 
 ( ^^^ ) 
 
 i^nte to the meafures rcprcfentccl ; or of 
 the means proportioned to the ends pro- 
 polcd by that ador whole hiilory we are 
 reading. 
 
 We can never form any judgement ot 
 the rcciions of llate in the conduct of that 
 government, nor be able to diftinguifli the 
 probable from the improbable, the pollible 
 from the impoflible, tlie competent from 
 the incoir,pct:cnt ; we (hall never be able 
 to compare the combination of wealth 
 and power in one nation, with that ot 
 another ; nor ever to form any judgement 
 but from event, nor to know the real 
 nature of that event neither. 
 
 Here the learning of the Antiquary 
 muft lend- his aid to knowledge : his eru- 
 dition collects, and his knowledge alTorts^ 
 the many fcattered particulars which lie 
 referred to pailantiy in the various hif- 
 tories of Antiquity, and form for the 
 {Indent fuch a lyftem, as may enable him 
 to become in great meafure cognifant of 
 thcf nec'cfnuy matters. Tl. re has been 
 inuch i^^'i^iiry and profound learning em- 
 ployed by tne Antiquaries on this fub- 
 ^tdi ; and yet, in all which has been col- 
 le6lcd and compofed in theie natters uf 
 fiiiaiice, a certain want of ofFr^ial expe- 
 rience
 
 ( 'o- ) 
 
 lience in the detnil of the colledion, and 
 in the apphcation of the revenue to the 
 lerv cc in pra<5lice, has occafioned an un- 
 avoidable dek'6t, which will only be per- 
 ceived when it comes to be applied to ope- 
 ration in the efFed ; and will therefore 
 only be perceived by thofe who read, and 
 Rudy what they read, for the purpole of 
 collc6ling experience : then is it that we 
 find the difference between the blooms of 
 learning, and that fruit-bearing fclence 
 which mufl have a fource of knowledge 
 of principles at the root. 
 
 In order to explain and ilhiftrate what 
 I think is here required, I will, by way of 
 inftance, attempt to give an account, from 
 what may be picked out of the Roman 
 authors, of the nature of the revenues and 
 treafury bufinefs of the Roman State. 
 
 The ejlahUlldvient of the civil goverfiment 
 in the early periods of the Roman people, 
 under the kings as well as under the 
 confuls, required very little expence : here 
 perfonal fervice was the principal tax, 
 which power and honor fully recompenfed. 
 When the military eftahlijhment^ as the 
 conduct ot the wars grew every day more 
 expenfive, required the lupport of a re- 
 venue ; the Plebeians complained of the 
 H 3 ine-
 
 ( 102 ) 
 
 inequality and injuAlce arlfing from the 
 demand made upon them for taxes, while 
 the demand upon their perfonal fervice in 
 the army, taking from them thofe means 
 of labour wliich was their fupport, ren- 
 dered them incapable of paying thofe taxes : 
 they were accordingly exculed from pay- 
 ing the tribute on this ground, *' Pau^ 
 *' per es fat IS flipendii pendere Ji liberos edu- 
 ** carenty The cxpences, however, of 
 ;i growing ftate, involved in various wars, 
 ^nd various fcederal negotiations and con- 
 nections, was obliged to maintain various 
 ordinary eftablirnments, and repeatedly in- 
 curred various extraordinary expences. To 
 a flate, in tliele circumftances, a perma- 
 nent and regular revenue became neceflary, 
 and taxes were therefore neccflarily im- 
 pofed and levied. Thcfe, in the times of 
 inonarchy, were impofed by the kings, 
 and in the times or the Rcpublick by. the 
 Conluls (perhaps in fjnate) by the Cenfors, 
 or the Diclato: s, as the cafe llcod and re- 
 quired. I have ventured to fiy this, al- 
 though 1 know tliat it is a point by no 
 means fettled amonglt the Antiquaries, 
 whether it was impofed by the fupream 
 mrgiftrate alone, or by him in fenate, or 
 whether it orieisiatcd in a Senatus-con- 
 iultum, or in a Plebilcitum, or whether 
 it was originated by the Senate and enacted
 
 C 103 ) 
 
 ' Juflu popiili.' I take my ground for 
 this aflertioii from this certain fa6l ; that 
 the kings had the power of impofing 
 taxes, and on the Revolution, at the ex- 
 pullion of the kings, Livy informs us *, 
 Libertatis autcm origimin inde m.igis, quia 
 a7inuum impertum confulare faSliim ej}, quam 
 quod dimhiulum quicquam jit ex regia po-^ 
 tejiate. This ground can be made good by 
 various inll:ances which might be adduced; 
 but with which, as I am not here writing 
 exprelily on the fubje6t of the Roman 
 finances, I will not trouble the fociety, 
 nor the reader ; I only fugged what ap- 
 pears to me wanting, and what I think 
 might be explained. 
 
 The fpirit and reafoning, by which thefe 
 taxes were laid, took their courfe in the 
 two following lines. The Trihutum was 
 impofed upon property, real and perfonal, 
 or faculty, in proportion as rated in the 
 Cenfus. 
 
 The Vedii^alia, of which the Portona 
 were the chief clafs, were impofed on the 
 produce of the lands, goods, and every 
 article of fale, in their paflage to and ia 
 
 * T. Liv. II. § 2^. 
 
 H 4 their
 
 ( 104 "^ 
 
 tl eir f le at naa!-kf t ; thcfe were the * ii/- 
 ccjhna^ or five per centum, and the * ceii- 
 ttjlma, or one per centum ; this kind of 
 exclfe at different period?, and on various 
 occalions, were extended to numberlefs 
 and f namelefs articles. 
 
 The neccflity of impofmg and colle£ling 
 from the citizens of Rome the J Tnbutum^ 
 v.'as fuperfeded by the depofit of treafure 
 placed at the bank upon the conqueft of 
 Macedonia : tb.e fefl continued as branches 
 of the revenue, colle6ted as the ve^igal 
 domeflicum, 
 
 * Thefe branches of the excifi?, not only exitled before 
 the regulations made in them by Aiignilus, bur were paid 
 Italy, and were a v^iligal tiomrflicum, as Cicero calls 
 them. It feems to me therefore, tliat Mr. Gibbon is 
 miftaken when he fuppofts that Auguftiis firll impofed 
 ihtm on Roman Citizens, who had been exempted Irom 
 any kind of contriburion above a century and a half, Au- 
 i^urtus made inatiy regulations in them, and feveral extcu- 
 fions of them. 
 
 t I fo defcribe them from the naOy and infamous nature 
 ofB^hem. 
 
 X Cicero in his Ofhces, Lib. II. § iz. memions this r^ 
 the TrihutuM. Rut when Mr. Gibbon fays, chap. V'l, 
 *' that the Roman people was for ever delivered from the 
 *' weight of taxis" he announces as of the genu5, what 
 Cicero only faid of that fjiecies the Trlhutam. When the 
 mutinou- fpirit of the people, at the ciifis of the breaking 
 up ot the npublick, called for rcieafe from the portoria^ 
 and to have a divifion of the Ager Cumpaiuis, Cicero, writ- 
 ing a long letter to Atticus on the fubjerf (Lib. li. Kp. i6 ) 
 favs, Portoriis Italiac iublaris, agro campano divilo, quo4 
 yed'gal fupeieft domeflicum prauter viccfima? 
 
 Be fides
 
 ( 105 ) 
 
 Befides thefe, the Roman government 
 (derived a revenue from a landed -property ^ 
 which it held as the demefnes of the Jlaie. 
 As the Romans conquered the nations of 
 Italy, and of the world, they generally 
 referved fome of the arable and pajlure^ 
 and other cultivated lands^ to be held by 
 the government as the landed eil:ate of 
 the Republick, the produce or profits of 
 which were the publick revenue. The 
 government* let them to farmers for a cer- 
 tain flipulated rent ; \\ hen lo let, they were 
 called jiipendar'n : It let the arable to 
 Aratores, tillage hufbandmen, and received 
 tithes -f- of the produce in kind, or in fujh 
 manner and by iuch compofition as the 
 Aratores could make with the Tithlngmen 
 or Decuman i. Thefe lands were called 
 Agri DecumanL Oil and wine alfo, as the 
 produce of the oliveyard and vineyard, 
 paid a ve^igal in a given proportion. I 
 doubt whether I may call it a tithe, as I 
 iind that hort-yards and gardens paid but 
 7i fifth. There was alfo even In the Decmue 
 fome diiHndlion made between the STeat 
 
 * The doing this was called, the Lociitio Prxdiormu 
 B.''i^iforum Liv. ; ib. XLV. § i8. 
 
 f Tithes were of old a financial eftabllfhment of Sicilv, 
 under its own kings, and I believe of many other flatus 
 alfo, prior to the adoption of them t^y tly; Romans, as one 
 ©f their ways and mean?, 
 
 and
 
 ( ,o6 ) 
 
 and fmall coni or grain ; the government 
 alio, to lecure its fuppli'-^s in the rejmmen- 
 tar id, made further conditions of pre- 
 emption at an allized price. 
 
 The revenue of the Pafciia, the paftnre 
 land, was railed by taking in cattle to 
 graze, adjoifted at a certain LoccUio, or 
 contra<£l rate per head, for the grazing. 
 The lifts taken by the publicani of the 
 number of cattle, &c. adjoifted by the 
 graziers, the paftores, was called the iScr/^- 
 iiira, whence this branch of revenue took 
 this name. 
 
 Thefe were the modes of railing the 
 ordinary revenue from the landed de- 
 mefnes of the ftate ; but the government, 
 in cafes of emergent difficulty, had extra- 
 ordinary ways and means of railing money 
 •upon the capital by lale of tliem, with 
 equity of redemption, when the govern- 
 ment could repay the money. 
 
 The revenues * rnifed upon the pro- 
 vinces in general was a veciiy^al cerium im- 
 pnjltum quod llibetidarium dieitur ; on the 
 contrarv, oinnis ager S'lcilice ci\ itatiun de^ 
 cumanus ej}, with the exception ol five or 
 
 * Cicero in Vcrrem. A<flio ::da. lib. III. § 6. 
 
 feven
 
 ( ic)7 ) 
 
 Teven cities, which were free and had im- 
 munity from the tithes. 
 
 The mines were another fource and 
 branch of revenue ; the government kept 
 thefe in their own hands, and worked them 
 by their flaves and convi6led criminals, 
 under the infpedion of their own officers ; 
 thefe were called the Metaiia. 
 
 The colle<Stlon of thefe ordinary branches 
 of the revenue were generally farmed out 
 to companies of bankers, to Societates, or 
 Socii Scripturie, &c. who agreed for them 
 at a ftipulated Locatio^ or con trad: price, 
 by which means the income revenue be- 
 came conftant and uniform. Thefe foc'ie- 
 iates^ or companies of bankers, were alfo 
 of great ufe to the government, by ad- 
 vancing money on loan in cafes of emer- 
 gency, as will be ittw, 
 
 Befldes the ordinary branches of re- 
 venue by the Tributum, the Ve^iigalia^ and 
 the Metalhi, the goverment in cafes of 
 emergency did fometimes call on the 
 patriotifm of the people to contribute to 
 the neceffities of the flate, in proportion 
 to their love for their country^ and to 
 their abilities in affiifing it ; this, which 
 we fhould name a Benevolence^ v/as called 
 
 'Tributum
 
 ( io8 ) 
 
 ^rihuitim I'emerariutn^ quando populus in 
 arariuvi, quod hubuit, dttulit ; a curiou« 
 precedent of this in the fecond Punic war 
 may be read in Tit Li v. Lib. XXVI. § 36. 
 and ill Florus, Lib. IV. cap. 6. § 24, 25. 
 
 Anotlier extraordinary method of raifing- 
 the current fupply was by loan on the 
 public credit, borrowed on luch conditions 
 as the government could make at the time 
 with the Socktates^ or companies of far- 
 mers general. This required an a£l of tlie 
 fenate. The following is the precedent in 
 V. C. 537. * ' At the end of fummer, the 
 Scipios wrote an account of their fuc- 
 celles in Spain ; but added, that money 
 for the pay, cloathing, and fupplies of 
 the army was wanting, and for the 
 fecial fleets every thing. As to the pay, 
 tliey would manage to arrange that upon 
 the fpot, but if money was not itwX. 
 from Rome to defray the other charges, 
 neither the army nor the province could 
 be retained. Thcfe letters being read in 
 the Icnate, there was not one of the 
 whole body who did not allow that 
 what was fratedwas true, and that what 
 was required was juft : but then con* 
 lidcring on one hand what great fupplies 
 
 * 'fir. Liv. Lib. XXIII. § 48, 49. 
 
 ' the
 
 ( 1^9 ) 
 
 ' the Macedonian war, Ihonld It come 
 
 * forward, would call for ; and on the 
 
 * other, the deficiencies of the treafury ;* 
 the fenate came to this refolution, '' That 
 *' iinlefs the government could raife the 
 *' fupplies on credit, they could not be 
 *' raifed on the current revenues of the 
 *« ftate." 
 
 " That therefore Fulvius fhould go to 
 the public aflembly of the people, and 
 ftate to them the pub ic neceffities, and 
 exhort thofe who had made their for- 
 tunes by contracts and the public farms, 
 that they fhould advance by loan to 
 the government, for i time, fome part 
 of thefe fortunes which they had made 
 under its adminiftration, which monies 
 fo advanced Ihould be repaid to them 
 out of the firfl: furplis balances which 
 were depofi ted in the treafury.'* 
 
 * The prsptor fixed z diy for making 
 this contract, and on tae day fo fixed 
 three companies, of tventy-one each, 
 offered the loan on two conditions ; 
 I ft. That they Ihould dc exempt from 
 military fervlce. 2d. That the thlnj^s 
 they fent (hould be inured by the go- 
 vernment againft the langer of the leas 
 and of the enemy.
 
 ( "o ) 
 
 * On thefe conditions the contract was 
 
 • made, r.nd the public Icrvice was car- 
 
 * ried on by the monies of private ci- 
 
 * tizens, on the ground of public credit, 
 
 • juft as well as though the trealury had 
 ' been in full efficiency.* 
 
 The Bank *, which w^as foon after 
 eftabiiflied at the end of the Macedonian 
 war, for ever after, while it remained 
 facred, fuperfeded not only that branch 
 of the ordinary revenue railed on the ci- 
 tizens called the Tributum, but alfo the 
 neceiiity of borroiving and funding. After 
 the feizure of the trealure of the Bank by 
 Julius Caefar, this neceflity returned again, 
 and in the time o" Claudius one reads of 
 fomething of the like kind. 
 
 It appears that :he fpolls of the Mace- 
 donian conqueft vere the firft depofj on 
 which the Bank was eftablifhed. This 
 Bank, thus oixe eftablifhed, became a 
 3ANK OF DEPOSf.T. After this, all the 
 moveable wxalthof every country, as they 
 conquered it, w,s depolited as facred to 
 
 * Cicero de OfRcHs, '^ib. JI. § 22. Omni Macedonum 
 ga7U, qua: fuit maxima, potitus ell Paulus: tantum in 
 aiarium pecunia invexit, jc unius Impciatoris prxda ilnem 
 auiilit Trihutorum. 
 
 the
 
 ( "I ) 
 
 the public ufe, in the bank of the^Erarium, 
 as were all furphifes of the taxes. Liican 
 in his Phiuialia, Lib. IIT. gives in a few 
 veries the heads of thofe ieveral articles 
 of depofit : 
 
 Romani cenfus populi, quern Punica bella 
 Quern dederat Perfes, quern vi<5li pra^da 
 
 Philippi, 
 Quod tibi, Roma, fuga Pyrrhus trepidante 
 
 reliquit. 
 Quod te Fabricus regl non vendidit auro, 
 * Quiquid parcorum mores fervafbis avo- 
 
 rum, 
 Quod dites Afia3 populi mlfere tributum, 
 ViiSlorique dedit Mino'ia creta Metello, 
 Quod Cato longinqua vexit luper iequora 
 
 Cypro 
 Tunc Orientis opes, captorumq; ulti^ea 
 
 regum 
 QujE Pompeianis pr2elata eft gaza triumphis 
 Egeritur. 
 
 The officers at the head of the admlnf- 
 tration of this branch of the revenue, 
 were the ^tejiors, for a time the Pr^^tors^ 
 and at fome periods the M.diles\ The 
 general receipt into the ^Erarium by adlual 
 cafh, by bullion, or by the rationed of the 
 provincial quasftors ; the coinage; the 
 
 * Thefe aie the furplufes which I refer to. 
 
 iflue
 
 iffue to the fcrvice by cafh, or by afligfi* 
 ment, in payment, or by impreft upon 
 account ; and the keephig ot the accounts 
 of the whole ; were of their department* 
 Whether this department in the whole^ 
 or in part, and in what parts, was con- 
 duced by a concurrent jurifdicVlon with 
 (it was certainly under the control of) 
 the fenate, is not a matter decided, at leaft 
 as far as my information goes : there are 
 clearly fome matters, and were fome times, 
 in which the fenate interpofed its au- 
 thority. The vote of the fenate in the 
 cafe of the loan above-mentioned, and the 
 fettlement of the flipendium of Mace- 
 donia, the arangements made in the col* 
 ledlion of the Veiligalia and the Tributum^ 
 by a refolve of the fenate, is another. It 
 feems that this might have been left to the 
 executive officers ; " iarnefi infenaiu quoque 
 ** agitata ejl fumtna confiliorwn ut inchoata 
 *' omnia legaii ab domo ferre ad i?7tperatores 
 «• pnffint *;* 
 
 The a<fl:ual coUecElion of thefe revenues 
 were by the hands of the PubHca?u\ or 
 of the Farmers-general in right of their 
 locationes or contra(2:s ; and the diftribution 
 
 » Vide T. Llvium. Lib. XLV. § jS. The detail of ihcfe 
 arapjjcmcmi arc worthy the attention of the learned y\.ll« 
 
 I by
 
 ( "3 ) 
 
 by the hands of deputy pay-mailers, civil 
 and military. 
 
 By the account which I have here given 
 of the revenues and finances of Rome 
 (defe6live as this may be) will be feeii 
 how much ftill lefs is known of this lite- 
 blood of other ftates. I could have drawn 
 out this matter into a greater detail of par- 
 ticulars, and have compofed thefe par- 
 ticulars into a more full and perfedt de- 
 fcription of this point of antiquity, had I 
 meant here to have written an exprefs 
 treatife on this fubje6t : what I have done 
 is only to give one example of tlie doftrine 
 I laid down ; and to i^uggeft to the Anti- 
 quary how much ftill remains to be done 
 in this line of refearch, as it concerns 
 the hlfiory of evei'v ftate and nation which 
 forms any of thefe dramatis pex^fonse of 
 ancient hiilory. When we come to thofe 
 periods which form the beginnings of the 
 modern hiftory, the necelfity of an exa-" 
 mination into and a knowledge of the 
 frate and nature of the fupply of thofe 
 communities, who, like fucceeding waves, 
 made tliat inundation which deluged the 
 old world, will appear ftiil clearer ; as 
 without luch knowledge every part of 
 that period of hidory is inexplicable and 
 jjiGredibie. 
 
 I Thi^
 
 ■ • ( "4 ) 
 
 This account of the fyflem of the Ro- 
 man revenue explains the encreahng fa- 
 culty and capacities of that fliate, fore- 
 running its exertions, in fuch manner as 
 rendered it competent to all the enter- 
 prifes that it engaged in. 
 
 The nature of this fyftem, fo working 
 at the root, as to become a fource to reai 
 greatnef^ and arnplitudc of ftate, when 
 united by a pervading and afcendant fpirit, 
 points out at the fame time how liable the 
 republick was to ieparation of parts and 
 dillblution of fvfiem, when the lofs of 
 m.anners, the fever of faction, or the' 
 gangreen of corruption, once feized the 
 people, and a defcdl of vital union took 
 place in the government. 
 
 At the fame time alfo that this account of 
 the Bank of Deprjjite, which is here given, 
 fhows in rcafoning and in fa6l the inex- 
 hauftible refources of the republick, it 
 explains the means by which Julius Caefar 
 was enabled to carry forward his plans 
 of war and government, when he took 
 pofleflion of it. He had, as dictator, an 
 often fible right to the cudody and com- 
 mand of this, and under pretext of this 
 
 often-
 
 ( ''5 ) 
 
 oflenfible, he by force of arms feized it, 
 and ufed it. 
 
 Further ; from this ftate of the financial 
 fyftem may be feen how the power of the 
 Patricians as confuls, praetors, cenfors, 
 and dictators, and of the fen ate, was 
 founded on real influence. 
 
 And from the detail of the landed 
 branches of this revenue, the motives both 
 real and pretended, both conftitutional and 
 fadlious, which urged the quarrels betweeil 
 the Patricians and the people on the fub- 
 jecl of the Agrarian laws, may be ex- 
 plained. 
 
 From the nature of that branch of 
 revenue, the tythes^ which arofe from the 
 agri decumam% and by an inquiry how 
 this branch was transferred to the Chrif^ 
 tian Church on its political eflablifliment^ 
 may be difcovered, I fhould guefs, the 
 true origin of tythes, as they in fa6: came - 
 to the church, which will alfo explain at 
 the fame time, the reafon why there were 
 no tythes in Italy : the lands there were 
 held by a different tenure. 
 
 Thefe are fome of the ufes of this 
 
 branch of learning ; but every day's ex- 
 
 I 2 perience
 
 ( -'6 ) 
 
 ,penence in reading would prefent more 
 than memory will thus fuggeil:. 
 
 As thus of the fources of power in the 
 ftate, much yet is wanting to an explicit 
 pra<5lical knowledge, appHcable to fadts 
 and events, of the actual power in the 
 operations of the miHtary eftablifhment as 
 a body, I am here fpeaking in general, 
 not of any particular ftate. 
 
 Repeated accounts are given in ancient 
 hiftory of the naval power of various na- 
 tions ; and of the fucceflive dominion 
 which thefe nations held over the fea. 
 We read of their trading voyages, and of 
 their naval enterprizes and wars : many 
 treatifes have been written on the nature 
 of their (hipping ; but as the writers, how- 
 ever learned in colleding, and accurate and 
 ingenious in explaining, the quotations 
 which paflantly mention thefe matters, as 
 when I mention profeflbr SchefFer, no one 
 will doubt ; yet not having been eonver- 
 fant by pratlice, or experienced in voyages 
 at fea, in the effects of winds, and waves, 
 and in the mancewores and working of a 
 veflel either by fails or oars, their ac- 
 counts have been fuch as are inapplicable 
 either to the compofition or operations of 
 naval mechanicks. Notwithilianding* all 
 
 tliat
 
 ( 117 ) 
 that has been written on the fubjedl of 
 their Jhips of war, of their biremes, and 
 TRIREMES, the learning has remained in- 
 applicable, and knowledge of the fubje(St 
 a defideratum, until general Melville ap- 
 plied his extenfive and very accurate learn- 
 ing, in the line of practical analyfis, to the 
 inftituting an experiment of the fa(£t. The 
 model in large, wliich, as an examplar, 
 he very obligingly fhowed to me, together 
 with fome of our fociety, was fo adapted 
 to the art of ro^ying, and to the pro- 
 ducing the efFed con{ilJ:ent with the power 
 of man ; was fo guarded in the manner 
 of fecuring the oars, againft any accident 
 which might arrive by the power of the 
 winds and waves, or be adduced by the 
 attacks of an enemy ; and was withal fo 
 fimple (as all things which are meant for 
 ufe at fea muft be), and finally fo exactly 
 fimilar, in the frame and conftru6lion of 
 the rowing-gallery, to the models which 
 are to be feen in medals and baflb releivo*s ; 
 that one may venture to fay, that when- 
 ever he fhall pleafe to communicate and 
 publifh to the world his difcoveries on this 
 fubjeft, they will come forward with fuch 
 clear demonftration that the fubje£l-matter 
 will be no longer a puzzle nor the know- 
 ledge of it a defideratum, 
 
 I 3 Having,
 
 ( "8 ) 
 
 Having, fince I wrote what is above, 
 feen General Melvill, and acquainted him 
 of the liberty I had taken in mentioning 
 his difcovery of the true conflru6lion of 
 the row-gallery of the ancient triremes, 
 quadriremes^ ^nd guinquar^mes, &c. and of 
 the manner of polling the rowers, and the 
 mode of rowing the veflel ; and expreffing 
 a hope that he would fome time or other 
 communicate to the learned world what 
 would fo much enlighten it on this fub- 
 je£l ; he very politely, and with that li- 
 berality of lentiment which all men of 
 real learning and fcience have, anfwerec], 
 he would fb communicate it, and that this 
 treatife of mine fhould be the conveyance 
 of its finl publication. He fent me, what 
 he calls, A Narrative of his inveftigations 
 and difcoveries on this fubjed, that I 
 might infert it in this treatife. But as 
 the cpurfe of, this work goes, in the body 
 of it, only to fuggeflions of defdcrata ; 
 and pf the mode by which fuch fubje<5ls 
 jn which thefe dcfiderata ftill remain may 
 be inyef]:igated, and not to what has been 
 hiveflio^ated and dlfcovered ; I have placed 
 this very learned and fcientifick invefli- 
 gation, with the very interefting difcovery, 
 which arofe from it, in the Appendix 
 !N° IIL as a Mcmoire, which by its dif- 
 covery
 
 ( 119 ) 
 
 covery fupplies the Dejideraium in that 
 branch of antiquities which this treatife 
 had pointed out. 
 
 The General's idea, as I conceive it, is, 
 that a fide-gallery, for the rowers, was 
 built out from the fides of the galley be- 
 tween the waift and the water-line, pro- 
 jecting with its under fide in an angle of 
 45 degrees to a breadth that would admit 
 of two, three, four, five, or more rowers, 
 to fit fo obliquely, in an afcending diagonal 
 line behind each other, that each rower 
 ihould be able to work his oar a little to 
 the left in the larboard gallery, and a 
 little to the right in the {larboard gallery, 
 of the oar of the rower who fat imme- 
 diately below and before him. 
 
 By this conflru(5lion of the gallery^ by 
 this arrangement of the benches, by this 
 pofling of the rowers, and this poiition 
 of the oars port-holes, every oar delcended 
 from its port to the water in the fame 
 angle, and all the oars of courfe would 
 work parallel to each other, without any 
 llrain upon one more than another, and 
 with much lefs flrain on any than is ex- 
 perienced by the modern way of rowing, 
 from the circumftances of the oars thus 
 being fufpended in part at the ports ; al- 
 though the oars of the upper bench wouicl 
 I 4 be
 
 ( 1-20 ) 
 
 be fomcwhat longer than thofe below (^nd 
 that but a little io), yet very little would 
 be added to the weight of them : by this 
 conflruclion of the gallery, by this pofitiou 
 of the oar-ports, and by this diredlion of 
 the oars in rowing, the oars would pro- 
 je6t very little, if any thing, beyond the 
 proje6tion of the gallery, and that pro- 
 je6lion, even in a quinqueremis, need not 
 t?e more than feven feet' and a half. From 
 this account of the pofition and direction 
 of the oars, it may be feen, that when 
 they were laid with the fea:ther horizon- 
 tally clofe back up to the under fide o-f 
 the gallery, they would av^oid the ftrokes' 
 of tiie waves, and were defended by the 
 gallery from any attack that the enemy 
 might meditate again il: them. But I beg 
 to refer the Society and the Reader to the 
 General's own narrative, where he will 
 nnd every thing exadlly, minutely, and 
 fully explained, from the orignal inveili-' 
 gation up to the firft difcovery. 
 
 That peculiar fpecies of cavalry, the 
 MILITARY CHARIOT, was another method, 
 which the Antients, efpecially the na- 
 tions in the eafl:, had of applying force in 
 war. Without a difl:in(S knowledge of 
 this machine, of the method of harnelfing 
 the horfes to it, of the manner in which 
 
 4 ^^^®
 
 < ^^' ) 
 
 the warrlours rode and afted In them, and 
 of the application of this equipage to their 
 exercife in their courfes, and to their 
 aftual exertions and eVol^ations in military 
 36tion in the field, all the accounts of, or 
 reference to, either the one or the other 
 mufl: be mere confufion and inexplicable. 
 Many years ago, I drew up for my own 
 ufe, in my ftudies, an explanation of this 
 matter ; I gave a copy of it to my friend 
 Mr. Berenger, to publifh in his Treatife 
 on Horfemanfhip *, and it was printed 
 in that work. I have revifed the original 
 and made fome additions to it, and now 
 give it here as N° IV. in the Appendix. 
 This containing, as the writer of this 
 paper has been made to believe, a diftinft 
 and compleat account of this piece of An- 
 tiquity ; 1 fhall enter here no further on 
 this fubje(3:, but beg to refer the Society 
 and the Reader to that Treatife. 
 
 I have faid nothnig. in this my^exami- 
 nation of the line, in which I think the 
 
 * The Hiftdry and Art of HorfemaniTiJp, byR. Berenger, 
 efq; Gentltman of the Horfe to George III. king of Great 
 Britain. London, printed for Davles and Cadell, 177!. 
 
 A vvQik wherein the Author has combined an art in 
 which he cxcells, with fo niiich erudition, and claflic 
 kno.vledge, in which he is eminent, that cannot but ad- 
 niinifter pleafure, information, and ufe, to the lovers of 
 th^t nobl^ art in particular, and to learned men in general, 
 
 Hudy
 
 ( 122 ) 
 
 flu^y of Antiquities fliould be dire£led, as 
 to, the ART OF Chronology *, or, the 
 I4etbod of clajjing Fa5is according to Series 
 and Periods^ under which, in the later 
 times of ancient hiflory, the memorials 
 of Events were fuppofed to be, more or 
 lefs, accurately recorded. It hath always 
 appeared to me that there never was much 
 care taken, or any a6lual preciiion ob- 
 ferved, in marking the times of events 
 (even in the courfe of their arifing and 
 pafling), according to any of thofe notices 
 of the concomitant phienomena of the 
 heavens, by which time itfelf is meafured. 
 1 have always found that the defective 
 ilate of the aflronomy of the Ancients 
 has been an infuperable bar to hiftoric 
 learning, when it hath attempted to trace 
 back the feries of ancient fads to their 
 true periods. Several learned Antiquaries 
 have endeavoured to fupply this dejideraturn 
 in our learning ; but thofe who know the 
 moil of it, know belt its incertainty and 
 deficiency. My convi£lion of the incer- 
 tainty of chronology has wrought my 
 mind to very great indifference in diftin- 
 guifhing between the fadls of thofe periods 
 called Hiftorick, and thofe called Myihick, 
 
 * Chionologia? genus a'rtcffi flatiiimus non fcientiam ; 
 fcicutia finis eft chronologiae idfcircd genus elVe, nequit. 
 Bcveritlt;. C nron. 
 
 Without;
 
 ( 1^3 ) 
 
 Without being concerned what the real 
 names of the perfons were, or who they 
 were, who formed the dramatis perjoticz : 
 without much caring wliat were the pe- 
 riods of the drama ; I can ftudy the cha- 
 rader, operation, and effect of it, to all 
 the purpofes of experience and ufe, in th.e 
 mythick full as well as in the hifiorick nar- 
 rative ; and I verily believe, that there is 
 often as true a reprefentation of the general 
 ftatein the Mythos as in the hiflory, which 
 pretends to give the particular narrative of 
 facts. The only difference lies here, that 
 where the perfons and actions of the hif- 
 torick period are clafTed under feries, hav- 
 ing reference to epochas, prefuppofed to 
 have a fixed period, and keeping a kind 
 of chronologick order, the hiftory fo 
 clalTed under chronology, becomes a iO' 
 pica! miifeum to my memory ; and a kind 
 of chart to my courfe in reafoning. on 
 them. This is the difference and no other 
 that the ailronomer makes, to aid his 
 memory and reafoning, between the ftars 
 which are clafled into conftellations, ^nd 
 the unclaffed ftars. 
 
 To explain what is here affumed, I 
 will give an indance in fa6l of this matter 
 which this adduced fimile has brought to 
 my memorv. 
 
 When
 
 ( 124 ^ 
 
 When the ^^gyptians finfl formed the 
 map, or pidure-defcriptlon of the celeftial 
 fphere, it was done by claffing the fixed 
 ftars into certain groups, called conftel- 
 lations ; and then circumfcribing thefe 
 fo grouped within a line including that 
 group, they drew the contour of this line 
 fo as to form fome imaginary pi£lure of 
 fome perfon, inftrument, animal, machine. 
 Sec. according to the cuftom of pi£lure- 
 writing in ^^^gypt, Arabia, Ethiopia, and 
 Chaldea. One group or conftellation of 
 flars fuggefted to the imagination of the 
 aftronomy-painter the idea of a ihip, to 
 which the firft designer, or fome future 
 copyifls, gave the name Argo, or Ark ; 
 within the contour of this picture of the 
 ihip, m.any bright ftars were included, 
 to thefe ftars, he, or others after him, 
 gave (in memory of their labours and 
 merits) the names of the feveral great 
 navigators or leaders of colonies then re- 
 membred and renowned in the world. One 
 may fuppofe, that fome Grecian having 
 {een this picture, and having learnt the 
 flories of the voyages and adventures of 
 each of thefe canon i'/.ed navigators, and 
 finding all, as it were, embarked on board 
 this one (hip, made out, or perhaps had it fo 
 explained to him, a poetic hiftory of the 
 
 whole,
 
 ( 1^5 ) 
 
 whole, as comprifed in one common joint 
 voyage. After all the perplexities about 
 the chronology, geography, and aflronomy, 
 of his fancied expedition, which according 
 to the common account muft neceflarily be 
 inextricable, I cannot but feel fatisfied, that 
 this conjecture of mhie fuggefls a natural 
 account of it. Although, however, this is 
 not an adually hiftorick fad, although it 
 neither is nor can be clafled according to 
 any one period, or any feries of times j yet I 
 can pick out of it as much information of 
 the nature and hiftory of the navigation, 
 commerce, and fettlements of the ancients 
 referred to in it, fcparating the hd:s, and 
 giving each to its proper a£lor, jufl as if 
 this Argo was a compilation and collection 
 (like Purchafe's Pilgrimages, or Dr. Camp- 
 bell's Lives of our Admirals) of the voy- 
 ages and adventures ot each individual 
 navigator; juft as if it gave an actual and 
 true narrative. Although the expedition it- 
 felf cannot be true, as related ; yet, gene- 
 rally fpeaking, the particular adventures 
 mentioned in it, if referred each to the in- 
 dividual who performed them, are {o : and 
 from the traces to be found (as Strabo 
 fays, in his ift book, pages 21. 45. and 
 elfewhere) in different parts of the world 
 of thefe adventures, they may fairly be 
 fald to be fa<fts. From this piCture-hiftory, 
 
 or
 
 C J26 ) 
 or fable, thus underftood, many very cu- 
 rious traites of the navigation, and even 
 inland commerce of the ancients, may be 
 elicited and drawn to light. 
 
 I cannot but think that many of the 
 facls and things recorded in the pidure- 
 writing, and the fables of Mythic hiftory, 
 if confidered in this view of clafled and 
 conftellated memoirs of the general a(fts 
 of the race of men in their general ope- 
 rations, and not as actual narratives of 
 arranged chronology, might be explained, 
 as forming a hiftory little fhort in point 
 of ufe to thofe narratives in the early 
 periods of hiftory, which though con- 
 lidered as claffed in chronological order for 
 method fake, are not yet to be depended 
 upon as clalTed in the aclual petiod and 
 feries of true time. 
 
 I do not fay this in difcredit of the ufe 
 of chronology ; on the contrary, I think 
 that a certain degree of dependence on its 
 authority even in the earlieft periods may 
 be formed : but I wifh by the comparifon 
 of the little difference that there is be- 
 tween the chronology of the clafled tra- 
 ditions of the mofl: early hidoric, and of 
 the pi£lure records of the mythic, to fug- 
 ged how ufcful a work it might be to 
 
 learning.
 
 ( 127 ) 
 
 learning, and how far from impra61:icable 
 it is, to unveil the pi(£lure records of their 
 fable, and to tranllate them into hijioric 
 reprejentatlons of the general operations of 
 Man in his bufinefs of this world. 
 
 The moft truly learned and grave writers 
 amongft the ancients, underftood the 
 mythic hiftory to be clafled reprefentations 
 of the general ftate and adions of man, 
 copied (as Plato fays) from the metaphork 
 language, in which the traditions were 
 tranfmitted,into piclure- writing and fables. 
 I find myfelf fupported in this notion byi 
 a man of great learning and real know-^ 
 ledge, and I affume authority from this 
 fupport, I mean Mr. Wise. He is not only 
 of this opinion, but I find fince the firft 
 writing of this, from an ingenious work * 
 of his, which was recommended to me, 
 that he had actually entered upon the re-~, 
 fearch with great fuccefs, and to every 
 ufe and effect of the chronologic claffing 
 of thofe hiftories which my mofl fanguine 
 wifhes went to. If, with the great learn- 
 ing which he poflefTed, he had found 
 leifure to follow thofe rays of light of 
 which he hath juft fhown a gleam, he 
 would have difpelled from falfe learning 
 
 • The Hiftory and Chronology of the Fabulous Ages, 
 Oxford, 176^. 
 
 that
 
 ( '^8 ) 
 
 that darknefs vifible, which lias hitherta 
 ! ferred only to deform and mifreprefent 
 every obje6t of knowledge. 
 
 Monfieur Gebilin's Monde Primitiftn- 
 ters expreflly into this line of rcfearch with 
 the very fpirit of analytic inveftigation, 
 aided by extenfive and greatly varied eru- 
 dition : fuch talents promife great matters 
 of information on this fubje6l ; and in 
 in many parts the work makes good thofe 
 promifes: I have my doubts about fome 
 other parts ; yet feel rather difpofed to 
 fubfcribe to his ingenuity and great learn- 
 ing. 
 
 One general caution mufl: conftantly be 
 obferved in this mode of reafoning, that 
 while on one hand we do not refufe all hif- 
 toric faith to what is reprefented only in 
 iable ; we do not, in the other extreme, re- 
 ceive that as hijloric narrative of aSlual 
 events in particular, which is only reprejen- 
 tat ion in apologue and mythos of the general 
 fate andcourje of events in the hiflory oj man. 
 I have illuftrated the rule in the former 
 part of this proportion by examples taken 
 from profane hiftory ; I will endeavour 
 alfo to explain this latter by fome diftant 
 luggeftions of the nature of this in the 
 earliell: parts of divine hiftory. 
 
 If
 
 ( 129 ) 
 
 If the Antiquary, as fome grave and 
 ferious Divines have done, was thus tocon- 
 iider the Antidiluvian hiilory, which the 
 books of Mofcs give, as an x^pologue ex* 
 hlblting the general train of 7iatwai and 
 human events, clajfed under myihie repre- 
 fentations^ inftead of taking it as an hif" 
 torlc narrative of particular events, placed 
 in the a^lual periods of their exiftence, 
 and arranged in the real feries of true 
 time ; he would obviate all thefe objec- 
 tions which arife to the hiftoric part, and 
 might (hov/, that, taken in that view, it 
 gives a much more accurate account of 
 nature, of man, and of the divine dif- 
 penfations ; and in every point comes up 
 more fully and comprehendveiy to the 
 purpofe for which it feems to have been 
 written, than under any idea of recording 
 particulars as a hiftory. 
 
 This purpofe is, in a kind of preface to 
 a code of laws by which the inftitution of 
 a theocracy is eftablilhed, to give fuch a 
 general account of the origin of things 
 and of man ; of his deviations from the 
 end of his being by various corruptions ; 
 and of his Fall from Innocence to fuch a 
 ftateof (in and puni(hment, as requires the 
 oifering of facrifices of expiation of his 
 
 K guile,
 
 ( 13^ ) 
 
 guilt, and of deprecation of his punifh- 
 ment ; perpetually repeated until fome 
 one general full and fufficicnt expiation 
 {houldbe finally made and accepted; alfo 
 of offerings for the ranfom of fouls, and 
 of atonement for crimes. This inftitutioii 
 made various regulations in the animal 
 oeconomy, not fo much from any foun- 
 dation which they had in nature, as being 
 conftant outward pledges of inward obe- 
 bience to, and faith in, the divine regimen. 
 0]ie branch prefcribed regulations and 
 diftindions refpeding food, deriving from 
 pofitive inflitution and command. Another 
 branch of thefe laws meant to give ope- 
 ration to, and to maintain, that excluiive 
 principle of generation, by which this 
 race, chofen for fpecial ends of providence, 
 were to be kept Icparate from the race of 
 man in common. A third branch con- 
 tained the eftablifliment of a fyflem of 
 facrifices fuited to this theology ; and of 
 ceremonies attendant on this particular 
 ftate of the individual and community. 
 
 This book commences with an account 
 of the origin of things, which rightly 
 underftood, is the moil truely and ftriclly 
 pliilofophic account which ever has been 
 given, or is at prelent any where extant. 
 ''The prefent enlightened ftate of philo- 
 2, ^ophy
 
 ( 13' ) 
 
 fophy can neither reprobate nor alter any 
 thing In it. It does only confirm it. 
 
 When this book fpeaks of the origin of 
 the world, it does not go beyond the 
 bounds of human knowledge into mcta- 
 phyficks ; it does not attempt to defcribe 
 that a£l of the Creator which fuppoles the 
 bringing of Nothing ijito Being, which is 
 nonfenfe in terms, and contradicts what 
 it predicates ; but In the pureii: hoht of 
 wifdom, and in the mofl refined lenti- 
 ments of fublimity^ writes, God said, 
 LET IT be; and it Vv'as. This com- 
 prehenlive expreffion communicates, with- 
 out prefuming at defined terms, the inde- 
 fined prae- exigence of thesupREAM first 
 CAUSE, when ?ncitter did not exift ; and 
 alfo the commencement of the exigence 
 of matter by the will, and at the command 
 of this FIRST CAUSE acting by that %vill. 
 
 This account of a vifible v/orld does not 
 prefume to afcend above what is feen. It 
 takes up the account of the origin of 
 things at that ftace, to which phiiorophic 
 analyfis can, in its higheft range attain. 
 It divides its account into the four clafl'es 
 of exigence, the origin of the planetary 
 and terreftrial fyflem ; the origin of animal 
 life; and the origin of man. This is 
 K a fuDDofed
 
 ( ^3^ ) 
 
 fuppofed to proceed hy fix dill:in£l: periods? 
 called metaphorically Dales (for they can- 
 not aclually be defcribed as fuch before 
 that ftate of things cxlfted, which divides 
 time into night and day). Thefe periods 
 on the whole are arranged rather to fuit 
 the clafles of creation, than the order of 
 time ; yet under each clafs they follow 
 the order of the procefs of nature, in what 
 may be called the order of time. 
 
 As light or heat is vlfibly the firil ma- 
 terial inftrum^ental caufe and fupport of 
 the ftate and being of the fyftem, the 
 creation of light is reprefented as the firft 
 procefs. God faid, Let there be light ^ and 
 there ivas light. This is the JirJ? Period. 
 
 Experience of exifting fadls, the phi- 
 lofophlc inveftlgatlon of the powers of 
 nature, and the operation of thofe powers 
 on inatter, confpire to prove, that the; 
 globe la Its original ftate was a molft lump 
 of mud, a chaos In which the terreftrial 
 elements were all in an indlfcrete mafs of 
 confuted matter. The Molaic account of 
 this earth being brought Into its prefcnt 
 fyftem of being commences from this 
 ftate : The earth was without form, and 
 the Spirit of God moved upon the fdce 
 af the ivalers^ and dlrcvled the effe<:ls of 
 
 light
 
 ( '33 ) 
 
 light or heat to operate upon it. The firft 
 efFe^fl or procefs of this operation, which 
 is reprefented as the fecond period of cre- 
 ation, is the feparating of the expanfive * 
 liquid, the unfixing the elaftic fluid, the 
 air (the caufe and food of all life), from 
 the waters which ftill covered the f^^ce of 
 the whole earth ; and God fald^ let there 
 be expenjion in the midjl of the waters, and 
 let it divide the waters from the waters ; 
 lieie comes in concurrent in the order of 
 time, and the procefs of nature; the firft 
 procefs of the third clafs, that is, the 
 production of aquatic animal life : And the 
 ivaters brought forth abundantly. That 
 this globe was once in this ftatc, an uni- 
 verjai habitation for aquatic life, appears 
 from the {till viiible traces and confe- 
 quences of this ftate. The fhells, rhe 
 ikeletons, and other exuviae of animals, of 
 aquatic life, are found in every part of the 
 globe in the deepeft vallies, and on the top 
 of the higheft mountains, even in the 
 bowels of the earth. That they fliould be 
 lb found every where, and more efpecially 
 on the tops of mountains, is fo far from 
 extraordinary, that it is a natural conco- 
 mitant circumftance of this ilate. 
 
 * LiQulduin Coelum. Ovid. 
 
 K 9 That
 
 ( '34 ) 
 
 Th^ittht pr;/2c/J>ks of vegetative life exifted 
 beiore the earth was reduced to that form 
 which made it a proper nidus for the 
 vegetables thenifelyes coming into life, is 
 directly laid *, and that the fame cafe 
 took place with relpe£l to animal life, may 
 fairly be deduced from the whole tenor of 
 the account ; namely, that the plaflick 
 fo/2£i pf their corporal mechanifm was in 
 like manner prepared before it w^s railed 
 like man out of the duft of the earth. 
 
 That the conftant operation and un-? 
 ceafing efFetfl of light and heat produces a 
 continually encrealing exhalation and ex- 
 ficcation of this globe, fo that the terref- 
 trial parts of this globe perpetually gain 
 upon the aqueous, has been proved by 
 the greateft philofophers ; I need not men- 
 tion Sir llaac Nev^'ton at the head of thefe. 
 That internal inflammations and explofions 
 in the bowels of the earth are, and have 
 been at all times, for myriads of ages 
 back, conftantly making alterations and 
 inequalities on the furface of it, is equally 
 true and fact, feen in the effe^l. Thefe 
 fecondary caufes or:>erating inftrumentally 
 as the ad of the Creator, would form this 
 
 * Genefis, chay.u II. v, 5. 
 
 tbi'rd
 
 ( ^35 ) 
 
 third period of the Genefis, and throw 
 the earth into fiich form, that the waters 
 would be gathered together into one place^ 
 and the dry-land would appear. The mo- 
 ment that the dry-land was thus become 
 a nidus for the vegetative life ; The plants 
 and every herb of the field *, the fond of 
 whofe exiftence had been before prepared 
 and made, would now vegetate, and the 
 earth would of courfe bring forth grafs 
 and herb yielding feed, and the fruit-tree, 
 and every tree of the field, which is re- 
 prefented as the third period. Under this 
 flate of the globe, the fecond and third 
 procefs of the third clafs would in the 
 courfe of nature and the order of time, 
 come into concurrent efFe£l: ; that is, the 
 fowls that fwim on the rivers, lakes, and 
 feas that fiy in the air, and live on the 
 face of the earth ; every living thing ^/^r 
 its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and 
 the beaft of the earth, would be brought 
 forth to a life prepared for them, from a 
 nidus which the Creator had animated. 
 This is reprefented as xh^ffth period. 
 
 The giving fyftem to the fecond clafs 
 of the God's work comes forward in this 
 apologue, not as a narrative in the order 
 
 * Gcnefis, chap. II, ver. 5. 
 
 K 4 of
 
 ( 136 ) 
 
 of time, but as the fourth period ac- 
 cording to the general clafling of the 
 parts of creation. This period does not 
 feem to reprefent the creation of the plane- 
 tary fyftem, but as defcribing the effe£t of 
 the rotation of the earth round its axis, by 
 which day and night were divided, by which 
 the greater light ruled the day, and the lefler 
 light ruled the night ; by which the lights 
 jn the firmament became figns to days, 
 months, and years, and the variety of 
 feafons, and by which they were produced. 
 
 When the whole fyilem, thus far per- 
 fe6led, was prepared for man, God formed 
 tnan of the duji of the ground^ and breathed 
 into his nojlrils the breath of life^ by which 
 he became a living faul, after God's own 
 image. This is the fxth and lafl period 
 of the creation. A feventh period is that 
 in which God is faid to have reded from 
 his work, and which period he is repre- 
 fented as having therejore blefled and 
 fanftified. The account of the fanc- 
 tifying the feventh day as a fabbath, can- 
 not be meant as a narrative of faft, which 
 hifpired truth relates as hfory, becaufe it 
 is contradicted by a different ta6t in a dif- 
 ferent * reason given from the fame au- 
 thority 
 
 t In this day, thou (halt do no work ; that thy mat^ 
 ^tp^t, &r. may reft as well as thou. Remember ih;«
 
 ( ^31 ^ 
 
 thority, for God's fandlityingthf* fabbath, 
 or fev^enth day *. It is an application of 
 the apologue in this part, as it is made 
 to apply in every other part, to the theo- 
 cratic inftitution of the llraelites. 
 
 When thefe days are underftood to be 
 periods^ and not days^ as they are vulgarly 
 conceived and tranilated; when underftood 
 to be clafled rather according to the parts of 
 the general fyftem, than placed hiftorically 
 in the order of time ; the Antiquary will 
 fnid this Mofaic account of the Genefis of 
 the world confirmed by the fa£ls and pliee- 
 nomena which exifl in every part of the 
 fyflem of the earth and heavens. Nor is 
 this truly philofophic account involved in, 
 any fuch childifh, filly, ignorant notion as 
 the giving lo (hort a fpace of time to the 
 exiftence of this globe, as it muft be con- 
 fined to, if it literally began not more 
 than a week before that period whereat 
 pur accounts or hiftory of man commence. 
 The author of this book never meant, 
 and does not here or elfewhere give any 
 fuch idea : The fpirit of wifdom and truth 
 which dire<£ted this account is raifed above 
 
 thou waft a fervant In the land of Egypt, and that the 
 Lord thy God brought thee out thence ; tbercfort the Lord 
 pommanded thee to keep the Sabbath-day, 
 1* Deut. chap. v. v. f+. 
 
 all
 
 ( '38 ) 
 
 all fuch vulgar iinplnlofophic fluff. This 
 earth, and this fyftcm of the heavens, may 
 have exifted and been gon:)g on, in the 
 procefs of the operations and laws of na- 
 ture (called here the a6ls of creation) for 
 myriads of ages, which the Mofaic accounts 
 divided into lix periods. To this account 
 the internal flrudure of the earth itfelf 
 bears incontrovertible evidence. I do 
 ftrangely miflake all reafonlng, and all fcale 
 of ideas, if this reference to the ftate of 
 this earth, and of this fyftem fo explained, 
 is not the beft commentary to the Mofaic 
 Genelis : and if the fublime idea of it will 
 not be the more elevated, and the divine 
 philofophic truth of it the more demon^ 
 flrably confirmed thereby. 
 
 If the Antiquary (hould be allowed to 
 proceed in this line of explanation of the 
 IVJofaic antidiluvian hiftory, as an apologue i 
 he would certainly find that the fecond and 
 third chapters of this book mean to de- 
 fcribe the two ftates in which man hath 
 lived upon this earth, concurrent with the 
 account of the progrefs of his depravation 
 and corruption, and the attendant punlfh- 
 ment thereof, all accommodated in the 
 moral of the Mythos to the Jewifh inlri- 
 tution. He Is firft reprefented in his 
 iylvan (late, w^hich is reprefented as a ftate 
 
 of
 
 ( 139 ) 
 
 of perfeflion and Innocence, living in the 
 garden of the world, on the fpontaneous 
 fruits and herbs of it, which were given 
 to him for food. The mode of his life is 
 reprefented as regulated by fome pofitive 
 commands of God refpe6ling the diftinc- 
 tions of this food» There was one tree, 
 the tree of knowledge cf good and evil, the 
 fruit of which he was forbidden to tafle. 
 
 This is a mythic tree (a * fymbol not un- 
 known to the Egyptians) rep refen ting in 
 the luxuriancy of its branches, the wild- 
 nefs of mens opinion ; and by its tempt- 
 ing but poifonous fruit, the mifchievous 
 efFe£ls of being fc^duced by the vanity of 
 £alfe learning, to become wife above the 
 ilation prepared for us. 
 
 His quitting this ftate ni which he was 
 originally placed, his growing too wife, 
 in his own conceit, for fuch a confined 
 fituation^ his being tempted to views of a 
 more enlarged fyftem by a more expanded 
 fcope of his capacity ; his fubflituting the 
 artificial fyflem of the land-worker, and 
 fpoihng a good world, as the Indians ot 
 America ddcribe the clearing it to be ; his 
 becoming a member of fociety ; the fub- 
 
 * Vide Nordcn, plate LVIIL 
 
 jed-
 
 ( MO ) 
 
 je6l-creature of government ; is finely re- 
 prefented as his eating of this fruit of the 
 tree of knowledge of good and evil : and 
 the latter ftatc, that of the land worker, 
 is reprefented as under a curfe, and is 
 made the piinifhment of his difobeying a 
 pofitive command. This account, taking 
 it as a general clafied reprefentation, not 
 an hifloric narrative, is a true hiftory of 
 the ftate and prog-^eis of man's being on 
 earth, and thus tcl'^, is with infinite ad- 
 drefs made relevant to the maintenance 
 of the Ipirit of legiflation in the theo- 
 cracy. 
 
 When in the courfe of this mythic 
 hiftory, this fecond flate of man is de- 
 fcribed, as his having the thoughts of his 
 heart on evil only ; of the wickednefs of 
 man being continually great, and againfl 
 the order and fpirit of GoD*s government ; 
 how is all this corruption accounted for ? 
 It is ftated as ariling from a fuppofed crime 
 committed againft a pofitive regulation re- 
 fpe<fl:ing marriage, relevant to a like regu- 
 lation of the inlHtution of the theocracy, 
 by which the children of Ilrael were for- 
 bidden to intermarry with the daughters 
 of men out of their own nation. Thip 
 crime, an artificial one, made Jo only bv 
 injututlon^ wlilch infiicution did not exift 
 
 at
 
 ( Ui ) 
 at that time, is reprefented as the cauic 
 of all the evil, as the thing in the then 
 race of men which God reprobated, which 
 grieved him at his heart, on which it re- 
 pented him that he had made man, and 
 on which he refolved to deftroy him from 
 off the face of the earth. The crime did 
 not only not exift at that time, but as far 
 as the account in this book goes, the a6t 
 could not exift ; as there was at that time 
 no fuch feparation of the human being as 
 that of the fons of God and the daughters 
 of men, either made, or fuppofed to take 
 place : The Antiquary therefore will not 
 fuppofe that this is meant to be fiated as 
 a narrative of a fa6: ; but as the mythos of 
 the apologue out of which the moral was 
 to arife and apply : As the prefent ftate of 
 the world is reprefented as having by re- 
 novation arifen from the deftrudtion of a 
 former one, deftroyed by an univerfal 
 deluge brought on as a judgement upon a 
 former race of men in confequence of their 
 crimes, and total corruption ; the leading 
 caufe of that corruption, and the fpe^ 
 cifick crime which is fuppofed to be 
 punifhed with fuch exemplary feverity 
 of Divine Juftice, is that fpecifick a<ft of 
 marrying the daughters of ftrangers con- 
 trary to the exprefs prohibition of a fun- 
 damental law of the ftatCy the commiffion 
 
 of
 
 ( U2 ) 
 
 of which would diffolve and totally break 
 up the exclufive eftabUfhmcnt of the com- 
 munity chofen, feleded and fet apart from 
 the reft of human race. 
 
 The confidering the prefent ftate of 
 the world as fuffering the execution of 
 a punifhment infli6ted by the Divine 
 Judgement for the commiffion of a crime 
 which totally counteracted and perverted 
 the original ftate of it, a ftate originally 
 happy, is not only an example holden 
 forth of God's Juftice atfling by an 
 extraordinary Providence, but is, to the 
 faithful under this inftitution of the 
 theocracy, the plaineft and moft intel- 
 ligible account of the Origin of Evil both 
 natural and moral, that is any where ex- 
 tant, without being perplexed and involved 
 in any of thofe metaphyfical difficulties 
 which every philofophic account conftantly 
 leads to. 
 
 In like manner the underftanding that 
 prohibition which, after the Fall of man, 
 was given againft his eating of the Tree of 
 Life^ as a veiled mythic part of his apo- 
 logue ; not as if it was adlually fuppoled, 
 that the accretion of any matter, efpe- 
 cially of divifible matter, taken and fe- 
 creted as food, could in ja5l. give immor- 
 
 ^tality
 
 ( J43 ) 
 
 talky to the immaterial indivifible part of 
 man, to the Hving foul which was after 
 God's image ; not only relieves the accouiic 
 from hiftorical and natural difficulties, but 
 gives, in the precife line of analogy to_ the 
 whole, the beft commentary to it. A 
 'Tree here, as in the former cale of the Tree 
 of the knowledge of Good and Evil^ is a 
 fymbol of man's knowledge branching by 
 various dedudions and producii^g fruit, 
 and may fairly be fuppofed to mean here 
 the knowledge or doctrine of immortality, 
 of life in a future ftate, the belief of which 
 exprelily counteracts the principles, the doc- 
 trine, and fpirit of an inllitution of a theo- 
 cracy, where all rewards and punifliments, 
 to the reiforation, protection,' and eflablilh- 
 ment of right, were under an extraordinary 
 provideace confined within the verge of the 
 prefent flate, and prefent life. All thefe 
 metaphyiical difquiiitions therefore into 
 the immateriality and immortality of the 
 foul, all thofe branci ings of rcafoning 
 which nroduced the fruit of a belief of a 
 future life, and of a future Hate of re- 
 wards and punifliments,, were to be mofi; 
 ftriiflly guarded againfl, the mind was pro- 
 hibited from tafting ihis Tree of Lfe. 
 
 Thefe inftances of crimes and punifli- 
 ments, taken as the narratives of adually 
 
 ex i fling
 
 ( '44 ) 
 
 exifting fa6ls ; thefe defcript^ons of the 
 ftate of man ; thefe prohibition o iittt' -ally 
 underftood, are furrounded with innu- 
 merable and inextricable diffculties both 
 as to the fa^ts, the philofophic doctrines, 
 and the general grounds of morality and 
 juftice. But taken together with the 
 whole of the antidiluvian hiftory, as parts 
 of an apologue explained as above, the 
 whole gives a real pi<£lure of the general 
 progrefs of the il:ate of man ; of his par- 
 ticular ft ate under the in^itution of the 
 theocracy ; and is made lelavent to the 
 whole code of laws, to which this book 
 is a preface. 
 
 I fhall here clofe my review of ancient 
 hiftory ; and of the duty ot the Antiquary 
 as its commentator ; with the examples as 
 above, taken from divine and prophane 
 hiftory, which I think prove, that thefe 
 hiftories will be beil underftood when on 
 one hand all idea of fact is not excluded 
 from what may be told in fable ; and on 
 the other, when that which is plainly 
 written as miithos^ giving a general repre- 
 fentation, not a particular narrative, is not 
 takjn as a ftate, or matter of fact. Tamen 
 vonnuUi ijii, Ti/e, (fay eth Cicero) jdc'iunt nn^ 
 ferite qui in iflo opufculo^ non ut a poeta^fed 
 ut a ieft:, veritatem exigant *. The ad- 
 
 * Cicero dc legibus, lib. I. § i . 
 
 ducing
 
 ( '45 ) 
 
 ducing thefe two particular in (lances, gives 
 (ifi example) explanation and proof, that 
 althongb * man)'' things in the mar.ner mid 
 on the face of the Muthos may appear fic- 
 titious and impoffible; yet when rcaci aright 
 by thole -j- " w.bo underjland a proverb^ and 
 *' the interpreiailon thereof^ ivho dfcern the 
 *' words of the wife and their darkfayings^'* 
 .they will be found to contain genera I Truths 
 which lead to read and effective knozvhdge. 
 
 It is arrant nonfenfe to luppofe, that a 
 voyage of fuch importance as the Argo- 
 nautic expedition is reprcfented to be, 
 fhould have been undertaken as a mere 
 piratical enterprize to fteal a Fleece how- 
 ever precious ; but Vv^hen it is underftood 
 in the interpretation as an expedition firmed 
 by tilts C-Jreeks, in which the firft heroes 
 of their country are fuppofed to have been 
 engaged, againft a comm.ercial eflablilh- 
 ment and colony of the Phoenicians or 
 Egyptians, in order to obtain poflellion of 
 that important trade of the Euxine ; then 
 there appears meaning, good fenfe, and 
 political wifdom in that part of the flory. 
 
 It is impofiible that the fame crew, in 
 the fame fhip, and in the courfe of the 
 
 ^xTi, rd lro^!as.q, Strabo, iib. i.p. 62. 
 t Proverb;, ch:ip. i. v. 6. 
 
 K. *9,^^
 
 ( h6 ) 
 
 fame voyage, fhould * penetrate up to the: 
 heads of the Danube, pals the Alps, carry 
 this Ihip and their booty over the portage 
 from the waters of the Danube to the 
 waters which run into the Mediterranean, 
 and defcending by the navigation of thefe 
 into that Sea; and at the fame time be faid -j- 
 to have pafTed up the Tanais, then over 
 the land to the heads of the rivers which 
 interlock with this, and then down thefe 
 rivers into the Baltic Sea, from whence 
 by the weftern ocean, and the Streights 
 of Gades, into the Mediterranean Sea. But 
 when this Fable is in its interpretation un- 
 derftood, as I have flated it, to be an 
 hiftorlcal map of Covimerce, m which the 
 courfes of thefe two routs were principal 
 channels, the whole becomes plain and 
 adlual information. 
 
 That X Hercules fhould fail through 
 the fea to the mofl weflern bounds of 
 
 * Vide Strabo, lib. iv. p. 177. et lib. vi, p. 305. 
 
 ■J- Ai»x7Avaa,^a.<i ^'avTw? hoi t5 TaiaV^'o? Trora^S t7r» t«? 
 
 iroTK^i tnt fuciv t)(ov\oi il? to» fiyfatvov xo^lx'iTXivj-a.t tt^oj t>;v 
 Ba,f,daffa»' «Vo Jt run upruv Irrl rr,)i ^vam xw/xicrSfliiat, Ttit Tv» 
 
 Diodoru? Sic. lib. iv. c. iv. p. 180. 
 X Apollodorus Paryalis, aud Plierecydes, quoted by Ma- 
 crobius Saturnal. I. v. c. 21, Alfo Strrius, 6cc. 
 
 Europe
 
 ( 147 ) 
 
 Europe m a cup * r That Abaris (Kould 
 make his journey from the north of Europe 
 to Magna Grecia conveyed upon and guided 
 in his couries,by an arrow; That the ships 
 OF Alcinous ^ fhould be animated, and 
 moreover infpired with a knowledge of 
 their courfe ; is in the ouvert meaning of 
 the literal account incomprehennble Ro- 
 mance : But if the Antiquary, pojejed of 
 the j ad. 
 
 That the power of the magnet to attrad 
 iron ; 
 
 To attrad and repell it alternately ; 
 
 To communicate this virtue to iron itfelf; 
 was known to the ancients ; fi"iould by an 
 indudion and combination of lubfequent 
 fragments of fads as they lye Icattered in 
 the ruins, or veiled, and hid under the 
 myfleries of anciept learning, (hould be 
 able to colled, which I think may be done ; 
 .' that its PuUirity alfo was known to the 
 
 *■ JainMlcu?. 
 
 iU^h r^ vipe?.yi x£/<.a^^'JU(x£^a^. 
 
 Hoi-peri OdyfT. lib, viii. 
 TiTvaKo^ivxi fignifees being directed as an anou ; or as 
 by nn arrow. 
 
 xifi H^ n^i\n Hixa>uM(0is'j.2i. The fiy;ht of the hravcp.s and 
 places of- the liars was not wanted by ihip-, which had this 
 ;^uidance. 
 
 K 2 ancient
 
 ( '48 ) 
 
 Jincient navigators, and guarded by there 
 as a mofl profound fecret ; as alfo, that the 
 knowledge of this came from the * north,, 
 and that when the magnetic needle was 
 iirft ufed, it was in the fhape of an arrow, 
 which it retains to this day ; then thefe 
 Fables will, in their interpretation, open to 
 MS Tiw important fiicl that will explain many 
 things in the commercial hiftory of the 
 Antients. 
 
 * Where it is called Lodcftonc^ or the rUotJione. 
 
 Sucio- Gothic Di<5t. of lhre» 
 
 END OF PART THIJ FIRST. 
 
 A P P E N-
 
 ( 149 ) 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 N° I. 
 
 Analyjli of the Ekments of Speech , as 
 applicable to Etymology^ in the Jiudy of 
 Antiquities. 
 
 MAN IS endued with a power of ex- 
 preffing, or (if I may fo fay) taking 
 off copies of the fenfations, reflexions, and 
 reafonings, which refide and pafs in his 
 mind : and of commtinicating thefe to his 
 fellows by arbitrary vocal founds, which 
 have no natural connection with, no not 
 the moft diftant fimilkude to things they 
 reprefent. This efFe6l of fpeech is ib uni- 
 verfal, and feems fo natural in it^ opera- 
 tion, that to the unthinking unphilofophic 
 obferver, the connexion betwixt thought 
 and fpeech will appear mechanical ; and 
 indeed nature fo w^orks in us, that the 
 a6t of the fpeaker, and the effetl produced 
 in the hearer, feem as though matters had 
 been all thus arranged by nature. Speech 
 is by the Naturalilts faid to be the peculiar 
 perogative of man ; but I apprehend that 
 this dodrine favors more of the pride of 
 K 3 man.
 
 < ^.s^ ) 
 
 man, than of the humble fpir'it of phlr 
 lofophy and truth. I fee, to my own 
 con virion, «that ail animals, each in their 
 ipecies, hjve the means of communicating 
 with each other in ail the deorccs, and to 
 all the purpofes, neccilary to their flate of 
 being, analogous to what we call fpeech. 
 * Beflia? ipl* quendam quafi modum io- 
 quendi inter fe ha bent, ui quofdam raotus 
 affvdluum fibi mutuo repretJentaiit. 
 
 I will not, in this place, and at this 
 time, enter into that quedion. 1 cannot, 
 however, but wiih for the lake of mercy, 
 that we thought more higlily of the 
 wretched brutes that have fallen under our 
 power, than we do. If we would exercrfe 
 lomewhat lefs of tyranny, and fpi?iewhat 
 more of our reafouing and morality to- 
 wards them, we ihould fee many things in 
 them that deierve our pity ; we fliould 
 difcern in them many ira'ites of reafoning, 
 labouring to underiland us, when the 
 quarrel between the man and beaft ariles 
 from the infolent ignorance of man. We 
 fhould receive perhaps lome imprefiions of 
 the patient-enduring, noble, generous, 
 courageous, and even grateful temper, in 
 them ; and we fhould have the pleafure qt 
 
 * Sir T. Smith. 
 
 De rec^a ct emcndatA Linguae Graecx Promjnciation2 el 
 Lingux Aiiglicanae Scripiioi.e. i5(;S. 
 
 5 - receiving
 
 ( '5' ) 
 
 receiving meritonous as well as beneficial 
 lervices from theni. 
 
 Various as all the languages of the world 
 may feem ; and infinite as the words of 
 thofe languages may be : yet are they all 
 compounded of and refolveable into a very 
 defined and fmall number of a6ts of the 
 voice. 
 
 The inventing of characters to exprefs 
 the elements of fpeech, and render it vi- 
 fible to the eye, when the aualyfis has once 
 led to them, is not a matter of great dif- 
 ficulty ; but the being able to inflitute the 
 analyfis, by which this knowledge was firft 
 elicited out of the infinity of founds, was 
 a real difficulty, that feems, even now it 
 is known, wonderful, and above the com- 
 mon range of human underftanding. 
 
 I have heard of many lettered and learn- 
 ed men who have reafoned and written 
 difcourfes on this fubje<5l; but as it has not 
 fallen in my way to fee their books ; 
 ncr to my leifure to have read many 
 that I have feen ; nor to my good fortune 
 to receive much fatisfadlion from what I 
 have read ; I was led, in my lonely and 
 leifure hours, fpent where I had not accefs 
 fo books, to read nature or> thJ5 fubjedt, 
 K 4 by
 
 ( 'p ) 
 
 by experiments on the articulation of thfc 
 voice, plotted and fet down at the timt:. 
 What therefore, when I was in America, 
 I did attempt to do for my own ufe on my 
 own ground (endeavouring to fettle fome 
 etymon of the Indian words) I v.lll now 
 venture upon rcviial to communicate to 
 the public. As I do not fet myfelf up for, 
 nor aim at the character of a Icholar, I 
 can have no vanity, in this-, t rlfque the 
 being thought prcfumptuous ; but, as I 
 think my mode of analyfis may chance to 
 lead to fomething better, I will rlfque this. 
 That the reader, however, may not enter- 
 tain a prejudice that all which I attempted 
 was mere empiricilm without lome foun- 
 dation in nature, or condu6:ed without 
 any reference to tire laws and rules of phi- 
 lofophy, 1 will beg to commence my 
 analyfis by the account which Plato gives 
 (in his Dialogue Philcbus), of the fuppofed 
 analyfis by which Thcuth arrived at the 
 knowledge of the elements of fpeech when 
 he is faid to have invented elementary 
 letters. ■^~ '* Whether the invention of 
 *' writing by elementary letters derived 
 " immediately from fome god, or whether 
 ^' mediately through fome divine in- 
 '' fplred perlon, .as Theuth is amongft ^ 
 " the Egyptians T^id 'to be ; tiie . foljow- 
 !** ing- fctta to be 'tKe 'human mean's"^ fed. 
 
 ^' He
 
 ( ^53 ) 
 
 He firft applied his mind to the infinity 
 of vocal iounds, in the complex mul- 
 titudes. He then began to diftinguifh 
 thefe into (imple vocals and articulatio?is 
 of found. He found thefe to be con- 
 tained in a definite number. He next 
 entered into a further diftindion of 
 thefe, into unvQcal and inarticulate. 
 And then when by his mode of refo- 
 lution thus conducted, through the vo- 
 cales and articulate, the unvocal and 
 inarticulate, and the mixt or interme- 
 diate, he arrived at thofe ultimate founds 
 and articulations which could be no 
 further divided, he not only perceived 
 that they were definite in their genus 
 and fpecies, but in their number. He de- 
 fined the number of each, and called 
 thefe ZToix^a or elements, and invented 
 appofite Vpa[Jtf4.ccTa. figns or chara^lers to 
 exprefs them. Out of this he formed 
 the art of writing ^\'* 
 
 * As I have given above a free inrerpretation of this 
 spaffage, 1 here inlert the ()rij4ii>al. "Ettwojj ^Jmv «7rft^o» 
 x.cira>or,(7i'J, El t/ ti? ©scj, ti Tf >C SsTo? Ui^fU':ro;, w; Xoyoj, l> 
 A\yvTr\u, ©?y8 Tiva r^rov yino'bxt Xiyjir^ o% tt^uto^ la. ^ufmnoc 
 \» iu i.TiifW y^x\a.i'j-f\(jii oly^ in o>1a, (OO a. ■nrXEitf" k. •craXjv JTSfl« 
 (paiyjH fx£» a, ^?&7ief ee ^sla^^ovla Tivo^ ; pi9ji*Gv at nvx x.xl rarut 
 •|i>«i* 7f-tTov o\ tl^o^ ypc<.u.iji.a.Tuv diErsic^aJo, T« yvv X»yo/A«v« tt^cJvy^ 
 rifjiT)!' To ^sIk tDto aiv^n ra te a^boyfx id (x<puta. (/.(^pK; hoi 
 ixart?, "cl TO. (ffcijEyla x^ tcc fxia-a. xctiu. to» auTov t^otjo** iw; npt'Tw* 
 
 According
 
 ( .154 ) 
 
 According to this mode (^zxj^ i-cu .ccutou 
 rpo77ov') 1 began by contidering the flow of 
 the air as it comes trom tlie lungs, and 
 ■purifued the progrcfs of it as it palled by 
 the organs of fpeech and was there formed 
 into 'nitofiations and articulations of voice, 
 'The firft pafs whereat the found is arti- 
 culated, fo as to form an element of fpeech, 
 is at the glottis and roots of the tongue. 
 There the founds G and K, and thcfe two 
 only, are formed : G by giving a check 
 to the air, and then letting it pafs with a 
 gradual accelerated motion by the lower 
 part of the glottis ; and K by a like check 
 of the air, but then letting it pafs promptly 
 from the upper part of the glottis along 
 the roof of the mouth. To give by a 
 palpable image fome diftin6: idea of what 
 1 here mean, I will fuppofe a flowing 
 water fuddenly ftopt by Ibme fluice, and 
 then by a drawing door let to flow again, 
 which makes the hrfl: cafe. A like flowing 
 fl:ream in like manner ftopt fuddenly by a 
 Jluice, which, with a falling gate, lets 
 the water flow all at once, forms the fe- 
 pond cafe. 
 
 There is yet another n^flion of the glottis 
 which articulates in a more open or liquid 
 manner, and forms what 1 would call, in 
 il.i:ift6lion to the clofe g, an open G or Y ; 
 
 of
 
 ( ^S5 ) 
 
 of which the followmg are inftances and 
 explanations at the fame time. Gate a 
 Yate. Eight as the Scotch pronounce it, 
 Eiyht as the Englifh pronounce it. Dag 
 Germ. Day Engl. Wag Germ. Way Engl. 
 Jnilances of the ufe of this diftin£lion be- 
 tween the clofe g and the op^^n or j, will 
 occur repeatedly in etymology. 
 
 This mode of analyfing requires perfect 
 liberation from all prejudged fyftem, and 
 .more quiet patience, than many, who 
 think they know me, will give me credit 
 for. I mention this becaufe I would not 
 ha>^e them truft me ; let thofe who think 
 thefe ftudies worth their while, try the 
 experiments themfelves. 
 
 The next pafs which the current of air 
 has to go through, is by the middle of the 
 tongue. The air flowing over the tongue 
 approached to the roof of the mouth, while 
 the point makes a libilition, produces the 
 articulated found S : The found flo\^'ing 
 in the fame m.anner while the point of the 
 tongue makes a rougher vibration and 
 ftrikes the roof of the mouth, articulates 
 R. The tongue approached to and in con- 
 tact with the roof of the mouth, as the 
 air is coming forward towards it, fo as to 
 let the found articulated pafs on each fide 
 
 of
 
 ( '56 ) 
 
 of the middle of the tongue, produces 
 L. Thcfe three arc the only articulations 
 which the tongue in this pais of the found 
 can make. 
 
 The next pafs at which the ah* is formed 
 into articulated found, is, as it goes forth 
 between the end of the tongue and the 
 teeth or gums. Here again the air being- 
 checked by the application of the tongue 
 to the teeth or gums, and then by a fud- 
 den flroke of feparation being let to pafs 
 forth articulated, forms the two elements 
 D and T ; the firft by an application of 
 the tongue laid broad to, the fecond by a 
 more pointed application and ftroke, at 
 feparation. 
 
 As the air at its I aft pafs goes forth by 
 the lips, thefe organs give it two articulateil 
 ibunds, which form the two elements B. 
 and P. Here, as before, the air is checked 
 by a clofing of the lips, and particularly 
 preffing the nib of the upper lip agninft 
 the under, fo as by a ftroke at the fepa- 
 ration to let the air pals articulated into 
 B and P ; the firft by a parallel equal 
 opening, the fecond by a more angular or 
 pointed opening. 
 
 There remain ftill two other elementary 
 founds of' voice, which can not properly 
 
 be
 
 ( ^S7 ) 
 be faid to pafs out at the month, for they 
 are articulated and founded, the firft wit'li 
 lips actually (hut, and the fecond clearly 
 in and through the nofe. In founding M, 
 the air is flopt abfokuely by the fhutting 
 of the lips, and is returned up into the 
 nofe. In articulating N, the lips are not 
 adually clofed, but the air articulated into 
 ibund is returned back through the nofe. 
 The firil two may be called 
 guttural, or rather for diftlnc- 
 tion fake, as will be feen pre^ 
 
 2 fently, I fhould wifli to call 
 
 them glottal — - G. K. 
 
 becaufe I fpeak of the guttural 
 catch befides 
 
 3 The three next lingual — S. R. L* 
 2 The two next dental — D. T, 
 
 2 The two next labial — B. P. 
 2 The two next nafal. --- M, N. 
 
 1 1 articulated founds. 
 Not any one of thefe elements can be 
 pronounced without fome oral intonathn 
 annexed to the articulation. Each can be 
 pronounced with five different fuch oral 
 founds annexed, but with five .only and 
 no more ; all equally can have five oral 
 founds annexed, but thev are vet the fame 
 jive o7'ah annexed in the fame manner. 
 Thefe oral elements can be founded as 
 
 parts
 
 ( 'j8 ) 
 
 parts of fpeech when feparated from' what 
 I call the articulated elementary Ibunds* 
 The others, without an annexion of fome. 
 of thefe orals are not founds, but rather 
 the articulated vehicles of founds. Ana- 
 lyfis then leads to experiments made of 
 the voice as to thefe orals, feparately by 
 themfelves, and conjundly with all the 
 articulations ; and the refult is that there 
 are but jfive ultimately diftincl intonations 
 of voice in fpeach. A * pronounced in 
 the opening of the mouth by an elevation 
 of the roof and an angular elevation of 
 the upper lip ; U by a lowering fomewhat 
 of the under jaw, and an angular projedion 
 of the under lip : E by a parallel opening 
 of the mouth and curvilineal contra^lion 
 of the under lip. O by an oval or circular 
 opening of the mouth and lips, and 1 by 
 a funple perpendicular ftroke of the jaws 
 in the enunciation of it. 
 
 Tht{e Jixteen elements of fpeech are all 
 into which vocal found can be ultimately 
 refolved ; and more are not neceffary nor 
 are found as ultimate elements in any 
 language; the five Nation-Indians of North 
 America do in no cafe ufe the lips in fpeak- 
 ing. There cannot be therefore, nor are 
 any labials in that language. 
 
 * Vide Plate D in Appendi-, No Ih 
 
 Thefe
 
 C '59 ) 
 
 ♦ Thefe indiviiible elements neither am 
 nor can be pronounced differently (what- 
 ever chara£le is they may bear which dil- 
 guifes them) from the ultimate elementary 
 articulated found into which the found of 
 all languages may be refolved. 
 
 All are, however, by different lauguages, 
 and by the fame language fpoken under 
 different climates ; varioufly furcharged, 
 either by a guttural catch of the voice ^ as 
 they pals the glottis ; or by various ajpi- 
 rations as they pafs off after their articu- 
 lation ; or (as in the fpecial cafe of M and 
 N) are follov\'ed by a rebound of found, 
 the conlequence of the form which the 
 organs had taken in articulating thern. 
 
 Sir T. Smyth fays, that eacli nation or 
 race of people hath each its peculiar founds, 
 which each reciprocally cannot pronounce 
 exa6lly. x'\nd that therefore there (houid 
 be different letters to reprefent thefe founds. 
 If by letters he here meant characters, the 
 conclufion is fairly drawn ; but unlefs he 
 f rft proves that thefe difl:ering founds are 
 ultimate indivifible elements, they do wot 
 require different elementary letters. Upon 
 .examination (as will be feea he reciter) 
 they will all prove to be the. fame eis- 
 mentarv founds w^hlch all m'^n ufe, byt 
 
 fur-
 
 ( t6o ) 
 
 furcharged with a guttural catch or an 
 afpiration, or other mingled adjun6t which 
 can be divided from them. Now thele 
 peculiar enunciations of the elements of 
 ipeech furcharged with thefe adjunct or 
 mixed compounds, arife from diiferent 
 forms and textures of the organs of Ipeech, 
 and thefe forms or textures arife from dif- 
 ferent habits of life, or the eife(5ls of dif- 
 ferent climates. Thefe guttural catches 
 or hanging of the voice about the glottis, 
 thefe afpirations furcharged upon, or 
 mudyly mixt with the elementary founds, 
 are chiefly found in <;arly barbarous times, 
 and in northern climates, and many of 
 them by degrees wear out of ufe. 
 
 In the glottals, being guttural, this 
 catch of the voice became what was pro- 
 perly called the Digamma^ as having by 
 the catch or hanging of the voice the 
 efFe(f!i:, in pronunciation, of a double G or 
 K. In the Unguals this furcharge in dif- 
 ferent nations always preceeded the R : 
 Added a hoarfe furcharge, a thick breath- 
 ing rather than a found to S : and doubled 
 L, with a hoarfenefs coming betwixt 
 (Ibmething like but not F.) which no 
 people, that I know, can pronounce but the 
 Welch, as they do when they pronunce 
 
 u
 
 [ i6i ] 
 
 The dentals are in like manner fome- 
 times fur- charged with this hoarfe afpi- 
 ration, fometimes with a kind of muddy 
 diflblvent in the various pronunciations of 
 Dh and Th. The Engh^fh pronunciation 
 expreffes this, which 1 do not know to 
 defcribe, but have given examples of in 
 pages 165 and 166. 
 
 The labials are alfo liable to the fame, 
 as in the inflances of B and Vaw or ev ; 
 and P or Phi, Fi, or iph and ef. 
 
 As the lips are elofe fhut at the articu- 
 lating and pronouncing M ; when they 
 open, after if it is enounced, they feem to 
 give and add to it the rebound of B or P 
 mute, and thus we Enghfh in many cafes 
 pronounce it, as thumb and comb ; as 
 fwamp, from the old word fwamm ; where, 
 as Ih'e in his preface to his Diclionary 
 fays, P additur a fine. 
 
 The found of N, in pronunciation, can 
 fcarce go off with a rebound of the voice 
 in a ton fomething like to g or k adjun6l ; 
 the French pronunciation hath this very 
 itrong. 
 
 The ancient Hellenifts had not originally 
 
 manv of thefe furcharg'ed adiundts in their 
 
 L cnunci-
 
 [ .62 ] 
 
 enunciation, and ufed but one borrowed 
 character to exprefs them all, the cha- 
 racler, F, f, the ^olic di-gamma. It 
 partook of H, F, V, G, J, Y and our W 
 founded ou^ juft as the iurcharge, at the 
 time, and in the cafe, happened to be 
 initial or final; mixt with and adjun(£t 
 to confonants ; or inferted between two 
 vowels. 
 
 Dionyfius Halicarnaffus * mentions not 
 only the form but the power of the di^ 
 gamma ^ which he fays was a character 
 refembling the double \t\ gamma, as /; 
 and had a found when prefixed to a vowel 
 beginning a word, fomething like ou : He 
 then gives an example or two. Speak- 
 ing of the low fwampy places which 
 the Aborigines in Italy afiigned to the 
 Pelafgoi upon a treaty with them, he fays 
 thofe places had t« ttoXT^oI sKuooci which, 
 according to the ancient pronunciation, 
 were called ^sXia, Wallia, Felia, or Velia, 
 or Vallies : Thus olxoc, written FoTtcog, was 
 pronounced Vicos, or Wicos, the radix is 
 Wic. 
 
 * 
 
 Zv:r.hii yocf »iv. Tor,- kf^^vloiq "EWzTn, u; ru woXXa, TgonS/rat 
 itcjjic/jiv, civo'j-tti* al otp^^xl oaro Cuv/J-Huv iyivPio mi oii crvK^ 
 
 Lib. I. Antiq. Rom. Edit. Svlbuigii, p. t6. 
 
 When
 
 C 163 ) 
 
 When in after-times thefe Hellenifts 
 began to analyfe, their language with fome 
 fcientific attention, they invented charac- 
 ters to exprefs lome of thefe mixed founds, 
 as x-> ^9 <?' 4^' ?' ^» ^i^^ ^o refined the reft, 
 as that the ^ohc digamma ceafed to be of 
 \ife or ill practice with them. -. 
 
 What I have faid rhuft depend upon 
 fad: in fuch inftances as the learned reader 
 fhall meet with. I, an unlearned labourer, 
 will give fome examples, or proofs, of 
 what I here venture to alfert. To begin 
 with the gutturals of the glottal elements. 
 Both G and K are furcharged frequently 
 with a catch or hard breathing, which 
 the ancients either fuppofed to be a hang- 
 ing or catch of the voice, and therefore 
 expreffed by a Di-gamma or an afperate, 
 and fuppofed an h to be the adjan61; of this 
 furcharged pronunciation, in the firfl cafe 
 they uied the F or f ; in in the latter *r or 
 Gh and % or Kh and double F or ff. 
 
 The firrcharge in the pronunciation of 
 the Linguals R, L, and S, was various, 
 as ^ p, or F ^, or B 0, or H ^. L was 
 doubled and had the digamma under the 
 found of F interwoven as L F L. S had h 
 or rather ch adjunct to it, but in my 
 opinion, formed on repeated experiments, 
 L 2 and
 
 ( i64 ) 
 
 and In the opinion of a much better judge 
 than me, 1 mean the very learned Sir T* 
 Smyth, neither h as in EngHfli, nor ch as 
 in German, anfwer the found of Sh. 
 The open g, or y, the true di-gamma, is 
 what here makes the proper adjunct. Ne- 
 que fonus ille [inquit Smythius- de redla 
 et emendata Ling. Angl. pronun. et fcript.] 
 quem nos proferimus dum illam (i. e. She) 
 aut fraxinum (i. e. Afli) dicimus, re£le, 
 per She et y^, confcribitur, nee enim 
 verus et genuinus fonus iitriufve literae 
 auditur. nam defit rf S ferpentinus ille 
 fibiUus, et Tu h grandis et violentus afflatus. 
 Sed quid:im intermedins et mixitis fonus 
 perfentitur. Vide autem quanturp a vulgi 
 opinione divert judicium menm, et ut 
 inlelligas clarius quod volo, prirnum fona 
 illud quod apud nos [viz. Anglos'^ infernus 
 appellatur, HelL ferva fonum hunc inte- 
 grum et prepone j, s-heH, Ita fona quod 
 appcllimus hall et prepone s. s-hall. Vides 
 non lonari illud quod nos co^cham noftra 
 vocamus lingua, nee quod efl: futuri tem- 
 poris fignum noftrate. At nunc e contra 
 fona quod nos noftra lingua ejulare dicimus, 
 icil 7 ell. et idem quod de canibus dicitur 
 Taul, et prepone s. fervando femper prl- 
 orem fonum, nt unam tantum fyllabam 
 facleiido, et invenies fyell tt Jyall. QuaTO 
 nunc abs te, mi Quinte, uter fonus pro- 
 pi nquior
 
 ( '65 ) 
 
 pinqnior el quern pronunciamus cnm vo- 
 lumus dicere angUce concham ^Shell] et 
 fignum temporis ^uturls [fhall]. Profeflo 
 hasc poflerior per S et Y — In the examples 
 which I fhall give prefently, the reader 
 will have frequent occaiiou to obferve that 
 Y (open G as I call it) founded as we 
 Englifh found it, occurs more often as the 
 true lound of the di-gamma than any 
 other. 
 
 In like manner the two dental elements 
 D and T are liable to be, and are a(5tually, 
 furchaged with an adjundl found, which 
 is commonly fuppofed to be a mere af- 
 perate, and fuppofed alfo to be exprefled 
 by /&, as Dh and Th. And the Greeks, 
 as is fuppofed about the time of the Trojan 
 war, invented the character and ^, to 
 mark the expreffion of this mixed found 
 Th. But no charadler was, as I under- 
 ftand, ever ufed to mark the furcharged D, 
 or Dh. And yet after all, this 5 does not 
 fully anfvver with precifion to the cafe in 
 which it is applied. T with the afpirate h 
 adjunct to it, has a very different found 
 from the "^yi-xoc and the <J,]r«, both which 
 are not only different from it, but from 
 each other. I will give examples of this 
 from our Englifh, Saxon, or Deutfch 
 language, whicli I may fairly do, as it will 
 L 3 appeal-
 
 ( '66 ) 
 
 appear that thefe derivatives obferved and 
 prcfervcd the orignal pronunciation ; when 
 I fay that h as the afpiratc is adjiinB to 
 the d or t, I follow the cxpreffion of my 
 learned m.ifter ; non dicimus permifceri 
 litems, fed adjungi ; now that h thus ad- 
 jun6l to d, or t, does not give the very 
 diifcient mixt founds which wepercjive in 
 the words, Ta*en, Thane, Than. Tea, 
 The, Thief. Tye, Thigh, Thin, Thine, 
 Thy- Taw, Thaw, Though. Turn, (the 
 Latin word) Thumb,Thus ; Tun, Thunder, 
 nor either of them ; try it by my mafter's 
 refolution and compofition, lound firfl: e, 
 then h he^ then adjoint to this the diftin^i 
 found of /, preferving the unity of the 
 fyHablc and your ear will receive t*-h.e, and 
 fo of the reft ; but if defirous to proceed 
 further, you would wifli by this means, 
 hy this T and h adjuTK^:, to exprefs the 
 two very differen.t founds which Th has 
 in the article l^ke^ and in the word Thief"; 
 tliis adjoining of b either to T or D will 
 never do it. Tl.is is a peculiar j^^rw/A:/ 
 found y which I believe will appear the 
 Greeks never had in ufe or any notion of, 
 nor the northern people whofe language 
 they originally fpoke, for by the words 
 in German which are clearly Greek, the 
 found is T'h and D'h. 
 
 Ana-
 
 ( '6/ ) 
 
 Analogous to what occurs in tliefc, a like 
 furcharge operates on the two JabiaJs B and 
 P ; and here agam the note of afpiration, 
 or the general mark of the diganmia 
 varioufly founded, is fuppofed to ferve for 
 the peculiar exprefiion. P is muddied into 
 Ph or F, and B into Vau or W. 
 
 This digamma bearing the femblancc of 
 Gor r, at the beginning of words was emol- 
 llated into Y and W, and often in the 
 latter end of words into Y, \V, or fF, — 
 thus ^Aprjg made both warr and guerrfe ; 
 dag, day; o£lo, eight, eiyht ; daughter, 
 dawter ; laugh, laff. This digamma with 
 the femblance of G between two vowels is 
 feldom pronounced as G hard, but as open 
 G, or Y, or as V, or as H, of all which 
 there are examples in the lame word 
 pronounced in different languages. 
 
 I have fald, and upon repeated tryals T 
 am perluaded to adhere to my opinion, 
 that there are but lixteen ultimate indi- 
 vifible elements of fpeech within the 
 power of mankind ; for although, from the 
 various ufe and texture of their organs of 
 fpeech, they may afplrate, confnfe, or 
 furcharge thefe ; vet whatever founds they 
 enounce, fuch flill remain diviiible to thoi'e 
 ultimate elements. The variety of diale^ls 
 L '4 and
 
 ( -68 ) 
 
 and languages, however, ailfe from the 
 interchangable ufe of the elements of the 
 lame organ of fpeech, from the mixing of 
 them with each other, and from the fur- 
 charging them with the various modes of 
 afpiration. Thus one race or nation of 
 people is inclined to ufe G inftead of K ; 
 or K inftead of G ; D inftead of T ; or 
 T inftead of D j B inftead of P; or P in- 
 flead of B. 
 
 By an attentive examination of the 
 peculiarities in enunciation which each 
 people have, in the one way or the other, 
 by a fair reciprocal analyfis of the agnate 
 words tney reciprocally ufe, I think a 
 much greater agnation may be found 
 amongft all the languages in the northern 
 hemilphere of our globe, and much more 
 philofnphic derivation of thefo from fome 
 other languages may be deduced than is 
 commonly thought to exift. 
 
 This fort of aiiahfs, this refoluiion and 
 compofition of Language into its elements^ uni' 
 verjally purjued to its etymon, feenis to me 
 the duty of the antiquary, and would give 
 great light to thefudy of antiquities. 
 
 From the following lift of words, which 
 I write down more as examples to illuftrate, 
 
 than
 
 ( >69 :> 
 
 fchan as teftlinony of proof, will be feea 
 how the words, which are therein inferted, 
 alihough they fcarce feem to have the 
 leaft limiHtude, yet prove to be the very 
 fame words fpoken with the fame ele- 
 ments differently afpirated, mixt, or 
 furcharged with adjuncSV founds. The 
 reader is dehred to recolleft the ideas given 
 of the various tones of the digamma, and 
 .of the afpirate Th and Dh, and of G, and 
 what I call open G or Y, with more par- 
 ticular attention. 
 
 A;o5, ioi^ Ea, Ey, all fignify in their ter- 
 mination land or country ; and pronounced 
 with the guttural catch become Ti? and Tcaoc, 
 
 "Eot^, ver. with the digamma Y, is jy^^r. 
 
 El'x, gramen with the afpirate, is /jay, 
 
 l!V/, with the afpirate, is in Swedifh, 
 ^Wjet, with the digamma Y in Englifli, 
 js yet. 
 
 Ai'oXog verfutus, with the digamma W, 
 is Wyley, 
 
 "Avip muft have been fometimes pro- 
 nounced with a digamma, inferted between 
 the two vowels, whence it produced 
 Ae(th)er, ^Ether; we fhall meet with 
 more examples of the fame. 
 
 "Afijc, Mars, with the digamma W, is 
 war; v*'ith the digamma G, is guerre. 
 
 I believe 
 4
 
 ( ^70 ) 
 
 I believe it will be found that G was by 
 different nations, ancient as well as mo- 
 dern, commonly pronounced as I and Y, 
 or open G, as I call it, and fometimes W, 
 and fometimes K. 
 
 rovu = Genu, K*nee. 
 
 VvKiog — vafculum militare viaticum, 
 Wallet. 
 
 r£^G5vo = Grus, Yheran, Swedifh; or He- 
 ron, Englifh. 
 
 rav(7ou — facere curfum tortuofum, to 
 yau^, fald of a fhip, when (he runs a tor- 
 tuous courfe. 
 
 TeiG-ov — fuggrundium tecli, Jo'i/}, 
 
 Vevaov — mentum, Djin or Chin. 
 
 AErfi:/=r colligere, German, legen. Old 
 Englifli, %, now lay. 
 
 In like manner, thofe words which are 
 in Swedifn, written and pronounced with 
 G or J, are in the Englilh derivatives writ^ 
 ten and pronounced as with Y, being fo 
 founded in the original. 
 
 Swedifh. Englifh. 
 
 Gabb = irriiio Yabb or Yape 
 
 Gai'M = lana Yarn 
 
 Gult = fiavus Yellow 
 
 Ju = tu You 
 
 Ye! n = Ferrum Ir'n 
 
 To = imo Yan, Yea, or Yes
 
 ( 171 ) 
 
 Jul = NativitasChrifli Yule 
 Jull = Cimba Yaul 
 
 Junker = Juvenis Younker. 
 
 Hj is the afpirated /, which theEnglilK 
 pronounce as with a mute y after H. 
 
 Swedifh. 
 
 Englifh 
 
 Hjelp 
 
 Hjelm 
 
 Hjert 
 
 Hyelp 
 Helm 
 Heart 
 
 Hjord 
 Hjul 
 
 Herd 
 
 Wheel. 
 
 Whenever in foreign words G or Gh 
 termines, we foften this by opening G to 
 Y, as in the common termination Lig, we 
 open it to Ley; Laugh, Cough, we pro- 
 nounce LafFand CofF; Daughter, Dawter, 
 and fo on. Dock, T'hpugh ; Tag, Day ; 
 Wag, Way. 
 
 When the G as a digamma is inferted 
 between two vowels, 1 believe it is alwavs 
 opened, as Vo(g)el, Fo-el, Fowl. When 
 one fees that oeii and oculus are agnate 
 words, fignifying the fame thing, one 
 cannot doubt but that o-eil was pronounced 
 with an inferred digamma like voo^el, or 
 like the Swedifh Hr.gel, foftened by the 
 Englilh into Ha'yel, now fp^^lt Haile ; as 
 
 thus,
 
 [ ^r- ] 
 
 thus, o(g)eIl, and in fa«fl we find It {q In 
 the word ogle. 
 
 The Greek *Pu«i' makes the Latin 
 T'ra(h)are and the German D'ra(g)en, and 
 the EngUfti draw or drew. 
 
 Now 'pJw was certainly afpirated, and 
 had in pronunciation a digamma, which 
 was neither a determinate h nor ^— take 
 the open g or y, and the derivation, or 
 rather agnation, is clear in all the lan- 
 guages. 
 
 Our anceftors the Saxons had a peculiar 
 method of pronouncing the afpirated D 
 and T, in a way in which the original 
 found was well nigh loft. Although we are 
 in common taught to think that in thefe 
 we ufe the true Greek pronunciation of 
 the ^, I am apt to fufpe£l we are miftaken, 
 and that 5 was fcarce ever pronounced as 
 we ufe it ; for inftance, ©so? made D'eus, 
 or T*eus, and not Theus. So the name 
 of the Punic city which the Romans wrote 
 Cartha'^Oy was Keir-Dagon^ or Thagon 
 the City of Dagnn^ in the fame manner as 
 Beth-Dagon, the Temple of Dagon is 
 written by the Greeks, BvUayuv and Bijfl- 
 Socyocv. I Maccabees, c. x. v. 83. 
 
 ' AyuSog
 
 ( ^73 ) 
 
 "Aya9o^ makes got or god, and not gotli. 
 
 ©ijp«, Fera Silveftris, makes T'hier and 
 Deer, not Theer. 
 
 Bv^oi Oftium, makes T'hu*r and Door, 
 not Thoor. 
 
 ©oivT} Caena,, epulum. — D'hln, Dinner, 
 and not thinner,. > ; i 
 
 Qeivai operare,- — T'heinen, T'huen, or 
 to do. 
 
 Qoifpetv audere, Saxon, Dearren. Englifli, 
 Dare. 
 
 The Teuts always fo pronounced Th 
 and Dh, and the obferving this fimihrity 
 betwixt them and the Greeks will . explain 
 many matters of Etymology. 
 
 German. 
 * T'hal 
 T'hole 
 T'hau 
 i. e. ros. 
 T'haller 
 
 T'heil 
 
 Theilenl 
 Partire, J 
 
 T'hum 
 
 Swedifli. 
 D'al 
 
 Dagg 
 
 D'augh 
 
 Daller 
 
 Del 
 
 Pars. 
 
 J 
 
 and Englifh. 
 Dale 
 I^ole 
 Dew 
 
 Dollar 
 a Deal 
 
 Dela 
 
 Doma 
 Judicare 
 
 J 
 
 to Deal 
 
 Doom 
 
 * The fame as the old Greek Ativygi. 
 Lib. iic. 
 
 See Strab(7; 
 
 Din
 
 
 ( '74 ) 
 
 
 
 Din 
 
 Thine 
 
 T'hunder 
 
 D'under 
 
 Til under 
 
 T'hon 
 
 
 Ton 
 a Sound 
 
 In like manner we find the fame word 
 fignitying" the fame thing originally, both 
 in Greek and German, the one fpelt with 
 the dental T, the other with the dental D. 
 Teixog and Dyke, ^Ko-Aeetv to Tye, fo 
 Ucclvpi <Pc>^(^npi fpoken Viidher or Father," ' 
 
 In like manner Uarog (from Trutsci} calce- 
 conterere) fignifies via concalcata and trita, 
 Englifh, path or pai/.' So TIts^ov (quafi 
 TTBTe^ev^ afyirsited (plQi^ou, fea I her. 
 
 There can be no doubt thd.t Boo g from 
 CSg was pronounced with an inferted di- 
 gamma, when we find it in Latin Bovis, 
 and in French Beuf, and in Englifh plu- 
 ral Beeves. So"Oi$-, Ovig. Dr. Bentley in 
 a note, ad Lib. 23. Od. Horat. fays,"TXi? per 
 digamma ^olicum, "TA/ij, Silva. 
 
 The Cohans were faid to prefix B be- 
 fore P. Of this we have feveral inftances 
 in illuftration in the modern northern 
 languages. *PuT^p, JEo\ic\B pur^^, Frasnum, 
 ^ Bnde or Bridle. 
 
 'P«xo^
 
 ( ^:s ) 
 
 and l^Eolic, Bpuxos, a Break or Breach, 
 
 Alio Fa^jLvog, y^olic, B^x^vog, a Bramble, 
 'Pua|, itolic, Bpvu^, Rivus, a Brook. 
 
 Here follow three inftances of B afpi- 
 rated into Vaw ; in the firfl: inftance fpelt 
 by Pf ; in the fecond by V. ; in the third 
 f and V. 
 
 BiXog, Tellum fagitta. Pfeil, an arrow. 
 
 Bpi, a particle fignifying exceeding, but 
 chiefly as prefixt, hence very. 
 
 AeiTTetv, iinquere. Saxon, Lifan. Englifh, 
 to leave, 
 
 Inftances of the digamma founding as 
 our W, or the Saxon }7, 
 
 "<D.ov, Tadum, won. to wonn, to dwell. 
 "0«/5, Mulier, Whore. 
 *'OXo;, totum. Whole. 
 *Ov, neuter of eg. One, founded Wone. 
 OTkos Wic. 
 
 Olvogf 'uinum, Wine, and in W^elfhj 
 Gwine. 
 "T^w^, Wafler, and Water. 
 
 '^YAi?, ^TXu^Tig. Silva &c locus Silveftris. 
 Weal. Weald. 
 
 ^T^c^^caj 6c v(py}. Woof and weave. 
 
 In the word Ko7Xcg, as ufed by the 
 Englifh in the word agnate with it, there 
 
 remains
 
 ( '76 ) 
 
 remains the guttural catch before the 
 afperate, the northern pronunciation for a 
 hole, is a hoil, with fomething of a catch, 
 as Ghoil. 
 
 From tliefe Principles of RefoIufio7i and 
 Compojltion applied to the elements of 
 fpeech, as T have ventured to apply them ; 
 and from the few exaniples which I, who 
 do not pretend to be a linguifl, have ad- 
 duced ; I think the learned Antiquary who 
 is a linguifl, or ratlicr fome fuch corre- 
 fponding Society as I have ventured to fug- 
 gefl the idea of, would foon eflablilh a 
 philofophic Polyglott that would ferve all 
 the ufes of an univerfal language^ and, 
 what is of better confequencc, wouM be 
 pradicable and praclical. 
 
 N" II.
 
 ( 1/7 ) 
 
 No II. 
 
 A Treatife on PiSftire IVritlng^ Hieroglyphic 
 and Elementary Writings Jheiving how 
 the firfl arofe from Nature^ the fecond 
 frora Art ; with an Illujlration of the 
 Kfedls which thefe have had on the De-^ 
 viations and Mutations of Language, in a 
 Letter to Thomas Aftk , Efq\ 051. 25,1778. 
 
 Read at the Society of Antiquaries, Jan. 18, 1781, 
 
 SIR, 
 
 AS you acquainted me, that you was 
 employed in making a colle6:ion of 
 Specimens and Exemplars of all the va- 
 rious modes of writing pra6Vifed by various 
 nations, from the earliefl to the prefcnt 
 time ; that you fliould * publilh thefe in 
 
 drawings, 
 
 * This colleftion is to confift of Specimens of the Phoe- 
 nician, Chaldee, Hebrew, Etrufcan, Greek, Ofcian, Ro- 
 man, Gaelic, Welfh, Irifh, Gothic, Ifiandic, and Anglo- 
 Saxon Writing, taken from original MSS» and other an- 
 cient Documents now preferved in public Rcpofitories, and 
 private Collections: in the courfe of which is to be illuf- 
 irated by examples from fimih'r materials, The progrefs 
 of writing in Italy, in France, in Germany, The progrefs 
 of the Saxon and Norman writing in Englandj as alio of the 
 writing in the Englljh Language^ trom the earliell times to 
 the reign of queen Elizabeth, with fpecimens of the char- 
 , M tef3
 
 ( -78 ) 
 drawings, copied per faclum fimile ; that 
 you fhould accompanv this with ohferva- 
 tions on each, and with a Trcatife on the 
 whole, in which you fliould be naturally led 
 by your fubje(5l to take fome notice of the 
 origin of writing ; and recoIlc6ling fome 
 opinions of mine, contained in a paper 
 read about three or four years ago at the 
 Society of Antiquaries, you defired I would 
 look it out and let you have it : it is with 
 the greatefl readinefs and pleafure that I 
 comply with your requeft, and fend you 
 the following Treatife, a new draught, 
 extracted chiefly from that paper. 
 
 A knowledge of the methods by which 
 mankind in primitive times realized by 
 vlfible images their ideas ; lb as to place 
 them under the eye, and to fix them per- 
 manent in time, is a fource of curious iii- 
 vefligation to the Antiquary. 
 
 The firfl: efforts which men of all races, 
 and in all countries, have made to this 
 
 tcrs of each fovercign, frrm William I. to Henry VIIT. 
 As Mr. AlVe has a peculiar turn for, anJ great iniu'mation 
 in this bra.)ch of learning ; as he h:is one of the heft pri- 
 Viite Cilleiftions of ihe!e materials ; and as being; kt-eper of 
 the Recorus, arrl, with Mr. Topham, has the care and 
 cullody ot the State Papers ; there is no pcrfoa can h:n e 
 greater opportu iities; the expectations of the world nrnft 
 therefore be raifed for this publication. 
 
 pu rpo fc,
 
 [ ^19 J 
 
 purpofe, have been made, not as tlie ele- 
 mentary writing is, by piCiurfs of their 
 nvords, but by portraits of their ideas, and 
 alfo (as well as they could deicribe them, 
 by figns and metaphors) of the circum- 
 flances, relations, adtions, and effedts, pro- 
 duced and fuffered in all combinations, jufl 
 as they lay conceived in the mind. The 
 very language of thefe unlettered people is 
 conducted by metaphors and allegory ; the 
 tranfcript therefore into vifible ideas could 
 be nothing but the pctures of thefe 
 images. This reaibning is derived from 
 fad: ; let us fee how the fad ftands. 
 
 The American Indians do thus in fad. 
 When they would defcribe their nation, 
 their country, time, and the feafons ; 
 adions of any kind, journeys by land, or 
 by water ; war and its operations and glory, 
 peace and its bleffings ; planting or hunt- 
 ing ; they draw or paint fome vifible cha- 
 raderlftlc objeds. They ufe, to defignate 
 their tribe or nation, fome fixt fymbol, 
 generally taken from fome animal, whofv^ 
 ads are defcrlptive of the particular cha- 
 rader which they affume or afcribe to thvlr 
 tribe, their race, or nation ; fome vlllble 
 known mark, charaderlillc of the fort of 
 region which their country is. Time they 
 defcribe bv the pidure of the fun or 
 moon or ftars : The Seafous by that of a 
 M J, tree
 
 ( '8° ) 
 
 tree in leaf ; the fall by a tree without leaf. 
 As their journeys are m ftly made along 
 the rivers, they generally defcribe their 
 journeys or excuriions by a conoe ; not but 
 they do fometimes, to exprefs travelling 
 by land, draw a * foot ; or, if by land in 
 winter, a fnow-flioe. War they commonly 
 exprels by the hatchet or fcull-breaker : 
 Enemies killed by Icalps, priloners taken by 
 withies or bands : hunting by the animals 
 of the chace . The making peace by the 
 burying of the hatchet, and a ftate of 
 peace by any thing which denotes their 
 planting ground, as a wigwam and corn. 
 They afcribe characters to animals, ac- 
 cording to their fpecific nature ; and, to 
 defcribe the characters of men or nations, 
 they give the portrait of thofe animals 
 whom they fuppofe as of notoriety to have 
 fuch charafters. 
 
 Thus, the names given to remarkable 
 characters have always this reference; one 
 is called the eagle ; another the wolf, the 
 fox, the tortoife, the bear, the Terpen t, the 
 beaver ; they make reference alfo to ina- 
 nimate vifible objects, as, the Avift arrow, 
 light, &c. &c. and thefe animals or vi- 
 fible. objects become the piCture-name of 
 fuch perfon ; of all which. I have known 
 inftances. Thofc circumftances, and that 
 general ftate of things (to exprefs which 
 
 *" The Egyptians do exadtly the fame. 
 
 in
 
 C i8i ) 
 
 in fpeech they have no general and com- 
 plex words), they defcribe by reference 
 to vifible images, bearing fome ideal 
 fimilitude of, or alluiion to fuch. The 
 refolve, or act of going to war, they 
 exprefs by the phrafe of " taking up the 
 *' hatchet *, or Jiriking with the hatchet ;'* 
 the termination of war, by " biuying the 
 " hatchet \^ a breach of peace, or a re- 
 newal of war, by *' ^'gg^^g ^p ihe hatchet 
 *' that was buryed\'' a flate of peace, by 
 " a tree in its full vegetation, giving 
 *' Ihelter, and bearing fruit ;" the a6l of 
 condolence, by " wiping off the tears from 
 " the eyes ;'* an a£l of reparation (with 
 them always preceded by the a6l of con- 
 dolence) is expreffed by *' wafhing off the 
 " bloody and by prefenting prefents to heal 
 *' the wound %"* a£l:s. of oblivion, by the 
 *' covering the adiions with a blanket'^'' a6i:s 
 of explanation, by *' prefents, to wipe the 
 '* film off the eyes^ Nor are thefe a<5ls 
 confined to the ideal metaphor only, they 
 are always accompanied by the prefent of 
 a blanket, linen, or wampum, where- 
 with fuch a£t is fuppofed to be performed. 
 In what I have here referred to, I fpeak of 
 things of common notoriety, as generally 
 and univerfally occurring in their treaties. 
 
 * This means in general the fcull-breaker. The French 
 tranflate it CalTe-tete ; our interpreters tranflate it hatchet, 
 as that inftrument is now ufed tor that weapon. 
 
 M 2 When
 
 ( iSz ) 
 
 When they would write this, or re- 
 prcfent it to the eye, wliat can their 
 writing be l)ut thele images forming a 
 picture r Exactly in this manner, in the 
 pi6lure-hiil:ory of the Indians of Mexico, 
 publiflied by Purchas, you w^ill fee the 
 ftate of the fettlement of a town or diftridt 
 reprefented by a tree; and the redutSlion of 
 that fettlement by force of arms to a lub- 
 je6l ftate, by that tree being cut half 
 through. The number of notches in that 
 principal cut either fignifies the number 
 of ftrokes which it fuffered before it was 
 reduced to that fl:ate, or elfe the proportion 
 of tribute it was under that flate obliged 
 to pay. There is one inftance where the 
 tree is cut quite up by the roots ; and one 
 inftance wherein the fymbol of ipeech, by 
 thereprefentation of the tongue(as thus^^^*^), 
 Is given to a tree half cut through ; by 
 which I underfland, that the pi6:ure- 
 fymbol means to exprcfs a furreuderon ca- 
 pitulation. 
 
 You alfo fee under the fame metapho- 
 rical conception, in Plate LVIIJ. of Nor- 
 dcn's Travels, a pi6lure-reprcfentation of 
 a treaty, on a fragment of a very fmgular 
 Bas-relief. exnrelTed by two perfons ne- 
 gotiating by mutual reference to a tree that 
 ftands between them, on which tree is 
 hung a tablet of an oval form, with the 
 
 ele-
 
 t '83 ] 
 
 elementary chara6lers on it, as In plate C. 
 fig. 3. By thefe inftances the reaioning 
 and example come hand in hand to the 
 dedudion of the fa6l. Obferve here, that 
 the courle of the wriilng is in the perpen- 
 dicular line, and I think fhould be read 
 upwards. 
 
 In like manner fome allegorick pl6lure 
 of this very kind would befl:, at leaft very 
 fufficiently and compleatly, exprefs the 
 metaphorical repre fen tation given by the 
 Kenundioni, or Five-nation confederacy, 
 of their original ftate of alliance wath the 
 Dutch and Englifh. This original and 
 firfl intercourle which they had with us 
 Europeans, they exprefs in their language 
 by '* the arrival of a great canoe on their 
 '■^ flmres^ or on the bank of fome river ^^ 
 The firft at£i: of their friendfhip they ex- 
 preis by *' the tying this canoe fafe and 
 '-'■ fecure to a tree on the jhore or banks. "^^ 
 This ideal tree they call the tree of peace, 
 protection, friendlhip, happinefs, <&c. In 
 their tranfa6tions and treaties they ufe a 
 multitude of variations of this apologue. 
 They call the ligature, by which the canoe 
 is tyed, a chain. Good faith is exprefl'ed 
 by " the chain beiiig kept bright ;" and 
 the contrary by " this chain contraBing 
 ** fome fiain or riiji ;" a renewal of tliis 
 old friendfhip by " brightening and clean- 
 M 4 " Jng
 
 [ '84 ] 
 
 *^ ing this chains This chain was at firft, 
 as I have laid, fuppofed to be fafteoed to 
 fome tree on the banks : Afterwards, as 
 this alliance extended itfelf more and more 
 into the concerns and interefls of the 
 country, they expreffed this circumftance 
 by faying, " they had planted the tree of 
 '' peace further hack into the country.^'* 
 When they would exprefs a more folid per- 
 petuity of peace, they then marked that, 
 by faying, they would " make the chain 
 *''' faji to fome mountain in the country. 
 Finally, when this alliance became ge- 
 neral and national, they then exprefl'ed this 
 iftate of it, by faying, " that they had 
 " lengthened this chain, and had carried it 
 " up to their great council-houfe at Onon^ 
 " daga^ where they had madeit faJlT This 
 is invariably, in their language, the picture 
 of their ideas of the original friendfliip and 
 alliance with the Dutch and Englifh. Any 
 new treaties fet on foot v^ith the Eu- 
 ropeans, after they were fettled in the 
 country, they exprefl'ed by ''^fixing a place 
 *' Inhere ttey foould light afire^'' always to 
 be kept alive, not an adual, but meta- 
 phorical or allegorical fire. All the changes, 
 accidents, interruptions, &c. ot this flate 
 of union and communion are exprefled by 
 the care taken in preferving this fire; by 
 its burning bright, or by its being negledted 
 
 and
 
 ( '85 ) 
 
 and becoming fmoaky and fmothered. And 
 if they do ever renounce that particular 
 treaty or ftate of union and communion, 
 they exprefs it by ^'-putting out the fire^ 
 I heard at the treaty at Albany, in 1754, 
 the great * Tianhoga ufe this exprelhon 
 to the Dutch Commiffioners at Albany, 
 when he, on the part of the Five Nations, 
 refufed any more to treat with them. The 
 Indians have in general fome ft range 
 myftick, but undefined -f notion of the 
 pervading fpirit of fire ; and a communi- 
 cation of, or communion in, this fpirit, 
 amongfl: parties contra 'fling, is with them 
 the moll folemn facrament, of the higheft 
 form. Thus, the fmoaking one common 
 pipe of tobacco, fo that all the contradling 
 parties, become participants of the fame 
 fire, is one of the moil facred acSls of 
 Faith pledged. The pipe ufed on this 
 occafion is not a common one, but one 
 prepared for the purpoie, painted and or- 
 namented always with feathers, and ge- 
 nerally with embroidery of porcupine- 
 quills. It is called the Calupiet, and is 
 lodged by the propofing party Vv^ith the 
 
 * Vulgarly called, by a Chrlftian name, Hendcrkk. 
 
 ■^ One fees this undefined idea well depifted in the fjie- 
 clmen of Indian pidure-writing given by Dr. Robertfon, 
 viz. an undefined, unfinifhed, imperfeft figure, exiiling 
 amidil flames : the hand (marking efled !) is drawn diilinftly, 
 tfie rell indiltindh 
 
 party
 
 ( ,86 ) 
 
 party agreeing, as the moft folemn record 
 of that treaty lb niade and concluded. 
 This calumet is to be kept ready for fnioak- 
 ing upon any future ufe made of, or any 
 reference had to, that treaty. The Indians 
 are very attentive to preferve this; but 
 we, who call ourfelves civilized, never 
 think more of it. And it is generally 
 given away as a curiofity to fome perlon 
 or other. I had one of thefe calumets, 
 which was thus lodged with my friend 
 Sir William Johnfon, on a very folemn 
 treatv with fome of the weifern Indians ; 
 it was given to me atter his death; he 
 would not have parted with it. Efleeming 
 it a fingular curiofity, perhaps unique in 
 this county, I gave it to Mr. Horace 
 Walpole, and I fuppofe it is in his cabinet 
 at Strawberry Hill. Again : as every a£t 
 of communication, and every propolition 
 made, is pledged by fome token given, 
 which token generally was Wampum^ 
 Beaver^ Blankets^ or Deer-Jkms, Sec. &c. and 
 as the importance of the propofition is efti- 
 mated by the value of the token attending 
 it, fo a Aring, or two or more firings, or 
 a belt of wampum, exprelles the lefl'er or 
 greater importance of the propofition made, 
 or a£l done. On fome very important oc- 
 cafions, thefe belts of wampum had fome 
 device woven in them. The great belt of 
 wampum, given by the Britifh C'om- 
 
 miflioners
 
 ( i87 ) 
 
 miffioners of Eleven Provinces, met at 
 Albany in 1754, to the Five Nations, was 
 near a fathom long, and about a hand's 
 breadth. At one end were the figures of 
 eleven men, hand in hand; on the other, 
 five men alfo hand in hand. Thefe two 
 groups were connected by a line reprefent- 
 ing a Belt of Treaty. I prepared and di- 
 reftcd the delign of this belt. The Indians 
 were much pleafed with this attention to 
 their manners ; and this belt( I dare fay) is 
 kept at this day very facred in the Councll- 
 Houfe at Onondaga, us a record of that 
 great treaty, and renewal of alliance. 
 
 Let any one recur back to the meta- 
 phoric and allegorick defer iptive images by 
 which thefe people thus in their language 
 and reprelentative a(£lions exprefs ideas for 
 which they have no general words ; and 
 let him then fet about to reprefent them 
 by writing to the eye : whoever does 
 10, will naturally write their hijiory by a 
 jerks of pi^ures, which will better ex- 
 prels the ideas in which it is conveyed, 
 than any elementary writing whatfoever 
 could do, was he arrived at the ufe of 
 fuch. This ftate of the matter is con- 
 firmed by a curious fa<5t. In the fpecimen 
 of the copy of American picture-writing 
 given by Dr. Robertfon, in his Hifiory ot 
 America, you will fee many of thefe po- 
 fitions verified ; particularly, you will fee 
 
 two
 
 ( j88 ) 
 
 two warriors holding a belt, and nego- 
 tiating. In another place, two warriors 
 offering prefents to a third warrior. In 
 another part you will lee a fymbol of the 
 fpirit of fire, defcribed by an undefined 
 image, rounded with rays or flames. In 
 another part is the War-kettle boiling, 
 with the fcalping-knife laid acrofs it, and 
 a warrior performing fome ceremony be- 
 fore it. In the fpecimens publifhed by 
 Purchas, you may read (if I may fo exprefs 
 myfelf) many others. I have feen on 
 deer-lkins, and on Indian powder-horns, 
 inftances of this mode of pidlure-writing. 
 I have been told of the fame fort of pic- 
 ture-writing on the bark of trees, par- 
 "ticularly the birch-tree, a tree iifed much 
 by them for various domeflick and field 
 purpofes, and with which alfo, in general, 
 they make their canoes. I do not recolledl 
 myfelf to have feen any of thefe, at leaft 
 not fo as to have been flruck with them ; 
 but I have been told of them by SirWilliam 
 Johnfon ; and I will give you teflimony 
 from another perfon, who was perfect 
 mailer of the Indian affairs ; I mean the 
 late lieutenant governor Golden. Speaking 
 of the Indian cuflom, of their having a 
 rendezvous, where the warriors aflembled 
 before they went out to war, lie relates, 
 " that before they go from thisplace*,they 
 
 ■^ Hift. of the Five Naiions. Iiurodu(ftion, p. 7, 8. 
 
 *' always
 
 ( >89 ) 
 
 *' always peel a large piece of bark from 
 " feme great tree. They commonly chufe 
 ** an oak as moft lafting ; upon the fmootk 
 " fide of this, they with their red paint 
 " draw the picture of one or more canoes, 
 " as going from home with a number of 
 " men in them paddling, according to the 
 " number that go upon the expedition. 
 " They then paint the image of fome ani- 
 *' mal, as a deer, or fox, the emblem of 
 *' the nation againfl which the expedition 
 *' is deiigned, at the head of the canoe," 
 I think Mr. Golden muft have forgot to 
 mention the painting alfo of an emblem, 
 both of the nation and tribe of the Indians, 
 who are engaged in tiie expedition, as well 
 as the caflle or Horne^ from whence they 
 go forth ; this they never omit. He goes 
 on : " Atter the expedition is over, they 
 *' flop at the fame place in tiieir return, 
 " and then continue the pi6lure by a 
 " defcription of the event of the expe- 
 *' dition ; in this part the canoes are 
 " turned towards the Caflle. The number 
 " of the enemy killed is reprefented by 
 fcalps painted black ; and the number 
 " of prifoners, by a number of flrokeo re- 
 " prefenting withies, thefe being the 
 " bonds in which they bind them. Thefe 
 " in their painting, he fays, look like pot- 
 " hooks. Tiiefe trees (or rather rolls of 
 *' of bark) are the a?inaU or trophies of 
 4 " the 
 
 (£
 
 C 190 ) 
 
 '*' the Five Nations. I have feen, fays he, 
 *' many of them ; and by them, and their 
 ** war fongs, they prelerve the hiftory of 
 *' their o^reat atchievements.'* I remember 
 to have heard the tollov/ing ftory of ano- 
 ther fort of picliire-writing. One of our 
 milhonaries making a progrefs in eftabUfh- 
 ing the divine do6lrines of the Gofpel 
 amongft fome tribes of Indians, acquired 
 thereby great influence amongil them. 
 The Sachem, who was at the head of thofe 
 tribes, found his power decline as that of 
 the miilionary arofe. He grew jealous of, 
 but was not able to oppofe, the influence 
 which thefe doctrines carried with them. 
 He fought therefore to create an influence 
 of the fame kind. He retired for fome 
 time into the woods, and thence brought 
 forth amongll the Indians a beggarly im- 
 pofture in pidure- writing delineated on a 
 deer's fkin ; he yaetended that this was 
 dictated at h.S^ if not drawn, by the 
 Great SpiiiC. Towards one edge of this 
 pi£lure-\^ fit' ..ig were defcribed, by various 
 groups or Europeans and Ind'ans, all the 
 evils and grievances which the Indians 
 had incurred and futfered by their Euro- 
 pean connections. In one part there were 
 Europeans with furvcying inflruments, 
 mealuring out all their lands ; in another 
 they were cutting down the trees ; in ano- 
 ther, breaking up the beavcr-dams ; in 
 c another.
 
 ( '9' ) 
 
 another, deftroying and driving all their 
 game ; while the Indians, pent up in a 
 corner, were ftarving. In the middle of 
 the Ikin was pictured a great lake ; and 
 divers groups of Europeans and Indians 
 paddling acrofs it; the Europeans and thofe 
 Indians who were embarked in the lame 
 canoes with them were overfet and drown- 
 ing ; the Indians who kept to themfelves 
 in their own canoes were reprefented as 
 making a fafe paflage. On the further fide 
 of this lake was a fine wooded country, 
 full of deer and beavers, which Indians 
 were hunting ; while their wives and 
 children were planting maize, in peace. 
 I have heard that he explained this lake as 
 the paflage to a future life on the other 
 fide. The Indians who adhered to their 
 national principle, and who ftood unaltered 
 by converlion, and maintained the interefl 
 of their tribes, were reprefented as pailing 
 over this with fafety and fuccefs to .the 
 'Scaniadenada, a country, on the further 
 fide this lake, which contained every good, 
 thing that gave plenty and happineli to 
 the Indian B-ing. So far as this florv 
 goes to an infl:ance of picture- writing, I 
 here quote it : but thinking it, at the time 
 when I was frft told of it, a piece of 
 trumpery ftufF, I took little notice of it, fo 
 as not to remember exa(5tly amongfl: what 
 tribe of Indians this happened -, vet, as well 
 
 as
 
 ( 192 ) 
 
 ns I can recollect, I think it was fortie of 
 the tribes on the Delaware or Sufquehana 
 rivers. 
 
 Picture-writing of this fame nature, 
 and fome feemingly to the very fame pur- 
 port, may be feen in feveral examples 
 given by * Van Strahlenberg, as exifting 
 amongft the Tartars. 
 
 Thefe Tartar infcriptions are alfo fo 
 exa6tly fimilar to fome found in Arabia 
 (as given by Nieuhburg), that one might 
 aimoft fay they were drawn by the fame 
 hand. 
 
 I do not recolle6l any mention of, or 
 reference to, any letters or writing in 
 Homer ; but of hiftories defcribed by 
 pidlures there are numberlefs inlliances in 
 tapeftry, in inlaid work, in engraving and 
 carving. 
 
 Whoever examines the fpecimen of 
 piClure-writing, as pra6tifed amongft the 
 Egyptians, and commonly called hiero- 
 glyphics ; and comes fairly and foberly to 
 the reading of them, without pre-conceived 
 notions of their myfterious meaning, and 
 takes them as he finds them, mere pi6lures 
 of birds, beafts, fi(h, reptiles, and infecls, 
 Portraits of ^the limbs, members, and 
 
 * Defcription of N. E. parts of Europe and Tartary. 
 
 various
 
 ( ^93 ) 
 various parts of the human body ; alfo of 
 the human body itfelf in various attitudes 
 of reft and aftion : draughts of various 
 inflruments, tools, weapons, enfigns ; 
 numerals and meafures ; alfo characters of 
 elementary writing imxed iviih them ; he, I 
 fay, that examines thefe p*i6lurcs, will per- 
 ceive at firfl view, that they relate merely, 
 to human affairs : that they are either * 
 hiftorical memorials ; or regifler tables of 
 the ftate of provinces, of their lands, 
 people, forces, produce and revenues ; or 
 calendars of their feafons, &c. expreffed by 
 iymbolic characters, determined in their 
 form by law, from the earliefl ufe of 
 them, as will be feen prefently -f-, 
 
 *' They uie typical figures in the likenefs 
 " of all forts of animals 3 the limbs and 
 " members of the human body ; weapons, 
 
 * What I here fay from conjedure of the ^Egyptian 
 Pifture-writing, I can aflert literally as a fact of the 
 Mexican Pifture-vvriting, which is in three parts. I. Hif- 
 torical Records. II. Regifter Tables. III. Oecono- 
 mical regulations. Religious and military Inftitutions. 
 Parchas, L. v. c. 7. § iii. 
 
 \ Ta? txu ruTTS? vira^yn ainiov 0/jt.oiti-; (^i-'otj 'nravlo'nca'^^.:, kJ 
 tcXpoT/jpioic a-j%ottiVmi, sVt ot opya'iotq ^aXtra Ti-Moh/m^' h yap It t-/;^ 
 tHiv (TfAXctbo'y cvy^iGiU^ r, ypa.u.fj.ali/.n 'mCip a-irciT; tov iizoxsifjLSiov 
 ^ofov oc-rrooiSucrm' a./\^' in ijx(ps(,a-iu;'tuv tAilxyfex.^pof/.hu.'y >y META- 
 4>OPAi: ^tt!y.n avyr.\^\ny.'=vy.:, &c. Diodor. Sic. lib. iii. p. 
 145- 
 
 N *' inilru-
 
 ( ^94 ) 
 
 ^' iuflruments, and efpecially mechanic 
 " tcols ; their writing is not formed by 
 *' pictures of words, and combinations of 
 ** fyllables ; but by pitture-tranflations of 
 *' the metaphors in which their language 
 ** naturally flows." " They draw (fays 
 Diodorur, going on with the fame ac- 
 count) '•' a hawk for inftance, a crocodile, 
 *' or a ferpent, parts and members of the 
 " human body. The hawk, as fuppofed 
 ** to be the fwiftefl: of all birds, is made 
 " the fymbol of Velocity. The fenfe then 
 *' is thus transferred by thefe written me- 
 " taphors ; to every thing which has any 
 " reference to velocity, nearly as well as 
 *' if it was fpoken in direft terms. The 
 '' crocodile is made the fymbol of every 
 *' thing vv'hich is evil. The eye repre- 
 ** fents watchful guard, and jurtice.'* (I 
 might here add, and is therefore tranf- 
 ferred by metaphor, fome time with the 
 addition of a fcepter, to reprefent human 
 government and Divine Providence.] 
 *' The drawing the right hand open, with 
 *' the fingers extended *,lignifies thefupply 
 " of human life ; the left hand clofed lig- 
 " nifies care and cuftody of the goods of 
 " life. The like reafcning does in like 
 
 * Shakefpear ufes the fame metaphor: 
 He had an eye for pity, and a hand 
 Open as day for melting charity. 
 
 *' manner
 
 ( '95 ) 
 
 ** manner tranflate from the portraits of 
 *' all other parts of the body, and frorri 
 *' all fpccies of inftrnments, tools, and 
 *' weapons." To this account I may ven- 
 , tiire to add, that under the head of oofuva 
 Ti-xjcviyccc, &c. come the reprefentation, by 
 thefe metaphors, of every Ipecies of office; 
 diflinftion of civil clalTes ; and of every 
 occupation under thefe : likewife nume- 
 ration and meafure, as applied to length, 
 fpace, weight, and capacity, in every 
 article to which numeration or meafure is 
 applicable. As the mouth is that part by 
 which fpeech is effected, lineal portraits 
 of the mouth, in the various forms it takes 
 in enunciation, are ufed (as to me appears) 
 to mark the various elements of fpeech, 
 which charadler I call oral *. As the 
 firll: mode of numeration with all people 
 is by the fingers, fo we find a iyftem 
 of numeral charavfl'ers exprefslv formed 
 on this idea -f. But they had other 
 methods alio of numeration, fpecimens 
 of which are found on every hiero- 
 glyphick infcription. It is not only true, 
 that the ^Egyptians ufed elementary vvrit- 
 inff, but thev had two forts of thefe 
 elements. Thofe vvhich took their form 
 and character from the mouth, I have, for 
 diilin6lion fake, called oral. The other, 
 
 * Vids rinte D. • f Vide Plate C. Part II. 
 
 , N % which
 
 ( ?96 ) 
 
 which I conceive to be the fecrete cypher, 
 I have, for di{lin6lloii fake, determined to 
 call the Ogmian (the fecrete writing of 
 the Druids was fo called). See fpecimens 
 of this in the upper part of drawing C, as 
 copied from hieroglyphic infcriptions. 
 
 God,theSiipreamBeing, is pictured by the 
 only two following fymbols invariably the 
 fame ; firfl, by a winged globe, or circle, 
 jlgnifylng infinity^ unity, activity, and 
 omjiiprejence : fecondly, by a globe or 
 circle, through which a ferpent, the fym- 
 bol of life, is paffant, fgn[fying the crea- 
 tive^ and plajiick mamfeftatton of the Jirjl 
 cauje, animating and governing the ma- 
 terial world. 
 
 The precifc form of all thefe typical 
 characters, however they may differ in 
 fome unavoidable deviations of execution, 
 were originally (when firft ufed in public 
 infcriptions) fixed and determined by uni- 
 verfal concurrence. Since that, they are 
 by the laws confidered as thus fixt, and 
 arc required to be fo portraied as they were 
 drawn when firft fettled, neither better 
 nor worie. Hence that uniformity ob- 
 IbiVable in -ill tlie multitude of exemplars 
 which are found in various parts, and arc 
 fuppof^d to have been Vv^ritten in very 
 
 diflant
 
 { ^97 ) 
 
 diftant periods. Plato, in his fecond dia- 
 logue on laws, confirms and explains this 
 point *. *' Thefe types and figures, be they 
 fuch as they are, and whatever they are, 
 they are formed on the bafis of an inftitu- 
 tion of the goverament of ^Egypt, which 
 dire£ls that no fculptor, painter, or ftatuary, 
 fhall, under any idea of improvement, 
 or on any pretence whatever, prefume to 
 innovate in thefe determined forms, or to 
 introduce any other than the conftitu- 
 tional ones of his country. Hence it is, 
 as you obferve, that thofe forms and 
 figures, which were formed or painted 
 hundreds of ages paft, be they w^hat 
 they may, are exactly the forms and 
 figures, neither better nor worfe, which 
 are fculptured and painted at this day.'* 
 
 Referring to this prefatory explanation, 
 I will firft lay before the fociety a collection 
 of thefe defined and prefer} bed character s^ 
 which repeatedly occur without variation 
 
 a-[\a yj ratffccifix' hSi wv E|£riv, out ev Taro(?» ovr' ly iA.iiyiy.-n 7Vix~ 
 wac">i' Z'^toTTwy o ivfr.an^ xvto^i tu (jLvpiorot 'iroq ytf^'xiAixttx, v ts- 
 
 yxcrij.hcc. Plato de Legibus, lib. li, p. 789. 
 
 N 2 in
 
 ( '9S ) 
 
 in mofl or all of the exemplars of ^5!gyp- 
 tlan pifture-writing. See Plate A. In 
 the Plate B, I have clafled fome of 
 thefe under the feveral heads to which I 
 fuppofe them refpedlively to belong, ac- 
 cording to what I collect from Diodorus 
 and Plato. In Plate C are given the 
 numerals as formed from the fingers and 
 hands, according to the opinion of Pierius. 
 
 If now common fenfe, led by thefe 
 examples, v/ill examine any of the Egyp- 
 tian pidure- written infcrlptions, confider- 
 ing them, as what they are, the mofl: an- 
 cient exemplars ; as the efforts of man in 
 the earliefl:, if not the ini\, periods of his 
 progreffive civilization, to exprels and 
 communicate his ideas by vifible types ; as 
 writing by pictures ^ the very pitturS'lan- 
 ^Uiwe wbkb he fpc-ke\ Inch common-fenie 
 Avill be more likely to developc the mean- 
 inp of thefe thineis called hieroolvphics, 
 than refined learning will be by following 
 the myfVic after-ikoughts of learned Myf- 
 tagogues, gleaned up from phyfiologick 
 philofophers. 
 
 The metaphor jc fymbols exprefled in 
 pidures, are the firfl: efforts of a rude not 
 the ftudied devices of a learned people : 
 they are drawn thus not to veil and to 
 
 conceal,
 
 ( ^99 ) 
 
 conceal, but reprefent to the vulgar eye 
 thofe ideas which they wifh publickly by a 
 publick infcription, to communicate and 
 record. 
 
 This Is the vuIgate writing, of all people 
 in the firil: periods of their civilization. 
 Such hath invariably been the iirft efforts 
 to form memorials, records, and regifters. 
 This cannot be otherwife, for it is neither 
 ■ more nor lefs than the refle^led image of 
 the * metaphors and fimilies by which 
 they fpoke. Language is local, and but of 
 the moment ; w^hen it w^as meant to com- 
 municate to perfons diftant in place, or to 
 future periods diftant in time ; fixt per- 
 manent, palpable and portable, images oY 
 thofe ideas became necefl'ary. Such before 
 the invention of elementary types were 
 the ./Egyptian pifture-writing, commonly 
 called Hieroglyphics. 
 
 I have therefore always thought, and 
 am convinced, that we miftake the Egyp- 
 tian accounts, when we call thefe pi6lure- 
 records, written on their obclifks, and 
 other public monuments, IrUeroglyp hicks. 
 If we mean thereby that they contain the 
 fecret myfteries of their religion, and con- 
 ceive them to be myfterlous fymbols of 
 
 * Diod. as above. 
 
 N 4 mythology
 
 ( 200 ) 
 
 mythology and divinity. The real hlero- 
 glyphick, the facred and fecrete writing, 
 the lepcg Xcycc, and lepcx. ypu^fjcccra^ the aTro- 
 TiDD(t>cx, ypcii^f/.cx.To. was elementary^ or what 
 we vulgarly call, Alphabetick. Whatever 
 chance, or Interpolation of wiidom, or 
 whatever analyfis by rcafoning, may have 
 led to the ule of letters, it is certain, th^t 
 they have no apparent conne61:ion with 
 the ideas which they are meant to cxprefs ; 
 and until the latent rationale of thel'e ele- 
 ments are taught, the writing muft remain 
 an impenetrable fecret. This mode of 
 writing by letters, invented by ftudy, and 
 applied to learning, and ufed by Icgif- 
 lators, flatcfmen, and priefts, became, and 
 was truly the fecrete and facred wTiting, 
 ihe cl7to'd.Lu(p(x x^ Ic^oL y^a.iJ.[xciT(z, and Hiero-r 
 glyphicks, of thole abifrufe and refined 
 Truths, of which, while they meant to 
 convey the knowledge to the learned, they 
 thus kept ir fccreted from the people at 
 large. The pi6lu re- writing, exhibiting 
 Kvp'oXoyiy.co^, the a6lual portraits or types 
 of the ideas meant to be conveyed to the 
 people, remained the 'LV^/«Yz/t'. When firfl, 
 and by what error, this vulgate piiflure- 
 writing was fuppofed to be the Hiero- 
 c^lyphicks, m the fenfe above dcfcribed, I 
 know not ; one has but to read the ex- 
 'planations which the mod: ingenious and 
 ; learned
 
 ( 20I ) 
 
 learned are able to give of it under this 
 idea, to be convinced of the abfurdity of 
 the opinion. Horapollo, Pierius, and Kir- 
 pher that learned myftigogue, give ample 
 proof, that it is fo. The great learning 
 of the one, and the ingenuity of the others, 
 are merely exerted to befool one's under- 
 ftanding. 
 
 I read in dire(Sl terms in Herodotus, that 
 theologick theorems, expreflive of the 
 abftrule nature of the inviiible fpirit, and 
 unity, were written in the ispx, the drro- 
 y.^v(poi ypcifj^f/^oiTo. in the facred and fecrete 
 letters. And I find further, that the Egyp- 
 tians had two forts of the elementary 
 writing, one of which they called the 
 Sacred, the other the Demotick or Civil. 
 At the fame time I do find, in fome ex- 
 prefs and pofitive inflances, that thefe 
 facred writings were the elementary or 
 alphabetic writing, being exprefsly faid to 
 be written from the right hand to the 
 left, a circumftance not predicable of pic- 
 tures. Herodotus, pivinsc an account of 
 one of the flatues of Seloftris, in Ionia, 
 fays, that on a line, drawn from one 
 fhoulder to the other, were written thefe 
 words (m the facred letters of Egypt )^ " I 
 " obtained this region by the ftrength of 
 " thefe arms." 
 
 There
 
 ( 202 ) 
 
 There is at this day, or at leafi: was 
 when V^an Strahlenberg was in Tartary, 
 an Hermetick figure, or Terminus, on the 
 back of which, like on that of Sefoftris, 
 there is an infcription in three lines, writ- 
 ten ,in elenientary charaders, of which he 
 has given an engraving. It is to be ob- 
 lerved, at the fame time, that the general 
 run of the Tartar infcriptions is in the 
 vulgatc pi^lure-writing. Herodotus alfo 
 menrionb an infcription on the pyramid of 
 Afychin, and gives a tranfcript of it, faid 
 exprefsly to be written in letters. And 
 again, he mentions an emblematic ftatue 
 of -^phaiftus, with a label, Ag^wi/ ^ta y^ufjc- 
 fiuruv Toih, expreffuig in letters thefe 
 words, " Whoever looks to me, let him be 
 ** a thorough Religwii'Ji'^ Diodorus Si- 
 culus alfo mentions an infcription on a 
 rock in the mountain Bagiftan, infcribed 
 by Semiramis, Ivpioig y^ay^fjcocuiv. But with- 
 out going to books, recording inflances of 
 infcriptions written '^loi gax^uv, or in ele- 
 mentary letters, we need only refer to the 
 obeliiks, and other monuments now exift- 
 ing, where thefe are a6lually extant. I 
 have made a colledlion of Ibme of thefe, 
 both oral and ogmian, which you fee in 
 the annexed drawings, C. and D. What 
 has led to the idea and opinion that this 
 PivSture-writing contained the myilick and 
 
 hidden
 
 ( 203 ) 
 
 hidden fcene of their reHgion, philofophy, 
 and pohticks, has been the mythologick 
 and allegorick explanation given to things, 
 which the people, from repeated adls of 
 veneration, had infenfibly been led to 
 make objects of adoration. The legiflators, 
 priefts, and philofophers, feeing that the 
 unveiling of the fubje6l, as mere matter 
 of record and human hiftery, after they 
 had been made objecTrs of myftery and ado- 
 ration, would deftroy all myflery, and all 
 power, took up the people's adopted pre- 
 judices, and grafted thereon Fables of 
 Gods and Heroes, and formed an eftabliihed 
 Syjiem of Mythology, As the world, in its 
 progrefs of civilisation, grew more inqui- 
 fitive and wifer, thefe Fables in their turn 
 became too grofs to bear in their direft 
 fenfe, the light of common fenfe. The 
 legiilators and priefts began thenjirjl to re- 
 folve all, by myftical Enigmas, into a 
 Syjiem of Pkyfiology^ expreflive of the Being, 
 Attributes, Manifeftations, and Operations 
 of the firft a6live caufe of all things, act- 
 ing on inert and pallive matter. I'he Pla- 
 tonifts, and more efpecially the Stoicks, 
 were tlie firft authors of thefe divine Ro- 
 mances. Chryfippus *, in libro fee undo, 
 vult Orphei, Mufei, Hefiodi, Homeri, 
 fabellas accommcdare ad ea, quce ipfe, in 
 
 •^ Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. I. fed. 15, 
 
 libro
 
 ( 201 ) 
 
 iibro primo de dlis Immortallbus, dlxerat : 
 Ut eriam vcterrimi Poetx, rjut b^ec ?7e fuf- 
 
 f'lcati qiiidam Junt^ Stoici fuifie videantur. 
 Qiiem Diogenes Babvlonlus coiifequens* iii 
 eo Iibro, qui infcribitur de Minerva, par- 
 turn Jovis, originemque, virginis, ad phy- 
 
 fiologiam iraducens^ disjungit a fabiila. 
 
 When tbefe Piclure-wrltlngs, at firil: 
 mere human records of the affairs of man, 
 exprefled by e6lypes, delineated from tlie 
 metaphorick and allegorick phrafes of 
 the very language which they fpoke, were 
 firft wrought into Fables of Mythology^ and 
 by after retinements, into drome romances 
 of Fhyjiohgy^ it was natural they fhould, 
 by thofe who thus explained them, be 
 called the Hieroglyphicks, or facred Writ- 
 ings. Whereas, in facl, they were ori- 
 ginally only the vulgate ; while the ele- 
 mentary and letter-writing were the ie^Gj 
 •^ a.i:o%'jC(J?oL y:jO'.y.^.ci\ct mentioned by HerO' 
 ciotus, and Diodorus Siculus. 
 
 That there were letters in ufe prior to 
 the tim.e generally affigned to them ; and 
 that they exifted amongft a people, from 
 whom, thofe who were called tlie inven- 
 tors of them, learnt them ; may be 
 afl'umed as a clear and decided facT:, on the 
 teftimony of Diodorus Siculus *. 7'hc 
 ^ Llh. V. fo!. 310. 
 
 ele-
 
 C 2^5^ ) 
 
 elementary writing by letters, he ^lys, wds 
 known, as being amongft the Syrians ; 
 that the Mufes however invented them* 
 Now, it is very natural for a Greek writer, 
 or a Grecian tranfcriber, if he had met 
 with the word Mofcs- *, to convert it to 
 Mujis. From Mojes it is moft . likely the 
 Syrians received their knowledge of letters; 
 be that as it may. Diodorus fays, that 
 from the Syrians the Phoenicians received 
 this invention and praclice ; that the Phoe- 
 nicians, making Jome alterations in the 
 forms of the characters, when they com- 
 municated them to the Europeans, they 
 were called Phoenician. He fays, in •}• 
 another place, that the letters were at firft 
 called in Greece Phoenician ; but that 
 being adopted by the Pelafgi, they were 
 after that called Pelafgic ; and t}iat the 
 Thracian Poets wrote' in thefe letters. — 
 That there were letters amongft the Sy- 
 rians, as here mentioned, in a period prior 
 to wliat is heard of them amongft the 
 Phoenicians, appears from the ftory of 
 Semiramis, ordering an infcription to" be 
 engraved on fome rocks of the m-puntains 
 Bagifton; Z-j-Joiq r^ujj.u^a-tvi The tefti- 
 mony of this iiory to the early cxiftence 
 
 * So called from Mos water, referring to'the'cir- 
 fumftance of his being found there, '.'il l.'yjUViiJii^i 
 f Lib. iii. fol, 20 f. 
 
 of
 
 ( 206 ) 
 
 of Syriac letters, is equally of force, 
 whether the ftory of Semiramls be true or 
 not. The reference to Syriac characlers is 
 rather a ftronger proof of the a6lual exif- 
 tence of fuch letters then in ufe, if the 
 ftory of that particular ufe of them fhould 
 not be true ; for then it appears, that the 
 known and undoubted fa£l of the exiftence 
 of Syriac chara6ters is referred to, in order 
 to give fupport to a fibulous tradition of 
 Semlramis, and her infcription. 
 
 The Egyptians had letters prior to the 
 ere6lion of the obelilks, and of two if not 
 three forts (befides their pi6lure-writing). 
 They ufed, fays Herodotus *, two forts of 
 letters, the one tlicy called the Hicra, or 
 Sacred, the other Demotica, or Civil ; 
 which alfo he contrails with the elemen- 
 tary writing of the Greeks, when he fays, 
 that the Egyptian letters were written 
 from the right to the left ; whereas the 
 Greeks, on the contrary, wrote from the 
 left to the right. The invention of this 
 elementary writing is referred to the very 
 earlieft periods of their hiftory, as it is 
 afcribed to Phiot, Thoth, or Taut, og ivpt 
 Tifjv TMv ^ot^etuv 'ypu(pr,v. 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, who muft have 
 underftood this matter, living on the fpot, 
 
 * Lib. ii. c. 36. 
 
 gives
 
 ( 207 ) 
 
 gives an explicit acconnt of it in the fifth 
 book of his Stromata *, of which I venture 
 to give the following tranflation. " Thofe 
 " who receive their education amongft 
 *' the Egyptians, learn in the firft place 
 *^ "the method, of the Egyptian elementary 
 ** writing, or letters, which is called the 
 *'* eplflolary writing : Secondly, the facer- 
 '"^ doidl^ which the hiercgraphifts, the 
 '* prieft-fcribes ufe : Laftly, as the per- 
 **• feeding of this part of education, the 
 ^-Hieroglyphics. This confids- of two 
 ** methods ; the one is written by ele- 
 *' ments in dire6i terms; the other is 
 " fymbolic : The fymbolic may again be 
 '* divided into two kinds ; the firil is a 
 " pi6:ure or dire6l portrait of the matter 
 *' or thing intended to be defcribed ; the 
 " fecond is written by metaphorical re- 
 '' prefentations. Tbis is fometimes alle- 
 " gorized by Enigmas." If my tranf- 
 lation be juft, it defcribes the fa6t as it will 
 be found to have exifted. It defcribes 
 firft the two geiierical diftinftions ; the 
 writing by elements or letters, and the 
 
 * AiJtIk'oi 'btocpx Alyvirlttii; 'axiOivojj.iyei ts^Zrov [Aty "zscfMiot 7i!it 
 
 KX^^fA.in'ny' o-L/Tipacv SI tjjv jf^«T«x?;», fs ^pcj^liyA ol U^oy^x.iA!X'X\iT<;' 
 \iS-(x,'ra,t Si JcJ T^y TihaTa.'nx,t rr,v U^Q<p>.v(piyJr,i, r,; h (aXi ifi di» Tit/ 
 nspuiTU'i TOi'^^i'.uy xy^ttAoytxj}' ^ Si o-fw-toAix-,. Tni Se ffVft.^o\iKVc v 
 (X.IV ■Kvpio\(^yiT7roa koIoc jxli^nartv' h SI Jo-ttc^ r^oTtK*!/? y^ce,(pirsci n ^; 
 avljjr^ii a.\MyoftiTix. y.arx T»vaj syiy^atfj. Clemens Alex. Lib. 5. 
 Stiomatcm. 
 
 ^ piiflufeV
 
 ( 2o8 ) 
 
 pidure-wrlting ; and next the three fpecies 
 of each genus. Firfl, the writing for 
 commmon bufinefs (the demotic, as He.^. 
 rodotus calls it), next the court-hand, that 
 which the facerdotal Scribes ufe^ ; and 
 laftly, that which was ufed in the lacred 
 engraved infcriptions, which is to be feei;i. 
 to this day on the obelifques, and other 
 public records. The firft, "the ' Syiiibolic,. 
 was applied in a(ftual portraits of the thing 
 to be defcribed ; the Second ufed, as Plato, 
 exprefles it, metaphors for'defcriptlons ; 
 the Third, w^hich allegorized thefe pitSlures, 
 Into aenigmas, which the original writers,, 
 ne Jufplcati quidem funty I have already, 
 explained',, as the mere phyilologic ;Com-, 
 mentaries, the diviiie romances, '6f'"t3ie_ 
 Jearned priefts : the pi6lure-\vriting wa?. 
 bat of two kinds, the Portrait and Sym- 
 bone. ,-, 
 
 The learned authors differ ' mil ph abp'utt 
 this paffage. Dr. Warburton has writteii' 
 an ingenious (but not precife) commentary 
 on it'. Ansrelus Maria fiandinus * has 
 quoted it, and given an explicative tranf- 
 lation; but to my apprehenlion.(and there- 
 fore I give it) the above limple and literal 
 
 * De obilifcn divi C?ef:!ris Augiifti e campi Marrii 
 ruderihiis nviper er;ito Commentnrius, 1750. Cap. v. 
 p. 16. . 
 
 2 tranf-
 
 < >209 ;) 
 
 tranilation precifely gives the facl. Several 
 of the letters of the firfl Ipecies of the 
 elementary writing, may, I fliould guefs, 
 be found mixed amongft the Coptic vul- 
 gate. If there were any of thefe facer- 
 dotal books, regiflers, or records, which 
 feveral authors mention as written on 
 tablets of wood, ftones, or tiles, or in 
 volumes of papyrus ; and as kept facred 
 and fecrete, in the adyta of their temples, 
 there might be hopes of recovering fome 
 ipecimens of thefe hierographick elements. 
 The elements of the hieroglyphick writ- 
 ing ftill remain in full perfe(5lion on the 
 obelilks, and every other Egyptian infcrip- 
 tion, to point out which fadt is one of the 
 'principal purports of this paper. Both 
 the fpecies of the pifture-writing may alfo 
 be eafily diftinguifhed, as feparately ufed, 
 each to its own particular purpofe, and in 
 its own particular ufe. In platesB, C,andD, 
 i have endeavoured to clafs the two fpecies 
 of the portrait and iymbolick writing. 
 
 Dr. Warburton was the firfl v/riter who 
 clearly and explicitly explained the nature 
 of this picture-writing, as the natural firft 
 efforts of writing ; cakidaled to commu- 
 n'lcate^ not to conceal. He has by clofe and 
 clear reafoning on the evidence, which 
 his learning fupplied, decidedly proved 
 O ' this
 
 ( 2IO ) 
 
 this propofitlon. As my ideas hovvevef, 
 oil this fuhjcdl:, although they ran nearly 
 parallel to his, do not altogether coincide 
 with them, and, from the opportunities 
 which 1 hiive had of confidcring this 
 practice in fa6t, go fomewhat further -in 
 explanation of it, as alio ditter lomewhat 
 on the point of the coeval exiftence and 
 life of the elementary writing, together 
 .with the picture in the carliefl: times, 
 which he has not touched upon ; I Ihall 
 liere continue my own plan. 
 
 Herodotus * in Euterpe, chapter 125, 
 mentions, that an account on record was 
 written on one of the pyramids in the 
 i^ gyptlan letters ; of tlic amount of the ex- 
 pcnce in radices, onions and garlick, for 
 tlie workmen eniploycd in building it. 
 
 If the piolure Infcriptloivs found on the 
 ohelilks, -and on the walls and gates of 
 tlie oldeft temples, and on the hales- of 
 ifatues, are fuppofed to be the oldeft fpe- 
 cimens now remaining, as undoubtedly 
 thev are, of this m.cthod, the reader will 
 find the elementary letters always mixed 
 with it. 1 have endeavoured in plate D to 
 clafs tliefe elements, or ^oi-^eTu^'tQ their 
 
 '"''"* ,*"' Ipcci*
 
 ■L -211 ) 
 
 fpeafek enunciation. I have in ;tlie fame 
 ^ifo given fome inftances of thefe elements 
 ;ippearing plainly, to be joined in' words. 
 l[n plate C, part IIL fig. 3, I have given 
 iin exemplar 'from a very curious hiero- 
 glyphic inscription _ taken from Norden, 
 plate -LVIII. wherefln- the courfe of the 
 letters and reading is in the perpendicular 
 line, find 1 think upwards as tlie tree grows. 
 And in figures i and 2 of part III. in the 
 fan>e plate, I have 'gbneftiFther, and give 
 two exemplars of actually legible Words in 
 Ktrufcan letters, exdBly the fame as the 
 letters or elements -fmnd On the JEgypt'um 
 vjfcriptwfis. Montfaiicon, book IV. c. 9. 
 plate 28, Engliih edit, exhibits a Roman 
 adis with a Janus' hifrons on one fide, and 
 a club on the reverfe, with an Infcription *", 
 written in letters exadly'the fame as thofe 
 •found on the obelilks and other ^^gvptian 
 ..infcriptions. Montfaucon thinks it not 
 hiteillgible, but fays at the fame time, that 
 -P. de Molines reads it from the rioht to 
 the left OdiceJa, 
 
 In the tliird volume of the SupplemePit^ 
 B. iV. c. 7. plate 69. Engliih edit, he 
 gives a f quincunx belonging to the king'^ 
 jjabinet, which he fays, ^"^ has a?i Etjujcau 
 
 * VidephteC. p^rt III. fig. 2. 
 t J'lare C. par: III. ng, i. 
 
 Or* *' ivord
 
 ( 212 ) 
 
 " word round it, which I cannot read^"* 
 This is plainly likewife read from right to 
 left, Odieia ; here again, I may aflert that 
 every letter in this infcription may be 
 found amongft the hieroglyphicks. 
 
 It is certain, that In the books afcribed 
 to Mofes, reference is made to hiftories 
 prior to the writing of thofe books. A 
 learned and very, ingenious writer, in a 
 book * printed and publifhed at Bruxels 
 in 1753, avec privilegCy et approbation ^hviS 
 difcriminated, and arranged the feveral 
 memoirs from which the book of Genefis 
 was, as he fuppofes, litterally tranfcribed. 
 The arguments by which he fupports this 
 opinion are fl:riking, if not convincing, 
 taken from the repetitions, and diflocated 
 anachronifms ; from the fpecific ufc of the 
 word Elohim in one of thefe, and the fpe- 
 cific ufe of the word Jehovah in another, 
 as applied to exprefs the Supreme Being. 
 Having difcriminated thefe feveral Me- 
 moirs, he compofes and arranges the wliole 
 of the book of Genefis into four columns, 
 in which each narrative is kept feparate, 
 and yet fo, as to fland ranged in thefcries 
 
 ^ Such is tlie title page ; but I have been informed, 
 that this was To far from true, that, inftcad of being 
 printed at Bruxelles, under the licence and approbation 
 of the government of that country, it was actually 
 iccretly primed at Paris, 
 
 Qf
 
 ( 213 ) 
 
 of order, and in the place where it was 
 inferted. By thefe means he accounts for 
 all the repetitions, the derangements of 
 the Narration, and the anachronifms 
 which have been made matters of objec- 
 tion againft this book. By an attempt to 
 prove, that the word Elohjm was the onlv 
 word ufed by the Patriarchs ; and that 
 the word Jehovah was never applied till 
 ufed by Mofes ; he (hews, how all the 
 difficulties, ariling as objedlions from the 
 rcfpedlive ufe of thefe two w"ords, are re- 
 moved; by referring the firft to the ancient 
 Memoirs of the Patriarchs, and the latter 
 to the compolitions of Mofes ; he adduces 
 many learned proofs, that writing by 
 letters was in ufe and praftice before the 
 time of Mofes. I could not avoid giving 
 here this account of this very curious book ; 
 but the only ufe I make of it is in con- 
 firmation of what 1 think a fa6l, that 
 writing by elementary characters or letters 
 was a practice in ^gypt prior to the time 
 of Mofes. At the lame time, however, 
 that I do not think that Mofes was the in- 
 ventor of writing by letters ; I think the 
 ftate of the fa£t is, that he, from the prin- 
 ciples, and nature of his Divine Legifla- 
 tjon, forbidding all pifture-writing, firf]: 
 rendered thefe ^ hitherto Jeer ete elements of 
 writing, the vulgaie. 
 
 p 3 MofeSj
 
 ( 214 ) 
 
 I ■ w r. 
 
 Mofcs, wlio \vas intimately inftrutficci 
 ill the Icnrning of the Egyptians, mnffc' 
 perfe6llv have nnderftbod all thefe different 
 methotis ot writing ; and having feen how 
 the pi6lu re- writing iiV procefs of ' time led 
 both to the grofs arid the myftick idolatry, 
 exprefsly and abfolutely "forbad the iile of 
 it, and was the first Man, of this our. 
 
 WORLD, WHO USED THE ELEMENTARY 
 OR ALPHABETICK WRI'TING AS THE VUL- 
 GATE WRITING. From the Hebrews it 
 foon fprcad amongfl: the Syrian nations 
 bordering on them ; and from thefe the 
 Phenicians foon after learnt it, and com- 
 municated it to the" people of Europe "and 
 Africa, with whom they had commerce ; 
 and thus the iife of the elementary cha- 
 racters fpread over the whole civilized part 
 of our hemifphere. The progreffive copy- 
 ing, by other nations, of the firft elements 
 ufed by the Hebrews, is very n:iiilutely and 
 diftinctly explained by Dr. Bernard, in his 
 table of Alphabets, re-publiflTed by Dr.' 
 Morton. - . ■ . • ■• 
 
 As I have, in my account given above, 
 explained, liow firft the pidture- writing 
 arofe into ufe; and as 1 have here fuggefled 
 how, fi'om whence, and by whom, the 
 elementary, or alphabetic writing (having 
 been amongfl: the Egyptians long tho 
 
 fecreK
 
 ( 2>5 ) 
 
 feeret and facrcd writing) was brought {or- 
 vvard into vulgate ule ; it may perhaps 
 neither be diiagreeahle, nor irrelev'ant to 
 the purpofe of this letter, to add an_ ex- 
 planation, according to my ideas of the 
 origin of letters, and to give the reafons, 
 as they appear to me, of the forms -which 
 were given to thefe letters. 
 
 When I firfl * difcovercd (I believe I 
 was the firil djfcoverer of it) the infcrip- 
 tion in the caemetery of the great L:///j 
 Pyramid o): barrow at New- Grange, I ex- 
 amined every alphabet and fpecimen of 
 elementary writing which 1 could meet 
 with, under trial to find out fomething 
 explanatory of it. Thofe which I did fiud 
 fimilar to it (allowing for imperfedlions of 
 execution) did convince me that the cha- 
 racters were numerals in Phoenician or 
 -.Ethiopian elements : and that the infcrlp- 
 tion, now part of the materials only of 
 which this barrow was formed, is a frag;- 
 ment belonging to fomething much older 
 than the barrow. In the courfe of this 
 fearch amongfl the ^^Lgyptian hiero- 
 glyphics, as they are called, I law, or 
 |:hought I faw, lineal portraits of the 
 
 * Vide the Memoirs of tjje Society of Antiquaries 
 ;it London, Vol. II. p. 258. 
 
 Q 4 forms
 
 ( Z.6 ) 
 
 forms whiph I had obferved (as may be 
 read in N° I.) the organs of fpeech to take 
 in the enunciation of the vowels, and in 
 the combined a6l of articulation. I exa- 
 mined thefe by comparifon of the acft of 
 enunciation and articulation, in repeated, 
 experiments, copying Inieally, and (if I 
 may fay (o) literally^ the forms which 
 the organs of fpeech take in thefe a6ls : 
 then comparing thefe with the various ele- 
 mentary characlers as I did and do ftill 
 conceive them to be, which are intermixed 
 in all the fpecimens of ^lEgyptian infcrip- 
 tions, I found in Kircher, Pocock, Nor- 
 den, Mountfaucon (and I find llnce In 
 Nieuburh) lineal * characlers (intirely un- 
 noticed by thofe who pretend to explain 
 the hieroglyphics) which correfponded 
 exa£lly to the experiments which I had 
 made. Compare therefore firfl the draw- 
 ings in the plate (D) with the defcription 
 
 * There is a very fingular and curious fpeclmen of 
 elementary writing in plate 28, No 61. of the The- 
 faiirus Hieroglyph icornm a Mufco Johaniiis Georgii 
 Herewart, ab Hogenberg, 1607. ] have not found 
 this in any other colleftion of Hitroglvphics; and as the 
 book is a very fcarce one, 1 have given a copy of this 
 in plate D. Several of the chara^Jers are exadly the 
 fame as thofe repeatedly found on j'Egyptian infcriptions, 
 except one, which I find in a Chinefc vocabulary, or 
 word-book, and have therefore put in plate C. part III. 
 Chiiiclis column. 
 
 of
 
 ( 217 ) 
 
 of the forms of the mouth hi pronouncing 
 the vowels. A may be defcribed as formed 
 by an elevation of the upper part of the 
 mouth, and upper lip fomewhat angular, 
 the point of the tongue appearinir. VorU 
 founded ew is expreifed and may be de- 
 fcribed by a low^ering the under part of the 
 mouth, with a- like angular form of the 
 under lip fomewhat projeded. E or e by a 
 parallel opening of the mouth with a cur- 
 vilinear contradiction of the under lip. 
 
 may be defcribed by a circular or oval 
 aperture of the mouth and lips. I, may 
 be defcribed by a right line defcending per- 
 pendicular or at right angles with the 
 mouth, as reprefenting the perpendicular 
 ftroke of the under jaw in enouncing that 
 intonation or vowel. As to the variations 
 aridng from the different dwellings of the 
 voice on the broad or minced j^u and aa, 
 on the long or fhort E, I, O, or V. 
 that does not enter into the analyfis of the 
 firft elements to which the indivifible 
 founds are reducible. Examine next the 
 lineal or literal characters which I have 
 collected together in plate D, and which 
 characters I fappofe to be goix^a, elementa 
 or •y^oii^cix.uToi, and which being fuppofed by 
 me to be lineal reprefentations of the 
 forms and aCiions of the organs of fpeech, 
 
 1 call Oral. 
 
 I have
 
 ( 21 8 ) 
 
 ,. I have further ventured to fct fomc of 
 iheic elementary characters arranged in a^ 
 line with fome of the known and decided 
 letters of the ancient alphabets ; not that 
 I dare prefume to fay that thefe fo ar- 
 ranged are decidedly this or that letter ; 
 but merely to put them forward by fugn 
 gellion to the more accu^-a£e examination 
 of literate and learned fcholars, who un- 
 derhand the ancient ea^lern languages: 
 The reafons for my thus arranging them 
 to this or that letter derive funply and 
 folely from i^y idea of their correfponding 
 more or lefs to fome lineal forms whicli I 
 had in my experiments defigned, and of 
 their repreienting the contours of the or- 
 gans of fpeech enouncing this or that 
 element. 
 
 The charj^^^ers which I fuppofe to be the. 
 cypher or r^cj^^a7aj cc7:-^ic^u(pci, I have given 
 in plate C. part J. I call thefe Ogmian, 
 from tlieir being precifely the fame as the 
 fccrete charafters ufed by the ancient Irilh, 
 and called by them the Ogham, which 
 colonel Vallency has, by a combination of 
 erudition and knowledge peculiarly his 
 own, fo accurately explained. 
 
 Whatever v/as the real name in the 
 Egyptian language of the author of the Ait
 
 ( -^9 > 
 
 pf Writing, he is Cvilled diftcrcntjy by tlw 
 people of nations foreign to ^gypt ; the 
 Greeks call him Thoth and Teute'; the 
 ancient northern people of Europe called 
 him Ogham or Och-avi, that is, great Ham^ 
 rendered by the Lathis Ogmius, As I am 
 rather difpofed to believe this .to come 
 iieareft to the real name of the perfon al- 
 luded to in this hiflory, I have called the 
 elementary charadters of this fecrete writ- 
 ing the Ogrniap, 
 
 Colonel Vallency acquaints me, that 
 he has found a defcription of the Ogham 
 given in Infh verfe in the antient bard's 
 primiere ; and that the courfe of the writ- 
 jug is in the perpendicular line ; I have fug- 
 gefted to him an opinion, that if fo, ItfiouUl 
 be read upwards^ as in addition we read 
 the Arabic figures ; which matter had be- 
 fore fl:ruck me as appearing to be the cafe 
 of the Egyptian-writing, in many in- 
 flances ; it is a certain fa6l that the Egyp- 
 tians obferved a different arraar"ement in 
 writnig the letters from that which the 
 Grecians ufed. Herodotus lays, that they 
 wrote, as he conceived it, from the right 
 to the left ; while the Egyptians afBrmed 
 that, although it was the reverfe of the 
 Grecian method, yet it was from the \th 
 to the right ; I know no way of fleering 
 
 betwixt
 
 ( 220 ) 
 
 betwixt thefe two contradI£lory opinlon^^ 
 but in the perpendicular line, which, as I 
 fay, feems to be the order of ranging the 
 elementary chara6ler3, in feveral inftances 
 in the exemplars, given by Kircher, Pocock, 
 Norden, Nieuburh, and Mountfaucon. I 
 throw this out, however, merely for fug- 
 geflion to examination. 
 
 This paper only means to adduce fome 
 probable account of that analylis which 
 gave to the firft written elements that pe- 
 culiar form which they feem to have ori- 
 ginally taken. It means alfo to explain 
 thofe reafons by reference to thofe forms 
 as mixt amongft Egyptian hieroglyphic or 
 picture infcriptions now exifting. 
 
 Not being myfelf of literature equal to. 
 the talk, this little treatife wishes to excite 
 and call forth the induftry and ingenuity 
 of thofe learned men who are to make the 
 experiment whether the orginal Egyptian 
 elementary writing may not be found out, 
 and to Hate the want of information in 
 this point as a dejideratum. 
 
 As this art of writing by elements, al- 
 moft as foon as it was known, and uled as 
 the vulgate writing of one nation, became 
 the vulgate writing of the nations adjoin- 
 ing, and fpread itfelf over the whole 
 northern aiul wcflern civilized part of the 
 
 ^.gcan
 
 [ 221 ] 
 
 JEgean hemlfphere, it feems flrange, and 
 vintil explained, almoll: unaccountable, that 
 it fhould remain fo long fecrete in ^gypt, 
 that people continuing, even after it was 
 vulgate elfevvhere, to ufe the pidure- 
 writingas their vulgate. 
 
 A very curious paffage in Plato, written 
 expreflly in refoiution of this queftion, not 
 only fully explains the reafon, but will 
 fuggeft to the attentive and philofophic 
 antiquary many other ideas ^worthy his 
 mod diligent refearch on this fubjed. 
 
 'ThotK or Phioth, who is defcrlbed as 
 the author of many difcoveries and inven- 
 tions ufeful to mankind, never refled or 
 flopt until he had brought them to that 
 perfe(^ion which rendered them fit for 
 'practical application to ufe ; when he had 
 carried any of his difcoveries or inventions 
 to that point, he laid them before Tham 
 [Cham or Ham] who was at that time 
 king of all ^gypt, and held his reddence 
 at Thebes. The fole point of view in 
 which this wife king confidered them was 
 their applicablenefs and utility to the good 
 qf man. Thofe which upon mature de- 
 liberation and examination were proved 
 capable of good ufe, he Ordered to be 
 communicated to his fubjefts, that they 
 
 fhouk!
 
 ilioul'4',be' inftniclcd in thcfe att's ': 'Tiiofe',' 
 "of whofe beiieficKil uie lie did not. receive 
 uncontrovertible proof, . lie rejecie'd, ancl 
 prohibited from being communicated to 
 vulgate ufe; *' If I was (faith. Socrates iii 
 *« Plato) to difcufs all the arguments oh 
 *' all the arts .and, inventions thiis,ex- 
 •' amined, I fliould engage myfelf in a 
 ** "long and tedious dilquifition ; but on 
 '*■* :the' lubje£l of the invention of vvrittei> 
 " . eleitients, the folk)\vhig is the llibftancc 
 *' of what I heard in yEgypt. WhenThoth 
 " came to the ex^lajiatiofi of the ufe "of 
 ♦' this invention. This learning (t^to 
 *' re f^d9'/]i^u) fays Thoth, O king, will 
 " render your Egyptians wiltr, and of 
 *« more retentive and dccifive mernory. 
 '* The king examining this invention on 
 *' thefe two points, anfwered, — My moft 
 *' ingenious and inventive Thoth, we are 
 " fo formed, that one man ir. more pecu- 
 " liarly apt and a^livc in the invention of 
 ** arts and work?;, wliilc another is bctte-r 
 ^' calculated to judge what benefit 'ot 
 " damage may derive' from the application 
 <* of them to ufe. You the father of thi^ 
 *' invention of letters, have been led by 
 *' vour bcn£\olcnce to' conceive of their 
 ^* iiiw coniTL'.ry to what would prove the
 
 ( 223 ) 
 
 ■*' ' fa(fl In pra6llce. This written Iearnht<r 
 :*' from an inacumcy and relaxnels in the 
 *« ap;plIcat'ionC(f memory *, which would 
 ■^^ bo a natural conTeqiience ' of it, would 
 *^ be more likely to produce "oblivion or a 
 ■*' ceflation of the a£l of memory, than aid 
 ** and ftrengthen it. For the mind trufting 
 *' to thefe alien types exifting externally, 
 *' would be lefs careful to fix and re- 
 ** memxber the real ideas internallv. You 
 ^' may therefore be fiid to have invented 
 " a proper remedy for records, but no aid 
 •*' or benefit to the application or exercjfe 
 *■* of ' memory. • ■,.;;..■• - 
 
 *' Upon the other point of this Inven- 
 '* tion being a vehicle of wifdom or know- 
 " ledge, I am afraid it would be 'more 
 ** likely to communicate and convey dovvri 
 '' to your difciples, opifiions m learning 
 " rather than truth in knowledge. Forthef^i 
 *' difciples being by the m^eans of this ve- 
 " hide, in a fituation to receive communi-- 
 " -cation of many matters without the fu- 
 
 * Crefar fptaking (Lib. vi. § 14. de Eello Galileo) of 
 the Druids prohibiting their fchoiars from committing thci/ 
 learning and dodrines to writing, although in all othe? 
 matters they ajiplied writing in common ufe^ gives the vtrf 
 fame reafon for it. Id mjhi dimbus de caulis inHiruifie vi.-- 
 demur; quod neo,ue in vulgus dilciplinaqi e^erri vclint; 
 neque eoi qui difcunt, liieiis contilbs mirus memori;^ 
 Huderc, quod fere pleril'que accidit, iit prrpfidio literarum, 
 4digeatiam in perdil'cendOj ac memorism remirtant. 
 
 *' perintchdiiig
 
 [ 224 ] 
 perlntending and guiding hand of in* 
 flruflion ; they, that is the bulk of them, 
 would fancy themfelves to have acquired 
 a juft conception of many things, and 
 to have knowledge, where they have 
 wholly mifconcelved and are intirely ig- 
 norant; and will become the more obfti* 
 nate and impractical as they will be mere 
 opinlonifts infteadof wife *." Thus far 
 IS Socrates in Plato fuppofed to give In 
 this hiftoric narrative the adual reafons 
 adduced by Tham or Ham ; he may how- 
 ever, truly be fuppofed to give the general 
 reafons affigned by the politicians of Egypt 
 for not fuffering the elementary writing 
 to be in ufe, and for continuing the pi«5lure 
 writing fo long after the elementary was 
 become the vulgate in every other country. 
 Thefe reafons derive from deeper fources 
 
 it Ixi ro7i y^af*fA«c/»» «>. TSto ot w 'Bv.ffi'Kw to Mrt'9>i|ua {t^ri e 
 OiSG') co<puii*Vi Taj A»7't;7rHa? Kj f*.vvi^o^iy.o)Tifti!i •wa^i|t»' f*>^f*r^ 
 niyuD )C, ao(pi<xc ^«^jU.ax«» tl^i<TVr\. O o siTrtv, u Tjp^viscaiTals ©fiJ9' 
 "AXXc; /uir Ttp^tTr ^uvwlc; Ta rn<i Tsp/rn;, uXXo; oe xf'ivai Tie* ipjjii 
 ^o7-a» (SXaioj;," t» >^ u<l>tXft«{ Tor? ^iXXoicrt p^jg^a-flati, x^ rrf Ev, 
 ocaTie wy y^ciiJ.iJ.»rur^ ot iijjoiai' Ta>a»Tioii Jt7r£5, >j evto^ati, TSto 
 yag Tir /na6o»ltf» X>)Gv;r |l(,j» iv •vJ/i'p^^aK vrafihi, i4.yvi^-ni; nixihilna-la. 
 m Ti •!« Tcrtr" 'yf*^^? f^uo(v VJT aXXolpiiwy TfTTo.'*, >-x i»tf6oty auTaf, 
 i^ ulrut ataiJ^ifJ^ir.axcfxirn^f hkH* fAnj^.nj «.XX' v'^oj/.tricreu^ (faj- 
 ^axov ftlgE?. So^<«? ^i ToT^ iACcQtra7(; Jo^av «« aX»!9i««> -x-o^i^st^* 
 WeXu^xocrt xal cro» yt»ofAiroi ftytu riJap^ijj, woXfyriw/Atnf iivck* ^6|tt- 
 €•»» Kyui/jjityti) «5 It» to tsXigfio?, S»Ii?, x) ;^aXt7roI li/MJrai* Ao^o* 
 
 ff'oipoi 7!7Bv»Ti{ i.iTi cofSJr. Platonii Phjcdrus* 
 
 5 of
 
 [ .225 ]• 
 
 of wife policy (taking in at the fame time 
 the foundation of their reHgious eftabhfh- 
 ment) than will perhaps ll:rike any of us 
 moderns, whofe prejudices run a contrary 
 way to an extreme in communication of 
 the art of reading and writing. After this, 
 Socrates goes on to give his own realons, 
 derived from the principle univerfally 
 adopted by the ancient philofophers and 
 politicians, that the higher parts of know- 
 ledge, either in philofophy or poUtics, 
 wheil made vulgate, are moll: likely to 
 be mifunderftood, and to be perverted. 
 When thofe things which may be Ipoken 
 openly, and thofe which cannot with 
 fafety be vulgately fpoken, are communi- 
 cated in common to all indifferently, to 
 thofe who know, and to thofe who are no 
 proper judges ; confulion Certainly, if not 
 danger, muff be the confcquence. Thefe 
 fentiments of Plato, if he may be fup- 
 pofed to underfland the fubje£l, do not 
 only prove the fa(5l, t^at the pi5fure-writ' 
 ing was the vulgate in M^ypt ; but alfo 
 giv^e the grounds on which the wifdom 
 of the T^Lgyptians always kept a fecrete 
 elemetitary writing for the communication 
 of thofe things w^hich were fit only for 
 the efoterick knowledge of the few, while 
 P for
 
 ( i26 ) 
 
 for public communication they continued 
 to ufe the pi<£ture-writing as the vulgate. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 S I R, &c. 
 
 P. S. 
 
 March i8, 178 1. 
 
 Since this paper hath been read at the 
 Society of Antiquaries, I heard of a book, 
 laying it down as a pofition, that perfons 
 born deaf might not only underftand thofe 
 who fpoke to them, but might in their 
 turn acquire a certain ufe of fpeech, from 
 a decided knowledge of the forms of the 
 mouth ahd a^Sions of the tongue, which 
 are to be dlfcerned by the eye, and to be 
 learnt without the ufe of the ear. This 
 book is titled, Alphabeti vere naturalis 
 Hebraici breviffima Delineatio — quae limul 
 methodum fuppeditat juxta quem, qui 
 furdi nati funt fic informari poffint ; ut 
 non faltem alios loquentes intelHgant, fed 
 et ipH ad frrmonis ufum perveniant — 
 in lucem cdita. 
 
 Par F. M. B. ab Helmont. 
 TypisAbrahamiLichtenLhaleri,A.D.i667. 
 5 Being
 
 ( -^7 ) 
 
 feeing told that this book explained the 
 formation of elementary chara-flers of 
 writing from the forms of the mouth, and 
 the ach of the organs of fpeech, much in 
 the fame way as i had done, I was very 
 defirous of feeing it; it was in the pof 
 feffion of a friend, of whom I borrowed 
 it ; but found myfelf difappolnted *. The 
 author fuppoles (as if the tongue was the 
 only a<^ing organ which articulated into 
 nations) that the letters or elementary 
 characters muft originally have taken their 
 form in the facred writing of the Hebrews, 
 from the inflexions and contortions of the 
 tongue. In refpeftlvely pronouncing each 
 element, Thefe, fays he, indeed, do no 
 longer exlft, and therefore he finds him- 
 felf at full liberty to form, and does form, 
 his vifual vjfionary fpeech, his vox p'lSia 
 from imaginary inflexions, and contor- 
 tions of the tongue, which taken in pro- 
 file, gives the forms of his alphabet. In 
 
 * Sacra fcriptura Hsbixornm aliquam hab'iit cumi 
 VtrigutC humanx motibus fimilitiidinem. . . . Fox picia 
 tic primitus inftitiita efr, iH 1 c»it ioquendi orgi*na in-^ 
 terniuTi animi chara^eiem imnbus, ita ilia enndcm per 
 Ioquendi organa exprefium ocuMj fubjiciar. Primarium 
 autem Ioquendi orgJiion lingua dl, e cnjus vario motu 
 atquc allifu loquela oritur. Quid ergo, li loquela pin- 
 genda eft, aliud pingi poterit qimm varia ejuidtm motio 
 et configuratio .... vera? e-inim liteiarua] figurse 
 poa smp'ius \v. ulu iunt aptid J idjeos, 
 
 P 2 tjie
 
 ( ^28 ) 
 the firft place, there are near two -thirds of 
 the letters which are not articulated by 
 the tongue. In the next jilace, as thefe 
 forms of the tongue do only give the 
 fliapcs of his fuppofed letters when it is 
 feen in profile, I do not conceive liow 
 thefe forms are to be rendered vifible, im- 
 lefs the fpeaker hath, not figuratively, but 
 literally, a lanthom yaw^ or iinlefs the 
 cheek is cut away to lay it open by a 
 feclion ; aiul in fadl, in the fpecimens 
 which he gives of thefe his letters, he 
 gives the drawing of a man's head fo dif- 
 feȣled. He gives, however, fome drawings 
 of the openings of the mouth in front, 
 as in the act of pronunciation, which are 
 nearly the fame as I have given of the 
 mouth enouncing the vowels ; but he does 
 not define theic forms to thofe fpeciiick 
 acts I could not but think right to take 
 notice of this matter in this pofl ■ fcript. 
 
 Feb. 2, 1782, having heard of the Rev. 
 Mr. Woide, under whofc care the Oxford 
 edltirn of Labroze*s Lexicon i^.gyptiaco- 
 I/citinum ex veteris illius linguic monu- 
 mentls, &c. was publifhed; who alfo pub- 
 liihcd Scholtz's Grammatica ^^iiyptiaca ; 
 1 bad this day the pleafure of feeing him. 
 I experienced in him that openncfs and 
 
 liberality
 
 ( 229 ) 
 
 liberality of communication which cha- 
 ra6lerizes all men of real learning ; he ex- 
 plained to me the hiftory and nature of 
 thefe works, which are confined to the 
 inodern ^Egyptian language, ufnally called 
 the Koptic, ov 'ruTfjac ; he explained to me 
 a matter very little known, but of which 
 he is perfe6l mafter, the dialecl of Upper 
 JrEgypt, called by Jablonfk, th.Q S.^bu/Wy 
 but which he more properly calls the 
 thebaic : he is of opinion, and hope-, to 
 prove, that although the writing com- 
 monly called the Coptic i?, mixt, ^fpecially 
 fince the time of the Ptolemies, with 
 Greek letters ; yet there are even in the 
 moft corrupt fome, and in the higher 
 manufcrlpts many, letters which were ori- 
 ginally ufed in the epiftolographick writing 
 of the ancient ^Egyptians ; that there are 
 numbers of words, efpecially in the The- 
 baic dialedl:, which are pure ^Egyptian. 
 Animated by a genuine ardor in the pur- 
 fuit of knowledge derived from very un- 
 common learning in this brancli of fcieiice ; 
 conducted by particular information in the 
 hiftory of thefe refearches and dlfcoverles, 
 and affifted by very extenfive communi- 
 cations on the fubjcifl:, he is in purfult of 
 the revival or reftoration of the knowledge 
 of the ^-^gyptlan languai;e ; and if he is 
 fiipDorted and aiiifted as he aught to be, 
 P 3 It
 
 ( ^3^ ) 
 it may not be defpaired of : he alfo com-* 
 municated to me a little dilTeitation, which 
 he is writing, on the JEgyptun language, 
 the fecond fe<S):ion of w^hich, not yet 
 finifhed, goes to the ancient language and 
 hieroglyphicks. I communicated tp him 
 the tables wherein 1 have delineated the 
 Jymbols and elemetits found in the hiero- 
 glyphick infciptions. He is clearly of 
 opinion with this papei*, that the elemen- 
 tary writing ftands in the infcriptions on 
 the obelilks and other remains of Egyp- 
 tian antiquity : he has not yet gone into 
 the analyfis of that fubjeft ; whenever he 
 does, that end, which 1, through defi- 
 ciency in a knowledge of the oriental 
 languages, muft have defpaired of, his ac- 
 quaintance with them, combined with hi§ 
 fpecial knowledge of the i^gyptian manu- 
 fcripts, may hope to attain. If the few 
 unconnected words and names ill fpelt, 
 and deformed with prefixed and termi- 
 nating additions, fhould luckily contain 
 all or moll of the elements, they may be 
 picked out fo as to become a key to decy- 
 phering the ancient infcriptions. IFhat I 
 have done in comrmncement of this dif^ 
 ccver\\ gpe§ but lo a few ; and thefe arc 
 defcribed by guefs and conjecture on com- 
 parlfon, rather than in any certain line 
 of analyfis. The want oj i Kj'orrriaUon in 
 
 the.
 
 ( ^3' ) 
 
 the /Egyptian language and facred writing 
 is fo great a defedl and desideratum in 
 learning, that making, as I do in the 
 treatife to which this paper is an appen- 
 dix, a review of the ftudy of antiquities, 
 jts defiderata and dlfcoverie?, I could not 
 avoid taking this notice of Mr. Woide's 
 very learned and laborious Vefearches, 
 which promife fo fair for difcoveries in 
 this point. Whenever he Ihall publlfli his 
 learned ^Diflertation on the Egyptian 
 Language, the world will fee much lead- 
 ing matter ; their curiofity muft be raifed 
 in expectation of it, and I hope their in- 
 duftry and exertion will be excited in pro- 
 portion, to alfift in the purfuit. 
 
 Since the paper above was read at the 
 Society of Antiquaries, I received a letter 
 from Mr. Rafpe, expreffing a defire to com- 
 municate fome ideas which he had con- 
 ceived on this fubjedl of the hieroglyphics, 
 as alio his views in a projecft he had formed, 
 could he be enabled to efFe6l it, of going 
 to -'5^gyp.t to inveftlgate thefe matters on 
 the fpot. I have feen him on this fubjeCt, 
 and, as far as I am a judge, his ideas have 
 a much n^ore conformable analogy to the 
 nature of pidture-writing, refined to a 
 P 4 J'pnbolic
 
 C 232 ) 
 
 fymboUc trartfcr'ipt of mythological doc- 
 triues; and bids fairer, if this be tlie right 
 idea of the riglit line, to give explication 
 of this involved myflical fubjecl, than any 
 thing which I have read or heard from 
 others. 
 
 The hieroglyphick writing, according 
 to his fcheire ot it, in the elements and 
 compotitlon of which he includes both the 
 piulures and lineal diagrams unitedly, is 
 like AlgJura^ a jymholic written hmguage, 
 containing, and expreflive of the general 
 terms ot abftrait propofitlons, whofe re- 
 lations arc marked bv lineal i\QT\s. 
 
 To give fome fketch of what I mean, 
 when I explain Mr. Rafpe's idea by com- 
 parir.g It to Algebraic writing, 1 will quote 
 Mr. Prof.flor Saunderion's Definition of 
 Algebra, that it is *' ^he Art of computing 
 '< by Symbols^'' alfo Sir Ifaac Newton's 
 cxpre{Tion, where he fpeaks of the alge- 
 braic language ; " e lermone Latino vel 
 ** aliocjuovis, in quo problcma proponitur, 
 *' tranflatio fiat in fermonem ((i Ita loquar) 
 '* algebraicum, hoc eft, in chara^leres qui 
 ** apti lunt ut noftros de quantitatum rc- 
 ". laiionibus conceptus defignent." 
 
 This
 
 ( ^33 ) 
 
 This idea differs from the fimplexiotion 
 which I have adopted^ of confidering the 
 yEgyptiaji infcriptions, as being, in part 
 merely . and diflinttly , the ordinary vuU 
 gate picture-writing as u fed by,", other 
 nations ; and in part, diflinCl alfo, the ele- 
 mentary writing, uled as the fecrete writr 
 ing ; in which I think I have fliewn that 
 fome of the letters may be afcertained by 
 comparifon with the decided elements of 
 writing, or letters of other languages. 
 Mr. Rafpe's opinion, however, if purlued 
 to its full extent of refinement, may, for 
 aught I know, fuit the ahftrufenefs of this 
 Egyptian learning better than mine ; and 
 1 wifh that this learned and very ingenious, 
 but very unfortunate and dilfrelled man, 
 was enabled by the afhllance of the ge- 
 nerous to purine this refearch ; as alfo 
 many otliers, in which he hath made great 
 progrefs ; particularly his analyfis and ex- 
 plication of our Doms Day book, I wifh 
 that by fome method of fubfcription he 
 could be engngcd and fupported in carry- 
 ing into execution a work for which his 
 practical knowledge in the Saxon, Deutfch, 
 French, and Englifli languages, as well 
 as his general grammatical learning, pecu- 
 liarly hts him ; viz. an etymological 
 Di<5tionary of our language, Ihowing its 
 
 agnation
 
 ( 234 ) 
 
 agnation with, and its derivation from, 
 the original general language of northern 
 Europe; as alfo its deviations and dialects 
 as they arife in part from variations in 
 pronunciations, and in part from the vague 
 and indecilive ufe of the elementary chg.- 
 radlers in writing. 
 
 N^ m
 
 
 
 A 
 
 --^ 
 
 rzj 
 
 .Ai n^/-cA Z ^ft^fJcf 
 
 .l)o^^ 
 
 V 
 
 
 E 
 
 o ('/y/(7p/?iyf>/ TV^A^ 
 
 -1/ 
 
 P/^^^:r 8, 
 
 
 \5f 
 
 ?•■ 
 
 ^'
 
 Plate D. 
 
 * A.J%«S~& /MrM.^ /,„,..-,.„^«f t/u- TZ^.,/. . 
 
 
 tUU^ 
 
 Tubul.-i 
 
 ^ 
 
 ~^^ 
 
 
 U»^ 
 
 "-^^ 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 ^ '^ .11 . £ fe. t 
 
 — ^/v//, a&//A^//. 
 
 -a -i3_n 
 
 •n it'/a-^J/tn W«n6 
 
 3JI I /^v^ 
 
 vl 
 
 M 
 
 c
 
 •i 
 
 
 1+- 3S 
 
 yy /vA . /V\A 
 
 AA/SA . aAAAA 
 . AA/WXA/NAA 
 
 yA^ fd/t^^y yttr .^:.Jl£/?^^mya/n/:c^ ^J?, 
 
 
 T 
 
 ?^zce^ 
 
 
 nin"""'"'^'""|'°^ 

 
 ^ 
 
 (: 
 
 
 I.II.IIMIi/]^ 
 
 NlFitniUlVf-^d^^^' 
 
 z:^ 
 
 MM/ 
 
 yVA-AA . AAAAA 
 
 M^M>».yf/. 
 
 M< 
 
 ^Luu-A-U . /r,v«vw.- ^.. f.-. //„J. „/-. W...J 
 
 /■ 
 
 ,^/J.y v4^ .':J^„n//, „>u/ j'^^yy 
 
 o o ® 
 
 B ea^ Jii A i lHiii i ft i l» . il!UaaJl, 
 
 ."^ ..O^ O G 
 
 J '-tJ ! 
 
 Li 
 
 U.E Bl . B Ml B. ^ 
 
 SBahBB ^^ 
 
 a. 
 
 haiac/tij e^ t_ \ wtneia^imi' ( aJ t' Cfrficet >c j a/i/t/t^^t /ih-d^jJuut/y (zynt/ tif//ih/ 
 
 § -Sit ^ ^, 
 
 "9 ^-^ S^» So- * -fi-K ^ 
 
 / .ittntr. -K>r *>■.' f/;^j ft.fHilrffr.ui 
 
 c
 
 tZL 
 
 9 
 
 ^^ aMt?7/€y 
 
 l^ 
 
 a^i/e^ny 
 
 

 
 ELJEMEJS^Tu^RY CJEIAIi.A.CTMRS 
 
 -^UeaAer &y,/arf,f'f/. -L— —U _LU_ -LLLL '.^ 
 
 -W- -fH+- 
 
 ^-^— ^^+- 4y^ ^HiH 
 
 
 _^y7.>.i^- ///.r.y/^^/u>^M2^^r^^. '^^^:^:£z\ ^C^^if^^. 
 
 JZJ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 :^ 
 
 ^v-' 
 
 ' — 1 
 
 QOfO 
 
 ' — r 
 
 fit. 3 
 
 Mo 
 
 3 w^ 
 
 -^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ±= 
 
 "Z- 
 
 ^ 
 
 at /me^ 37 (AiirvA. cr Juj .Jlea/ij^-^ tfn eTLie'ftHfVuAnM:^ . 
 
 o
 
 ^
 
 ( ^35 ) 
 N'^ III. 
 
 M^f^oire, — Being a Narrative of the In^ 
 vejligat'ions and Dijcoveries made on the 
 ^ubje^t of the Triremes, Quadriremes, 
 and Quinquerenaes, of the Ancients^ of 
 the Nature of Rozv- Gallery, of the pojling 
 the roivers, and of the mode by which 
 ^hefe VeJ'els were rowed, by Lieutenant 
 General Melvill. Communicated to 
 Governor Pownall, May 15, ij8i. 
 
 THIS narrative ilates, that the Ge- 
 neral, while in the Weft Indies, fe- 
 veral years ago, had many repeated dif- 
 (Cuilions with the officers of the navy on 
 the fubjedt of the ancient War-gallies, par- 
 ticularly refpe£Ving the manner of their 
 being rowed, that he found the oncers 
 unanjmoufly of ppinion, that the Triremes^ 
 the ^adriremes, and the ^tnqueremes,^ 
 could never be fo cpnftrudled as to admit 
 of more than one row, bank, or tire, of 
 oars on each fide, as in the Mediterranean 
 gallies now \i\ ufe ; and that if the con- 
 ftrudtion of the veflel could be made to 
 admit naore, that it would be impradicable, 
 
 nay
 
 ( ^36 ;) 
 
 nay impoflible, for more than one row ta 
 work at one time: That the difficulty, not 
 to be overcome, arofe'^from the imprafti- 
 cubihty of thd angle of tb.e pofition of 
 the oar, and from the length luch oarmufl 
 have in any row except, that whofe ports 
 for the oars were at the firif pracSMcai 
 height from the water: Tliat therefore 
 thefe veflels of war h-aving,; acGbMhVg' to 
 this notion, but one row of oars 4il- each 
 fide, muft have received their name from 
 their having three, fo'ur, five, or more 
 rowers pofted to each oar. The Gefieral, 
 deferring ta.'.'the- pr^clical •kno\^'edge' of 
 thefe profeflional gentlemen, lx)rmed his 
 opinion upon their authority, that this 
 muft iiave been th^ cafei^ He fet' himfelf 
 to inveftigate the lubject for confirmation 
 of this opinion on faft, as he fhould find 
 that fa6t to. turn out in thc'defcriptions of 
 fea figlits, and of other-naval tranfadlons, 
 as given by the ancient authors, particu- 
 larly Polybius, Citfar, Livy, ^nd Florus. 
 The i'.me of this refearch obliged hifn'to 
 ,relinquiih his opinion, which he had taken 
 up upon authority as above ; the dc'fci'i|>- 
 tions, accounts, and fa6ls, in thefe aii- 
 tliors, evinced moiV evidently that 'thefe 
 "Triremes^ ^cid>ire)fies, Sluin/jueremes, 6<:c, 
 were refpeclivcly lo denominated, from 
 tiic number, of rows', : banks, or tire of 
 3 oars,
 
 ( ^3:7 ) 
 
 oars, which they had oii each fide, and 
 not from the numher of men pofled to 
 each oar : on the contrary, it appeared 
 that each oar was worked by one rower 
 only. Although this point was clear and 
 evident ; yet he had not been able to de- 
 termine, with any latisfa^ftory convi£rion, 
 what could be the poft and poiition of the 
 rowers, or what had been the manner of 
 arran^ins: the feveral banks or tire of oars 
 and rowers within thelc veliels. The 
 placing them on the fides above each other 
 leemed to be lubje6l, according to all the 
 fchemes of modern writers which he had 
 perufed, to infuperable inconveniences. 
 The unmanageable length and weight of 
 the oars, that muft have been required for 
 the upper tires even of ^adr'iremes and 
 ^iftqiieremes (not to fpeak of loftier galHes 
 of greater rates, wliich Jiave been feveral 
 times ufed) muft iiave rendered the work- 
 ing of them impracticable ; the placing of 
 the different rowers fo in feats on this 
 plan as hot to obfl:ru61: each other, feems 
 impoflihle : the great fpace Vv^liich they 
 muft have occupied leems incompatible 
 with all ideas of naval archite6lure to avoid 
 that difficulty ; the unfavourable angle on 
 the fliip's fide with which they m.uft have 
 rowed ; and hiftly, the difiiculty and danger 
 with which the rovvers muft have afcended 
 
 to.
 
 ( 23i ) 
 
 to, or fat upon the Jediita^ or feats, clofd 
 to the upright fides, when the galley had 
 a rowhng motion, feems to he wliat 
 neither the pruiciples nor the pradice of 
 mechanics could admit. The objedion of 
 thefe difficulties had baffled all the en- 
 ileavours at folutlon, which had been ufed 
 by many very ingenious and learned 
 writers, for fome centuries pail, In their 
 experiments to determine ivhat was the 
 true arrangement of rowers i/i the ancient 
 gallies. Mortified with thefe difappoint- 
 ments in this line of his refearches, and 
 defpairing of all hopes of obtaining an 
 explanation from thefe authorities, he re- 
 folved to try what he could do by the 
 unprejudged ufe of his own reafon, a re- 
 fource which he had availed himfelf of in 
 his inveftigation oijome other desiderata 
 refpefling the ancients. He therefore fet 
 himfelf to confider what muft have been 
 the chief objed of the Ancients in raihng 
 their war- gallies from one row of oars on 
 each fide, as they appear to have at firfl 
 only had, up to 2, 3, 4, 5, and more 
 rows. It occurred to him, that it muft 
 have been mainly for the fake of rapidity 
 in their movements ; and that, to obtaln.. 
 this purpofe, the indifpenfable requifites 
 were, that the arrangement of the rowers 
 within each fide ought to have been fuch, 
 
 as
 
 ( 239 ) 
 
 as to admit of the greatefl number poffible; 
 that they fhould have been fo placed as 
 not to impede each other ; that they 
 (hould be enabled to row to the befl ad- 
 vantage ; and that their oars even for the 
 higheft tires both in refped to length and 
 weight (hould be fufficiently manageable : 
 from thefe grounds the discovery im-: 
 mediately refulted to him, which was, that' 
 by a combination of two obliquities be- 
 tween the galley, and a rowers-gallery run- 
 ning along its waift part, projecting out- 
 wards from a fmall diftance above the 
 water's edge, with an angle of 45% and 
 rov/s of horizontal feats of about two feet 
 in length, fixe obliquely upwards from 
 the bottom of this gallery, againft this 
 obliquely projeOlng part of the lide, with 
 no more fpace betwixt them in all direc- 
 tions, than (hould be found necclTary for 
 the free movement of men when rowing, 
 together, a ^incunx, or chequer - oj^der\ 
 would be formed with all the above-men-; 
 tioned requifites, to the higheft degree of 
 advantage, which could co-exiil: confident 
 with each other. This would alfo at the 
 fame time be free from all the oppofite 
 difficulties, infuperable as was proved, 
 until this conftrudlion was imagined, which 
 from a defe6i: in the principle of inquiry, 
 had not been fuccelsfully combined by 
 
 other
 
 ( 240 ) 
 
 other itivefiigators, many of whom how- 
 ever lie was fullv convinced were of very 
 fuperlor genius and learning to himfelf. 
 That in 1773, helilg then in London, he 
 caui^id a model of one fifth part of the 
 waill of a ^iinqucrimis to he erected again fl 
 a high wall at the bottom of a back yard^ 
 behind his hotife In Great Pultney-ifreet. 
 This was conOru£led Xvith the fame pro- 
 portions as woul^have been required for 
 a fifth part of a real galley, and held in 
 a very fmall fpace, but with fufficlent eafe, 
 thirty -rowers in five tires of fix men in 
 each lengthways, making one fifth part of 
 the rowers on each fide of a ^inquej-imis^ 
 according to Polybius,who mentions three 
 hundred as the whole number of rowers 
 in it, befides 120 fighting men. This 
 model had been viewed by many perfons 
 of dllliti^lion, as well as ofiicers of both the 
 fea and land ferviccs, with Ibme of whom 
 he had performed together the motions 
 of rowing in it, ilnd all agreed, as well 
 as one of his majefty's chief^ fhip builders, 
 , who had come to Infpe^t it, that /z/C/6 and 
 I no othei- mufl: have been the conil:ru6lion 
 I of the ancient war gallies. General Mel- 
 vill, after this difcovery, had with great 
 pleafure found, that fome of the obfcurefl 
 paflages on naval matters, which before 
 had not a little puzzled him, were now 
 
 become
 
 . '( 241 ) 
 
 become both inteilisrible and entertainino: 
 to him. That in Italy, where he travelled 
 in 1775 and 1776, he found none of the 
 Literati- ?d\d iVntiquarles (with whom he 
 converfed) acquainted with this lubjeft, 
 nor indeed with any other naval or mili- 
 tary points of antiquity, however learned 
 and ingenious lome of them fhewed 
 themfelves to be in other branches of an- 
 cient literature. He conceived, that their 
 want of fuccefs in difcovering the true 
 conftrucllon of the ancient row oaUies had 
 not only been owing, in a great degree, 
 to the want of ufmg a proper principle of' 
 inveftigation, together with their igno- 
 rance about fhipping and fea matters in 
 general ; but likewile to the form of their 
 own gallies,^o often before their eyes, and ; 
 having only one rovv* of oars on each fide ; 
 and alfo to the imperfeclnefs of many of the 
 coarfe BuJ/i Reliev'/, and fmali coins, bear- 
 ing images of fmall row gallics, but with- 
 out fliewing clearly either the obliquity of- 
 the fides, or the feparation of the oars 
 from them -, which would indeed have 
 been an exceeding difficult work at firft, and 
 much too nice to have remained to this day. 
 On feveral pieces of fculpture however, par- 
 ticularly at Rome, he found the figures 
 of row gallies, or parts of them, vv-ith 
 the oars reprefented as com.ing down from 
 O oar'
 
 ( 242 ) 
 
 or.r holes difpofed chequerwife. In the 
 Capo di Monte Palace at Naples, be not 
 onlv faw, on the reverie of a large MeJag- 
 Uone of the emperor Gordianus, the figure 
 of a Trironis with three rows each of 1 4 
 or 15 oars, very dilTinguifhablj, iflliing 
 chequeiwife from an ohllque fide, accord- 
 nig to the model he had before conftrufted ; 
 l.ur he alfo oblerved, hi the knig's col- 
 lecllon of ancient paintings on pieces of 
 Stucco or plaiiler, at Portici (which had 
 been brought from Pompeii^ the figures of 
 fevcral row gallics, one or two of which, 
 bv preienting the {lern part, fhewed both 
 the obliquity of the fides and the rows of 
 oars reaching to the water, in the farne 
 manner as in the model above-mentioned. 
 
 N^' IV,
 
 ( 243 ) 
 
 N°IV. 
 
 Dijfertat'ioft on the artcient Chariot; the 
 ^xerdfe of it in the Race ; and the 
 Application of it to real Scr^Sice in Wai?. 
 
 Thomas Pownall to Richard Berengek. 
 
 '^I'^HE defer Iptlons of the Military 
 I Chariot^ which one meets wlrli in 
 the ancient poets and hillorians, referring 
 to a thing of common ufe and notoriety, 
 might indeed become, to thole who were 
 converfant with the thing itfelf, fuffi- 
 ciently explanatory of the peciiHar iifes, 
 properties, and actions Ipeclfied ; but, to 
 a reader, in thcfe diflant days, when thei 
 thing no longer exifrs, they are too vaguai 
 and obfcure, not to Vv'ant a regular, full, 
 and diftin6t explanation. 
 
 In fearching through the fcholiafls and 
 annotators, we find nothing precile and 
 fatisfa6lory ; and the drawings trom coins 
 and marbles leave us equally uninformed 
 as to particulars. Thele feldom mark any 
 particulars of the harnels or carriage, or 
 of the manner of ioining the horlcs to ir. 
 
 ■ CL3 u
 
 ( 244 ) 
 
 It was not the intention of the artifts, 
 who wrought thcfe dcfigns, to mark the 
 detail. It was fufficient that they charac- 
 terifed the fpecific action meant to be ex- 
 hibited. Belides this, their inattention in 
 thefe general defigns to the minute rules 
 of perfpeftive added confufion to inde- 
 cifion. 
 
 In confequence of this flate of darknefs 
 and doubt, I put together, on a few (heets 
 of paper, all the palTagcs which in the 
 courfe of reading had occurred to me on 
 this fubjeft, with fuch remarks as the pre- 
 fent moment fuggefted : and I did it with 
 a view of trying how they might elucidate 
 each other ; and as I loon tound, as further 
 opportunities occurred to me, that there 
 were feveral marbles and coins which 
 afforded fpecimcns of parts, fome in one 
 particular, fome in another, of this fub- 
 ject, I formed the defign of comparing 
 the defcriptlons in thele paflages with fuch 
 reprcfentatlons of this equipage as I might 
 hereafter meet with in coins or marbles, 
 or drawings made from them. 
 
 The refult of this invefligation enabled 
 me to draw up fuch a particular detail of 
 this military equipage, as left me in no 
 d-fficulty of underflanding any defcription 
 
 or
 
 i MS ) 
 
 or narrative which I met with of the ufe 
 or appHcation of the chariot, either in 
 war, or in the race. 
 
 In treating the fubje£l, I fhall avoid that 
 parade of hterature, which crouds the 
 margin with quotations, and fliall confine 
 mylclf folely to the refult of my in- 
 quiries, referring, in my aflertions, to fucli 
 authorities only, and in my deicriptions to 
 fucli palTages only, as are ablolutely ne- 
 ceilary to the explanation. 
 
 The ancient military chariot had but 
 two Wheels. The height or diameter of 
 theie, in no inftance that I have met with, 
 exceeded the height of a man's knee. 
 There are fome inftances of theie wheels 
 being of one plain difc, firmly compacled 
 with iron; but the common form was 
 fuch , as our wheels of the prefent day 
 bear, having fometimes four, fometimes 
 fix, and leldom more than eight fpokes or 
 radii ; . the fellies being armed or (hoed 
 with brafs. 
 
 The ufual length of the Axel-tree was 
 leven feet * in carriages of burden, as 
 well as in thofe of war, drawn by one 
 
 -'^ Hefiod.
 
 ( 246 ) 
 
 yoke or pair of horfes. When there were 
 more horfes ahreall, the axle extended to 
 the extreme breadth of the whole rank, or 
 at leaft to the interval between the outfide 
 horfe, and that next to hun. There is a 
 particular defcrlption of this matter in the 
 Alilitary Chariot, defcribed by Xenophon ^: 
 " They had ftrong compatfl wheels that 
 *' could not eafily be broken, and long 
 *' axle- trees which would not be liable to 
 *' an overturn.'* This dimenfion of the 
 wheels, and this length of the axle- tree, 
 accounts for every aclion of the chariot, 
 which would be. otherwife inexplicable ; 
 nr.melv, the driving in full career upon all 
 kinds of ground, over heaps of arms and 
 llaughtered bodies, without being expofed 
 to (otherwife a common accident) an over- 
 turn. It is from this length that we meet 
 with defcrlptions of the -f- axle groaning 
 under the weight of two fuperior heroes. 
 It is this length of the axle which allows 
 room for fuch a breadth in the car, as 
 gives fpace for a warrior to ftand and adl 
 on either fide the driver. But this matter 
 is put out of difpute by the examples to 
 be found in the ancient coins and marbles; 
 you there fee the wheel on the fame per- 
 fpecllve bafe with the outfide- horfe. The 
 
 * Xenophon Cyropced. lib. vi, 17. 
 f Iliad, V. 838. 
 
 head
 
 ( =47 ) 
 head of the axle was capped with a nut 
 or box, to feciire the wheel upon it, which 
 iiiit was ufually iii the form of a Lioiis or 
 Leopan^s head. 
 
 The Tf/;;c, or pole, called bv the Greeks 
 ""Pu^c; *, was fixed to the axle-tree, and 
 tied to it by two ftrengthening cheek- 
 pieces, as at c in jig. B, which I have taken 
 from profeflbr Scheff'er de Re Vehiculari ; 
 this form is couhrmed by feveral paiiages 
 defcribing it. The end next to the axle- 
 tree is therefore called the furca, or, in 
 Greek, Zrr/^iv^ and ^.ttX^v ^iXov. The other 
 end, which lay upon the yoke, was called 
 oix,^og -j-? ^i'd by Curtius, Jummu^ temo ; 
 that the temo was inferted into the axle- 
 Xx^t^ is plain from Ovid \ defcribing the 
 wreck of Phaeton's chariot ; 
 
 llUc fraena jacent^ Ulic tcmone reviiJfiis^ 
 
 The body of the chariot was fixed upon 
 this part where the axis and the temo 
 united, and lb ftrongly were all compa61:ed 
 together, that while we frequently read of 
 the yoke's being torn off from the temo by 
 the violence of accidents, yet we never 
 
 * Iliad, V. 7:9. t Ibid, 
 
 X Metamorph. lib. iii. 
 
 0^4 meet
 
 ( ^48 )• 
 meet with an account of the temo being 
 •vrenched ott from the axis, except in the ' 
 ! one inflanee of tiie chariot of the fun 
 ciriven by Phaeton. 
 
 At th.e other end, there was either a 
 hole through the fohd body of the pole 
 (or a ring aiiixed to it) through whlcii a 
 pin (fet erc£l in the middle of the yoke) 
 palled in the harneffing the horfes by this 
 yoke to the chariot, as will be feen pre- 
 fently. I'his hole or ling, (/^ in Jig, B,) 
 is called by Homer, Iliad xxv. 2*"2, k^.to^v. 
 In the original ufe of thefe chariots, each 
 pair or yoke of horfes were harneffed to 
 the chariot by a ieparate temo or pole. — 
 When there were one pair — there was 
 only one temo. — When two or more yoke, 
 two or more poles. In the firft cafe, the 
 temo was fixed in the middle of the axis 
 as before- mentioned ; in the fecond caie, 
 the two temones were fo fixed as to leave 
 two fourths of the whole length between 
 them, and one fourth towards each end of 
 the axis. There is in one of Mr. Ha- 
 milton's drr.wing^s irom the ancient Tulcan 
 m-ns and vyfes, Plate 130, vol. 1. an ex- 
 ample of this caie, where each temo forms 
 each--iide of the. frame of the body of the 
 chariot. When there were three pair or 
 yoke of horles abrtafl:, of which alio there 
 
 r 
 
 are
 
 (- 249- ) 
 
 are lafta'nces in the antique marbles, &c. 
 there is fnppofed to be three temones: you 
 will in Xenophon read of Telpapufjiog Ik 
 Ytttfov cKju), and cTija^uixog. But you muft 
 not underftand that in all thefe inftances, 
 and in all cafes, the feveral yokes, or pair, 
 were abreafl ; in fome inftances, they 
 were a-head of each: other, with a temone 
 perpetiiG, The length of the temo was 
 accommodated to the" length of the horfes, 
 leaving no more fpaee between the hind 
 quarters of the horie and chariot, than was 
 fufficient for the horfe to move his hind 
 legs; clear of the carriage. 
 
 The Carriage x\\^s defcribed, the Body 
 of the chariot .CQnies next under conli- 
 deration : in the firft place, it is clear that 
 in the military equipage the body was not 
 a feparate diftinct part moveable, but fixed, 
 and adlually a part of the whole com- 
 pacted together infeparably, as is above 
 faid' of the exarnple in Mr. Hamilton's 
 drawings. The body of the chariots cf 
 flate and parade were moveable, fo as they 
 were taken off from the carriage and let 
 carefully by, when not in ufe, and onlv 
 put on and hung by braces, when wanted 
 for ufe, as we read' of Priam's chariot in 
 the 2 4tii book of the Iliad. The carriage 
 is there called a^js^ocfo!,, and the body 'zdsiptvSce. 
 
 All
 
 ( 250 ) 
 
 All thofe chariots which we read of m 
 Homer, as being fo occalionally hung on 
 upon, or with braces, are of that Ibrt ; 
 but in the military chariot, the body and 
 the carriage were but different parts of the 
 fame, one Infeparate compacted whole. 
 We find that, when Pallas returned from 
 the engagement, the body of her chariot 
 is not taken off from the carriage, but the 
 whole <x.ny.(XTx fet up inclining againfr the 
 wall *. When Jupiter returns from the 
 battle to Olympus, the whole ccpuuTa Is fet 
 upon a bale or altar. Whereas Priam*s 
 chariot is an example of the firft fort, as is 
 that of Juno mentioned in the fifth book 
 of the Iliad ; where, being a ffate or pa- 
 rade chariot, it is laid of the body, called 
 Ci:ppog, that 
 
 Braces of gold fufpend the moving Tbroite, 
 
 The carriage is there called oxo^- Although 
 thefe parade chariots might be fo hung 
 upon braces, and fixed occafionally on the 
 carriage ; yet thofe ufed in war, and in the 
 race, could not have ffood the violent 
 Ihocks to which they muff have been 
 liable, If they were not firmly compa6lcd 
 and fixed ; and they appear lo to be in all 
 the examplars which I have fecn. 
 
 * Iliad, lib. viii. 
 
 Mr.
 
 ( ^5' ) 
 
 Mr. ProfeiTor Scheffer has defcribcd the 
 parts of the body of the chariot with the 
 exadiiiefs of a mechanic, yet he lias not 
 touched upon the article of the hanging or 
 bracing it upon the carriage : nor has he 
 taken any notice of the* difference above 
 defcribed, between the Pajade chariot thus 
 /> meed on ^ and the Miliiary chariot. The 
 form of the body of the chariot is fo well 
 known, that it v/ould be a mere waflc of 
 words to defcribe it, and a needlefs ex- 
 pence to give a drawing of it. / willonlv 
 obferve, that the front of the body was 
 made breaft higb, and rounded like a 
 fliield, fo as to anfwer to the driver the 
 purpofe of that defence, and was for that 
 reaion called aVvz/^^V;^',?, or the fhield part. 
 The iidcs of the chariot Hoped awav back- 
 wards almoft to the bottom, or floor of 
 the body, but ditterently, and by various 
 lines in different bodies. The hinder part 
 was open, and although not higher from 
 the ground than the height of a man's 
 leg, yet there was iomething of a ftep to 
 it called zPi^vcc. Whether the body of 
 the chariot was extended in breadth to the 
 full extent of the axle-tree, is no where 
 fpecitied ; I think that in no cafe it ex- 
 tended further than to the interval between 
 the two outermofl: horles. However, from 
 the ufe made of it in aflual fervice, it 
 
 mull
 
 ( 252 ) 
 
 niuft h?.ve. been of a breadth fufficlent to 
 allow the oiHcer to flaiid either on the 
 risht or left of the driver, as the nature 
 of the lervice (liould require : on the coins 
 and marbles we find the officer lometimes 
 on the right, ibmetimes on the left : in 
 the impreliion of a coin given by Schrffcr^ 
 the officer is on the lett hand ; in a balib 
 releivo in the church of St. Felix at Spa- 
 latro, as publilhed by Mr. Adams, the 
 officer is on the right. 
 
 The bodies Hyperter'ui or CapfaSy ufed 
 
 in the race, were merely adapted to the 
 
 carrying one perfon ; the ditference of 
 
 theie are plainly difcernable in the various 
 
 dcfcriptions of them. There is in Ibme 
 
 of the exemplars of the chariots in the 
 
 race, an appearance of the charioteer's 
 
 being bound or braced in by a belt, or 
 
 Ibmething like it, which may perhaps 
 
 have been of ule in that cafe ; and indeed 
 
 ibme of the accidents which we read of 
 
 in the race, feem to confirm this fuppo- 
 
 fition. But tiiis coLild not be the cale in 
 
 military fervice, for neither the aclions 
 
 nor the accidents in battle, lb frequently 
 
 defcribed, could have been fo performed, 
 
 or hav^.fo happened, if the charioteer, or 
 
 officer terving in the chariot, were \o tied 
 
 in. I refer to fuch aclions and accidents, 
 
 Q as
 
 ( ^53 ) 
 
 as the officers difmounting and remounting, 
 and tumbling headlong to the ground out 
 of the chariot when (lain. 
 
 The next confideration will be to ex- 
 amine the harnefs of the horfes, and the 
 manner of tackling them to the joke, and 
 of fixing the Y'oke to the Tano of the car- 
 riage. The only parts of harnefs which 
 I have met with, in reading, or feen in 
 drawings, are the collar and body- girth : 
 the one called 'kiivcihcc * ; the other M^^cr^a- 
 'kigyi^iq. The Lepadna, or Collar^ was a 
 thick broad leathern belt, confiliing to all 
 appearance of feveral folds fluck together, 
 and bound at the edges ; fo cut and fliaped 
 as to fit the neck and breaft, without pref- 
 fing or pinching in one part more than 
 in another, when buttoned on. This 
 collar, and the manner of buttoning it, 
 may be feen in the drawing, {Fig. C ^,) 
 taken partly from the horfes over the great 
 gate of St. Mark's church at Venice, and 
 partly from a bafib relievo in the temple 
 of Jupiter at Spalatro. The fame collar, 
 with fcarce the leail change of form, may 
 be feen in numberlels examples, although 
 not perhaps v/ith the fame dilfinclnefs. 
 
 '''• Iliad, V. 729, 
 
 The
 
 ( 254 ) 
 The body-girth, or Majhalifieris^ f -^^4^* 
 C b,) was alio a broad leathern belt ; this 
 alfo may be feen in almoft every exemplar 
 ct the chariot and horfes. 
 
 Both thefe were fixed to the yoke which 
 lav upon the withers (F. C : c.)^ bound 
 to it by \\\Q Jubjugia or ju gal i a lor a. The 
 collar was more particularly applied in 
 drawing, the latter in keeping Heady, and 
 {lopping the carriage. From the manncir 
 in which the liories were harneiitd to the 
 yoke, no other tackling was ncceflarv, 
 or ever uled, unleis fome trappings or 
 ornamental additions ; but, ftriclily ipeak- 
 ing, the collar, girth, lora jugalia^ and 
 yoke, were all the harnefs properly lb 
 called. 
 
 The yoke or jugum was of wood, of a 
 length iufficient to reach from the withers 
 of one horfe to thofe of the other, leaving 
 a proper diftance between them for the 
 temo. It was of fuch a breadth, and \o 
 curved and hollowed in its form, fig, A^e^e^ 
 that the refpe6live ends which reftcd on 
 the Ao(pogy or wither!^ of each horfe, miglit 
 * lie there with eafe to the horfe, and 
 with fecurity to the carringc. Each end 
 
 * Sec fig. E. 
 
 of
 
 ( 255 ) 
 
 of the yoke was varloufly carved and or- 
 namented. The middle part of this yoke 
 was fo curved, jig. A d^ and hollowed, as 
 to receive (the aTtpog) the end of the temo, 
 which was laid upon it. In the middle 
 of which concavity a pin or peg called by 
 Homer * gg-w^, ^fig. A n, was iixed ere6l', 
 fo as to pafs through either the folid body 
 of the head of the temo, or through a 
 ring called by Homer xpUcg, affixed to the 
 end of it. I have taken notice of this 
 hole or ring in fpeaking of the temo. 
 When the temo was affixed as above to 
 the yoke, it was faftened and bound to it 
 by the long leather thong called Ziuyi- 
 os(rf/,og, or mejjabos. The length being ge- 
 nerally betwixt fifteen and eighteen feet ; 
 that mentioned by Homer is nine cubits, 
 or thirteen feet and a half. This thontr 
 was of crude or white leather, in order 
 that it might be more pliant in its liga- 
 tures. That thefe ligatures might be fe- 
 cured againfl flipping or giving vv'ay, the 
 yoke had three or more grooves, Jig, Ace 
 or niches cut in it, called of^(paXoi, iii which 
 this thong is funk in the tying -f. There 
 were alfo affixed upon the yoke, hooks or 
 rings, {Fig, A b b b b) called quks^, through 
 
 * Iliad, xxiv, 
 
 + Ibid. V. 269. E'* Cili^^sffo-** aVnflo;. 
 
 7 w-hich,
 
 ( 256 ) 
 
 which, fays Euftathius, the * reins which 
 guided the liorles were paffed. The draw- 
 ing in tlie plate will beft defcribe this 
 jugum, for every part of which there is 
 fufiicient authority even in this palfage 
 alone of Homer. The method of har- 
 nefling the jugal hories was as follows : 
 The charioteer tiril: put on upon the hories 
 the lepadna or collar, and the malkaliftcris, 
 or body-girth. They then laid the yoke 
 acrofs their necks upon the lophob or 
 withers, where it was tyed to the lepadna 
 and malkalifleris by the jugalia lora -f. 
 He then brought them thus yoked to the 
 chariot, and laid the pole of the chariot 
 upon the yoke, "pafling the eftor through 
 the krikos, the hole or ring at the end of 
 it, after which he bound (Fig. D^) both 
 firmly together, tying them trebly or three- 
 fold I on each fide, (Fig. C d). After 
 
 * Amongft the Florentine gcm5, Vol. II. Clafs 2d. 
 Table 26. No I. is the Achilles in prnsliiim rcvcrtens ; 
 in this reprefentation are feen the oit>c£;, or rings, 
 through which the reins ran, exadly as I have drawn 
 them. 
 
 ■f It appears from Homer, in the palTage above cited, 
 that this was done in the ftable before the jugum was 
 fixed to the temo ; but theufual way was, after having 
 harneffed the horfcs, to tye the jugum to the temo, 
 and then bring the horfes to the jugum thus fixed, and 
 tackle them to the jugum. 
 
 X Homer. 
 
 which
 
 ( ''-SI ) 
 which the reins, coming from the horfes' 
 head, were pafl'ed through the rings 
 fixed upon the yoke *. In a baflb rehevo 
 on ^ lepulchral urn, exhibited in Pira- 
 nefi, there is an exemplar of the a6l of 
 harneffing the horfes tothejugum. If the 
 reader is curious enough to turn to the 
 pallage above cited from Homer, of which 
 i have made fo much ufe in this defcrip- 
 tion, as alfo to that in the fifth book of 
 the Iliad, V. 719, — and to refer his ejes 
 to the -f- many examples which he may fee 
 in drawings from antiquities (many very 
 fine examples of which he may fee in Mr. 
 Adam's drawings from the remains at 
 SpaJatro ; two in the compartments of the 
 frize of the temple of Jupiter, and one iu 
 a baflb relievo in the church of St. Felix), 
 he will find every thing moll: minutely 
 confirmed, which I have above defcribed : 
 he will fee from this defcription of the 
 harnefiing the horfes to the chariot, the 
 reafon why no traces or harnefs, according 
 , to our idea of fuch, are ever feen, and why 
 i even the pole or temo is icarce, if ever, 
 i feen \, — This defcription of the manner 
 
 * 'nAa.'kiuri i>A'^c<u\\. Homer, Book V. v. ^83. 
 
 \ Vide plate 43 an J 117, of ancient monumentg, 
 pi)bliflied by Abbe Winkelman; thel'e I have feen lince 
 tl-.e firft publication of the above, 
 
 t See fig. E. 
 
 R of
 
 ( 258 ) 
 
 of aTxing the yoke to the temo or pole, 
 and of harueffing the horfcs to the yoke, 
 will explain every pailage that occurs in 
 common reading, fo far as relates to the 
 bijug^e, or chariots drawn by a pair, or one 
 yoke of horfes. 
 
 Before I proceed to the more mked 
 kind of equipage, I will jufl mark, as I 
 pafs, that the ancients fometime ufed car- 
 riages drawn by one horfe, which had 
 fhafts as our prelent common carts have ; 
 which fhafts were tackled to the collar or 
 hepadfia^ in the fame m^anner as at this 
 day ; how the weight of the ihafts and 
 carriage were fupported, I have no where 
 feen or read. The only inftance which I 
 remember, at prefent, to have feen of this 
 fort of carriage, does not particularize the 
 manner in which this weight was born. 
 The reader wiU find the inllance which I 
 refer to in one of the paintings found at 
 He?'culaneum ; it reprefents a grotefque, or 
 emblerar.tic carriage, being one of thofe 
 i' fnigie cars drawn by a hawk or parrot, 
 J and driven by a grafshopper. Here, as in 
 the drawing from the Tufcan vafes, the 
 lide pieces of the floor or , Tcvo? of the 
 body of the chariot continued make the 
 fliafts. 
 
 It
 
 ( ^S9 ) 
 
 It has been remarked above, that the 
 ancients, in the moft early ufe of the 
 chariots, ufed as many poles as they had 
 yokes, or pairs of horfes in the carriage 
 abreaft ; but this was not always fo, for 
 we read in Homer, in the cafe of Achilles's 
 chariot, of an additional extrajugal horfe ; 
 as alfo in that of Priam's cliariot, of two 
 extrajugal horfes. I fliall therefore pro- 
 ceed to defcribe the manner in which they 
 harnefled thofe extrajugal horfes, when 
 they ufed one or two additional harnefled 
 In this manner. It was very limple, and 
 will therefore be the more eafily explained 
 and underftood: It appears that the an- 
 cients wifely ftudied, in thefe armaments^ 
 to avoid every unneceflary matter that 
 might become the occafion of embarrall- 
 ment or entanglement in the execution. 
 
 As to the harnefs of this extrajugal 
 horfe, it does not appear that any other 
 was ufed (as indeed not neceflary) than. 
 the lepadna or collar. For this horfe bore 
 no part of the weight of the chariot, nor?, 
 Was he in any way concerned in flopping 
 it, but {imply for drawing ; and he drew 
 by a trace called oi[ji,7r^ov, inftead of a pole, 
 'This a^TT^ov is feen, bcfides the temo, in 
 plate 130, of vol. I. of the drawings of 
 Mr. Hamilton's Tufcan vafes. This trace 
 R 3 was
 
 ( 26o ) 
 
 was extended, between the jugal horfe 
 and extrajugal horfe, from the nx^^,o^ia. to 
 the axis. It will appear that this pareoria 
 was not attached to the yoke, but was 
 iimply a trace by which the collar of the 
 extrajngal horfe (called therefore Uu^yio^oi) 
 was joined to that of the next jiigal horle. 
 
 In the inftanee of three horfes harneffed 
 to the chariot of Achilles^ lent to Pa- 
 iroclm^ we read that after Auiomedon had 
 harneffed the two immortal fl:eeds,Zanthos 
 and Balios, under the yoke, he harnefled 
 Pcdafos by the nu^r,o^tci, or extrajngal 
 traces. This extrajugal horfe was called, 
 from this particular harnefs, Uctp^cf^og, or, 
 from the long trace by which he drew, 
 called Lii^a, Let^ov^g, or Xei^oc(pooo$y which 
 the Latins tranflated funalis. 
 
 The effecl of the accidents which be- 
 fell this horfe, as defcribed by Homer', 
 proves that this horfe was not harnefled 
 to the yoke. He fays, that upon thi-s 
 liorle's being wounded and falling down 
 dead, the jugal horfes were diftraifced, or 
 drawn afunder as far as the yoke would 
 permit without breaking, for although 
 the yoke creeked with this ibxfs upon it, 
 it was not broken, nor were either of the 
 liorfcs feparated from it. The coupling 
 
 reins,
 
 ( 2«' ) 
 
 reins, called by Virgil, c:ncordJa frena^ 
 were confounded and entangled. But the 
 moment that this extrajugal horfe was 
 Separated by cutting the trace, the jugal 
 f pair flood again in their due order, and the 
 r&ins were righted. If the traces by which 
 this extrajugal horfe was faftened had been 
 any way tackled to the yoke, he muft, by 
 his falling, have pulled both the horfes 
 the fame way, and not afunder ; but by 
 his pulling them afunder, it is clear that 
 he was joined by the harnefs to the horfe, 
 and not to the yoke, as I have above de- 
 fcribed, drawing by a trace which pafled 
 between this outfide horfe and the jugal 
 horfe to which he was tied *. This again 
 accounts for our not feeing in the draw- 
 ings even the body-girth, or any drawing, 
 trace on the outfide horfe of the quadriga, 
 in thofe cafes where extrajugal horfes were 
 ufed. 
 
 Neflor alfo had an extrajugal horfe in 
 his chariot, which Paris killed ; and being 
 llain, the old man, in like manner, dil- 
 encumbered his equipage of him, by cut- 
 ting the Pareoria, 
 
 * See fig. F. 
 
 R ^ The
 
 [ 262 ] 
 
 The defcriptioii of this one extrajugal 
 horfe ferves hkewife for the other on tlie 
 other hand, as that was intirely fimilar. 
 
 This defcription of thefe extrajugal 
 horfes will anfwer to the explaining every 
 a6lion or evolution of the chariot, both ii^ 
 battle and in the race. 
 
 With refpeS: to the harneffing four 
 horfes abreall, the two on the outfide 
 might be extrajugal ; but I am convinced 
 (efpecially as 1 read it in Xenophon) that 
 when more pairs were put abreaft, each 
 pair had a ieino or pole ; and a peculiar fort 
 of carriage for carrying great burthens 13 
 actually lb defcribed ; but the quadrigae, 
 which were mofl: in ufe, were certainly 
 moft common I}'' drawn with a pairof jugal 
 horfes, and a pair of extrajugal horfes 
 coupled on each fide. The bufinefs of 
 guiding, keeping fteady, and flopping the 
 carriage, depended chiefly on the jugal 
 pair ; that of wheeling up each extreme 
 axle depended on the llrength and a£livity 
 of the refpedive outfide extrajugal horfe, 
 as will be feen prcfcntly. 
 
 The con ft ruction and the compofitioi"i 
 of this equipage of the Bijug^, the Trig^e^ 
 and ^adriga^ being thus defcribed, the 
 
 exercife
 
 C ^63 ) 
 
 •exercife of thefe in the games, and the 
 application of them to fervice in war, is 
 the next point to be inquired into. Tiiis 
 inquiry will ftill more iliuftrate the matter. 
 
 The whole of this is contained in one 
 line in Homer : 
 
 which Mr. Pope tranflates thus : 
 
 Pra<Sis'd alike to turn, to ftop, to chace. 
 To dare the fhock, or urge the rapid race. 
 
 If we view this line in the light of fcience, 
 we fhall find that it does very minutely 
 .defcribe every manoeuvre ufed in the evo- 
 lutions of the chariot, the advancing and 
 retreating, and thofe fudden rapid wheel- 
 ings to the right or left, by which they 
 rnake their almofl: irrefifiibie attacks ; 
 which motion, as I fhall afterwards ex- 
 plain it, is appropriated, of very ancient 
 time, to the movements of the knights in 
 the game of chefs. 
 
 ■f If2 gyrum grejfus magna impeie lunat 
 Curvatos, 
 
 * Iliad viii. 107. 
 
 .+ Vida; Sacchia Ludus. 
 
 R L The
 
 ( 26+ ) 
 
 The great excellence and perfecllon of 
 this manege was firit * io to bit the horfes, 
 that their necks might be pliable and obe- 
 dient to the reins : the next confifted hi 
 teaching the horfes to move by fuch "f* 
 meafured fteps, that the whole equipage, 
 when two, tour, or fix, were joined to- 
 gether, might move as one body with- 
 out confufion : Thirdly, to train them 
 to run with velocity, and to inure them 
 to courage and hardinefs, in either attack- 
 ing b}'' an impetuous (hock, or in receiving 
 firmly the attack. The laft was in drilling 
 them to execute the various evolutions of 
 w^ieeling with docility, adivity, and ve- 
 locity : in fhort, fays Xeqophon, to do all 
 other things which they would have oc- 
 cafion to perform in aft ual lervice, to run 
 over all kind of ground, to llretch up the 
 fleepeft afcents, and to rufli down the 
 /liarpefl declivities. 
 
 The chief excellence in driving was 
 Itead'mcfs^ fo as to proceed whether mov- 
 ing in the right or curve line, in one uni- 
 fr.ni direction, atid not to and fro by a 
 vacillating and fuiuous motion. But the 
 
 * Xcnophon. 
 
 f Which you fee dcfcjibed in all rhe ancient coins 
 and ballb relievos, 
 
 great
 
 [ ^65 ] 
 
 great excellencej of the horfes, as well as 
 the higheft fkill of the driver, was called 
 forth, in performing the wheelings to an 
 exad given curve, under full fpeed. 
 
 The chariot race was inftituted for the 
 exercife of this military skill, to encourage 
 and afford opportunities of difplaying it ; 
 and was fo regulated as to require the heft 
 horfes, the higheil: finifhed manege, and 
 the moil: perfedl skill in driving. To 
 complete the noble competitors in this 
 moft difficult manoeuvre of the wheel'mg^ 
 the courfe wjs always fo laid out, that the 
 race depended chiefly on the performing 
 this difficult evolution. He that will read 
 with the eye of fcience old Neftor's ad- 
 vice to his Ion in the Iliad, Book XXIII. 
 V. 306, will need no other explication of 
 this matter. 
 
 The courfe was generally of that length 
 that the race was finished by going once 
 round ; although fometimes, in the more 
 confined circus, the chariot went four 
 times round, making feven wheelings, 
 reckoning thofe round both termini taken 
 together. The route of the race was from 
 the right wheeling to the left, round the 
 extrerne meta or terminus, and then re- 
 turning back to the fame ground, fo as 
 
 thiit
 
 ( 266 ) 
 
 that the meta or terminus from which 
 they fet out fhould be upon their rip-ht ; 
 and, if the courfe confided of more rounds 
 than one, then wheeling to the right round 
 this meta, and fo alternately in a line, 
 making the Arabic figure of 8. Now 
 four rounds thus performed will make juft 
 {even wheelings. I am confcious that this 
 opinion is new ; but being perfuaded that 
 1 am grounded both in the nature of the 
 thing, and by fufficient authority, as will 
 be leen prefently, I venture to give it out. 
 
 According to the opinion commonly re- 
 ceived of the chariot race, that the com- 
 petitors darted from the right of the bar- 
 rier, and wheeling to the left round the 
 meta, always went the fame way, always 
 wheeling to the left in every circuit, what- 
 ever the number of rounds were, there 
 arifes a mofl: inexplicable injufiice^ as to any 
 chance that the merit of fwiftnefs in the 
 horfes, or of fkill in the driver could have, 
 except what they derived from their place 
 upon the right or left, which mere lot 
 gave them. For when there were from 
 ten chariots to forty at fometimes, all ar- 
 ranged abreaft at the barrier ; that upon 
 the left, and that upon the right, would 
 j:un courfcs of very different lengths, in 
 
 thq
 
 ( 2^7 ) 
 the proportion of the leffer or larger 
 circle that their lot deflined them to. 
 
 The explication of this difficulty given 
 by Mr. Weft, in his difcourfe on the 
 Olympic games, only adds confuiion to it. 
 The whole skill and courage of the cha- 
 rioteers were (he fays) employed to obtain 
 the point of advantage at the wheeling, 
 and he defcribes them in this attempt all 
 driving foul of one another, by diredlions 
 all converging to this point ; this, 1 fay, 
 may add to the confuiion, but does not 
 relieve the difficulty, for fcill the chariot, 
 which was placed upon the right of all, 
 had, in this firft attempt, the hypothenufe, 
 or longeft fide of the triangle to run, 
 while the chariot upon the left had only 
 one of the Legs of the fame right-angled 
 triangle, and lb the reft in gradation ; and 
 what a fcene of unavoidable inextricable^ 
 wreck muft all thefe chariots ruftiing to-i 
 gether, in converging lines, have made ! 
 This feems (o abfurd, that one cannot but 
 reject it at tirft light, from the nature of 
 the thing itfelf. But this attempt of run- 
 ning foul on one another, and croffing 
 upon each other, is contrary to fadf, isf 
 contrary to the laws of the courfe, which! 
 forbad ail fraud, all crojfmg or j oft ling, as 
 pur modern racers term it. And we find
 
 ( 268 ) 
 
 in the 23d book of Homer's Iliad, that 
 uintilochu^ was depriviid of the prize he 
 claimed (which prize \\%s given to Mene- 
 laus) hccaiife he (Aiitilochus) had crolTed 
 upon, and attempted to run foul of the 
 chariot of Menelaus. 
 
 All this perplexity is relieved, and the 
 difficulty cleared up, by the explication 
 which I have given above : for by that 
 route of the race, he that was outermoft 
 at the fetting off, returning to the fame 
 ground with the ftarting-poft upon the 
 right, would be innermoft at the coming 
 in ; and if the race confifted of more 
 circuits than one, the competitors would 
 be alternately outermoft and innermoft at 
 each alternate wheeling. So that he who 
 ran the large ft circle in the firft circuit, 
 would run the lelTer in the fecond, and 
 vice verfd. 
 
 Whoever will read the account of the 
 chariot race in the Eledlra of Sophocles, 
 and will particularly attend to the nature 
 of the accident which happened between 
 the Thracian and Libyan cars ; and to 
 the fatal one which befel Orejles at the 
 clofe of the race, will be contirmed in 
 this opinion. The narrative tells us. That 
 tlie chariots having finiftied the third 
 
 circuity.
 
 (^69) 
 
 circuit, and running the fourth,^ fome of 
 them had made the /event h wheeling, and 
 were got again into the ftraight right Hne, 
 at that moment of time the Mnian cha- 
 rioteer coming up to the Meta, in or near 
 the point where the route of the courfe 
 mufl crofs ; and his horfes, hard of mouth, 
 breaking from him, Averved and run foul, 
 with their front direcfl:, upon one of the 
 Libyan chariots. This is an accident that 
 could not happen, if the returning line 
 did not crofs upon the outgoing line, by 
 the chariots running the courfe in the 
 figure of eight. But the circumflances of 
 the difafter of the car of Oreftes put the 
 matter out of all doubt. 
 
 The narrative proceeds, and fays, That 
 fhis accident between the Libyan and 
 ^'Enian chariots drew after it an almoft 
 general wreck of the chariots then running. 
 But that the Ikilful Athenian, who was 
 laft but one, obferving his time, bore to 
 the right out of the courfe, and fo avoided 
 them. That Oreftes, who lay by in the 
 race, as having horfes of that rating way 
 of going, that he depended upon the pufh 
 at the laft for his fuccefs ; finding that 
 now was the time to make his pufh, bore 
 Hill more to the right, m order to pafs the 
 Athenian ;. and, for this purpofe, having 
 
 given
 
 ( 2;o ) 
 
 given the left-hand rein to his horfes, moft 
 unfortunately run with the end of his 
 axle-tree againft the Terminus, at the com- 
 ing in. Now unlefs this terminus had 
 been upon his right at the coming in, this 
 accident thus defcribed could not have 
 happened; but being upon the right, every 
 previous accident naturally leads to it. 
 
 However, as the route of the race ge- 
 nerally confided but of one long courfe, 
 returning again to the ftarting-poft, the 
 only wheeling performed in it was to the 
 left ; but to make that matter even and 
 fair, the chariots came in upon the left of 
 the ftarting-poft, as above defcribed ; fo 
 that thofe who were outermoft at the 
 wheeling round the meta, and had there 
 the difadvantage, were innermoft at the 
 coming in, and had that difadvantage made 
 up to them. 
 
 As in thefe courfes of one circuit, which 
 were the moft common, the only wheel- 
 ing performed was to the left round the 
 meta * ; the horfe of the higheft vigour 
 and greateft velocity was harncfled extra- 
 jugal upon the right ; and for the like 
 reafon, the beft maneged and mofl: flexile 
 
 ^ * Vide Scholiaft. in Antigone Sophoclis. 
 
 horfc
 
 ( 271 ) 
 
 horfe * was harneffed extrajugal on the 
 left, becaufe the firfr was to bring round 
 the chariot in the a6: of wheehng, and the 
 latter to maintain a kind of equably mov- 
 ing fulcrum, upon which the whole mo- 
 tion of the wheeling depended ; fo that 
 each had his perfedlion, and each was firft 
 and moft excellent in his refpe6live pro- 
 perty ; the attending to wliich diftindion 
 might have cleared Scheffer's difficulties. 
 The horfes of the quadriga were ge- 
 nerally, though not without exception, 
 mentioned in the following order. Firft, 
 the extrajugal on the right : Second, the 
 extrajugal on the left. Third, the jugal 
 on the right. Fourth, the jugal on the 
 left. I mention this, as it will be ne- 
 ceflary to explain fome terms which the 
 reader will meet with in Horner^ in So^l 
 phocles, and in feveral of the other claffics. 
 
 Let the reader be led next, by this in- 
 quiry, into the application of this equi- 
 page ; thus compofed, and thus exercifed 
 to actual fervice in war ; he will find thefe 
 chariots a6ling as diftin6l fingle bodies, in 
 rufhing upon and breaking the ranks of 
 the infantry, fometimes by a direct per- 
 pendicular attack upon the front, but more 
 
 * Vide Sophoclis Eleftram, 
 
 6 * com-
 
 ( 2/2 ) 
 
 commonly by wheeling fuddenly to th( 
 right or left, and bearing down in a tranf" 
 verfe line along ihe front, lb as to elude the 
 points of the enemy's fpears advanced in 
 front. He will find them fometimes ftop- 
 ping fhort upon a fudden halt, and (land- 
 ing unmoved ; while the officer, who was 
 carried in them, jumps down upon the 
 ground, and puts himfelf at the head of 
 «-he infantry, or engages in fingle combat. 
 jt\t other times he will find them coming 
 ihort about, and retreating. He will find 
 them, upon other occalions, a6ting in a 
 cornpadt corps, formed into a '•ank intire, 
 in order to bre?.k the enemy's front, and 
 then, by their various evolutions, making 
 way for the infantry to pafs up to action ; 
 at other times he will find them drawn up 
 in a body upon the wings, and fometimes 
 as a corps de referve in the rear. In fhort, 
 if we confider tliefe chariots, trained as 
 they were with fuch skill and difcipline, 
 and exercifed to fuch great perfecSlion, in 
 wheeling to right and left with ludden and 
 impetuous velocity, we fhall eafily per- 
 ceive how every evolution of the cavalry 
 might be performed in the fame manner 
 as the modern cavalry perform the mo- 
 dern evolutions of wheeling by fours; 
 a> alfo, how they might change their 
 
 fronts,
 
 ( ^n ) 
 
 fronts, refblve themfelves into leffer 
 bodies, and unite ^gain inro one. I couid 
 quote inftances of all thefe manoeuvres, 
 but I think it will be- more plealing 
 to the reader to apply thefe obfervations 
 himfelf to the many inftances which 
 he will m.eet with in the courfe of his 
 ftudies. 
 
 Various were the methods taken and 
 pra6lifed to evade this attack, which could 
 7int be. rcjijied by the infantry, fuch as 
 wheeling back, -and opening to the right 
 and left ; but the only one I fliall take 
 notice of is the manoeuvre mentioned by 
 Polyaenus * in his Stratagemata. He fays 
 that Alexander, having learned that tnc 
 Thracians had a powerful body of this 
 chariot cavahy, trained his Macedonians to. 
 couch upon the ground, and with their 
 Ihields thrown over them to form a teftudo, 
 over which the chariots of the enemy 
 might pafs without effe(5f. 
 
 As the BritiO"! lOand was. in the very 
 early ages of antiquity, planted by colonies 
 from the great commercial nations in tlie 
 eaftern parts of the Mediterranean lea ; lo 
 the learning and aris of thefe polilhed 
 
 * Lil. IV. c. iii. § ii. 
 
 S people
 
 ( 274 ) 
 people were planted in this land. The aflo- 
 uifiiing monuments of the Druids, who 
 were the priefts of thofe colonies, are 
 proofs of a knowledge in mechanics, which 
 we of this enlightened day only wonder 
 at, but are at a lofs to account for. This 
 ufe of the chariots pra6lifed by the Afi- 
 atics and Libyans, was the peculiar art 
 of war in which the Britons excelled, and 
 \vas peculiar to them. Although thefe 
 colonies, and indeed almofl the remem- 
 brance of them, had been in the time of 
 Julius Ciefar overwhelmed by the bar- 
 barifm of the natives, and of other un- 
 cultivated people who had tranlmigrated 
 from the continent of Europe ; yet thi^ 
 peculiar Afiatic art of war, the fame as 
 that ufed at the fiege of Troy, continued 
 to be ufed even fo late as the time of his 
 invafion, by the then inhabitants : in this 
 manege we find they excelled to a very 
 high degree of perfection. Diodorm fays 
 exprelsly, that they ufed chariots in war 
 exa6lly in the fame manner as the heroes 
 in the Trojan war * are fivid to have ufed 
 them. They ufed the iiuiie method of 
 formiliig the line of battle, the fame 
 method of attack, and particular! v that cf 
 the trci.'jvci'fe attack, which is vvhatCicciO, 
 
 * Lil , ' ,
 
 ( ^75 ) 
 in the 6th eplftle of his 7th book, refers 
 to, in the caution he gives Trebatius to 
 guard again ft thefe fudden uncxpe6led mo- 
 tions. The Britifh order of battle, which 
 Caefar defcribes in the 24th chapter of his 
 4th book of the GalHc war, Co?icilw Rg~ 
 manor um cognito, premijjb equiiatu et ejj'e darns 
 quo pleriimque genere in pralih uti co^ifue- 
 verant^ reliquis copi'is conjecuti fu?it, is ex- 
 actly the fame as thnt formed by the Greeks 
 defcribed in lUad IV. I could quote other 
 paifages to the fame purpofe, but this is 
 fufficient. 
 
 As this was the peculiar art of war 
 
 amongft the ancient inhabitants of this 
 
 country, fo had they the fame folemn 
 
 races, to train and exercife their vouth to 
 
 ... . . ^ 
 
 this difcipline, and to maintain the fame 
 
 honour towards thofe who excelled in it. 
 There are, to this day, remaining in Eng- 
 land fome veftlges of the Curjus in which 
 they ran thefe races ; which races being 
 attendants on the folemn meetings of re- 
 ligion, the curfus were near their temples. 
 The moft remarkable is that near Stone- 
 henge, which is a long tra(5l of ground, 
 about 350 feet (or 200 Druid cubits) wide, 
 and better than a mile and three quarters 
 (or 6000 Druid cubits) In length, enclofed 
 quite round with a bank of earth, ftretcii- 
 S 2 ing
 
 ( 3^6 ) 
 
 ing directly eaft and weft. The goal and 
 career ars at the cafl: end. The goal is a 
 high bank of earth, raifed with -A flope 
 inwards, whereon the judges are fuppofed 
 to have lat. The line of this hank is 
 north nnd louth, directly acrofs the curfiis, 
 beiiinnini?: trom the louth bank of the 
 curllis, not reaching quite to the north, 
 but leaving a fpace there for the chariots 
 to pafs to the career, between this goal and 
 the north bank, or fide of the curfus. The 
 nietae are two tumuli, or little barrows, at 
 the weft end of the curfus : 
 
 Some tomb, perhaps of old, the dead to grace. 
 Or then, as now, the limit of arace. 
 
 Pope's Homer, 
 
 as old Neftor defcrlbes the meta of the 
 curfus on the plains before Troy. 
 
 From the very ftate and form of this 
 hippodrome, or curfus, my conjedure, as 
 to the manner in which the race was per- 
 formed, is confirmed in fa6l. Here we 
 fee that the chariots fet out from the car- 
 eer, oil the right (or northward) of the 
 goal, and ran to the weft end ; whence, 
 -wheeling to the left round the metas, they 
 rerurned again eaftward, and muft pafs 
 ^galn to the northward, or left of the goal, 
 
 keep-
 
 IvecpiHg it on their right in their coruiiig 
 ill to the career, at the end of the ra0e, a.s 
 1 have before explained the race mentioned 
 in Sophocles. 
 
 Doctor Stnkelev, not adverting to this 
 route of tlie race, but feeing that it mull 
 end to the northward of the g-oal, at the 
 eail end, has beeii led to imagine, con- 
 trary to the faO: of conftant practice, that 
 the chariots ran from the eail: along the 
 ibuth^rn ^\A^^ and then wheeling to the 
 tight, north about the metic, returned on 
 the north fide, and fb ended to the north- 
 ward of the goal. But the explanation 
 which I have given is agreeable to pradlice, 
 and confirmed by this cxifting fa^t. 
 
 The hyppodromes, or curfus, were call- 
 ed, in the language of the country, rhe^ 
 dagua ; the racer rhedagur^ and the car- 
 riage, as we find, rhedcu 
 
 One of thefe hippodromes, about half 
 a mile to the fouthward of Leicefter, re- 
 tains flill, under the various corruptions 
 of fpeaking and writing, the old name 
 Rhedagua; in the corrupted one, Rawdikes^ 
 
 Doctor Stukeley fays, there is another 
 
 of thefe near Dorchefter : another on the 
 
 7 banks
 
 (. 278 ) 
 
 banks of the river Low t her, by Perith hi 
 Cumberland ; and another hi the valley 
 juft without the town of Royflon. 
 
 Such were the equeflrian fports of the 
 ancient Britons, who even in their Pa/limes 
 encouraged a warlike Ipirit and emulation, 
 and advanced the public welfare ; for by 
 making pleaiure fubfervient to fcience, and' 
 confidering the race only as an exhibition 
 of military Ikill, they dignified the fport, 
 and made their cavalry no lefs the delight 
 and ornament of peace, than the fupport 
 and terror of war. 
 
 THE END,
 
 
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