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Perfians also have a great number of words which agree "with the Greek; but all these are found in the Tudefque, "or ancient Saxon, which fhews they all came from the fame fource."

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I HAVE amply fhewed before, that the Parthians were Scythians; that they over-ran Elam, and mingled with their relations, the Elamites, who were the iffue of Shem; Elam was the first appellation of the country inhabited by Shem's iffue, and it was afterwards called Parthia, and then Perfia and that the Parthians were a colony of Scythians, who paffed into Elam feveral centuries before the incurfion of the Scythians, mentioned by Herodotus, in his account of Darius, is not to be doubted; for they gave it the name Parthia, now Perfia; and Curtius calls it Parthienem, and fays the Parthians were a progeny of Scythians, which is also the opinion of Dionyfius and Strabo. Thus, too, Solinus, in his fifty-ninth chapter, fays: "these

new comers from Scythia into Perfia brought their Scy"thian language with them, and blended it with the "Oriental tongue of the Elamites.”

Now, if any one fhould be inclined to think, that the Northern languages had received the Perfian words from Perfia, they certainly must be very little acquainted with the history of the migrations of the people, from their increase after the flood of Noah: who ever heard of the Perfians coming into Germany? When did they plant colonies in any parts of Scythia? We have, indeed, an account from Herodotus, that Darius marched a great army against Scythia, laying a bridge over the Thracian Bofphorus, and encamped in their country: but we are alfo

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told,

told, that he was baffled by one of the Scythian kings, who, by his marching and counter-marching, harraffed the Perfian army, infomuch that Darius was glad to repass the Bosphorus, notwithstanding the other Scythian kings refused to join their neighbour, in defence of their own countries; and we are fure, nothing like a Perfian colony was ever left behind in Scythia. But, on the contrary, it is known to every reader of hiftory, that the Magogians, or Scythians, who were always fituated in the Northern and North-western quarters; and the house of Togarma, Gomer's youngest fon, and his iffue, all over the North-eastern quarters, were at all times invading and mingling with their Southern neighbours; and this was the fole cause of fo great a number of words from the language which is the parent of all the European tongues, being found among the Perfians, and other Eastern nations and this is before made evident, from the names of the numerals of the Perfians and Indians. The fame may be faid of every language of Europe, whofe affinity to each other is fo great, that hundreds of words are the same in all, as I have proved before. Prafchius, in his Onomafiicon Germanico Latinum, collected eight hundred Latin words, which are exactly the fame in the German language: the English and German have the fame agreement, and so have all the European tongues, with one another; which can bear no other conclufion than that they all fprung from the Japhetan original, through Gomer and Magog. To which opinion, Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus is much inclined, when he fays, that the Latin language arofe from thofe of the Opics, Marfians, Sabins, Etruf

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cans,

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cans, and Galls, who were Pelafgians first, then Celts and Scythians and hence Poftellus, in his Origines Etruriæ, endeavours to prove, that the Latins received their letters from the Celts; but as to this point, I have made it clear already, that the first Pelafgians brought their letters with them into Italy; and that their offspring were not called Celts, till the Greek language was formed, and then it was that the writers in that language called them Karai; and afterwards the Latins, Celta.

SUCH teftimonies as are produced through this work, muft carry with them a ftrong perfuafion, that letters and learning were ever among the Pelafgians (the Gomerians and Scythians); and that they propagated them wherever they went. Now, as fome of the Pelafgians carried them into Italy, fo did others into Spain. It is faid by feveral authors, that this kingdom was first inhabited by Tubal's progeny, who, with his brother Mefbech, were fubject to Magog; and as thefe were the fathers of the Scythian race, all these, as well as the Gomerians, were the Pelafgians. Now, it is proved before, that these carried their learning and letters into Italy, and we do not want fufficient authority that they did fo into Spain. Berofus affirms this, and fo do his followers; and if what Hermannus Hugo quotes, in the fifty-third page of his book, De Prima Scribendi Origine, has any weight, it will incline us to believe, that the Milefians not only were learned themselves, at their ingress into Spain, but found letters and learning among the offspring of their own ancestors, who had fettled there in very early ages after the flood, whether their migrations were made by fea or land.

It may be both ways; fome think that Spain and Italy were peopled fooner by land than by sea; but, I confess, I am of a contrary opinion. They built veffels very early, as foon as they had a number of hands to be employed in fuch fervices; nor can it be thought they were ignorant of fuch mechanic exercises, fince there is the greatest reafon to believe, that the knowledge of these kinds of things, as well as of the different kingdoms, were handed down to them from the antediluvian world.

Now, many things deferve credit, in the courfe of hiftorical matters, from different circumstances: as, from a coincidence of facts, the neceffity of certain things, and improbability of the want of them, even though they are not mentioned. In Mofes's account of the conftruction of the ark, there is not a word of axes, faws, hatchets, ironwork, and the like; and yet, it would be very abfurd to suppose these instruments were not used in building a veffel, which took up fo much time and labour before it was finished. In like manner, we are told of mechanical works performed fo exceedingly small, that their parts could not be difcerned with the naked eye: now can it be fuppofed, that fuch minute pieces as Pliny describes, could be performed without very fine tools, and fome kind of dioptric affistance to the human eye? And yet nothing of this is mentioned by him: to deny this, would be foolish; yet such absurdities as these appear in ancient Greek authors who fancy fuch a one found out the use of fire at a certaim time; as if it was not known, and in use, by mankind, from the creation: and fo of corn, and many many other things.

BUT, as the learned Universal History has it, vol. xviii. page 535, they began betimes to navigate, or to coast "at least, not only the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and other "feas; but even on the main ocean :" and, indeed, the Mediterranean was open to every part of the ifles of Elifba, Greece, and to thofe ifles from the Northern parts, through the Thracian Bofphorus, which they were all well acquainted with. Hence there can be no great wonder, that there should be early colonies in Spain and Italy, by fea, from Greece.

THE quotation from Hugo is introduced thus by him: "Sed revera tamen non ita leves funt rationes Annii Viter"bienfis, quibus ita de Gallis et Hifpanis loquitur in li“bello Xenoph. de æquivocatione temporum.'

THE quotation is as follows: " Quod circa initium. "Nini fuerint literæ atque leges non folum Hifpanis, ve“rum etiam Gallis et Germanis, auctor eft Berofus. Is "in v. Antiq. fic dicit. anno iv. Nini Germanos literis et legibus format Tuifcon Gigas; Celtas vero Samothes, et "Celtiberos Tubal. Iberi igitur Samothes et Tuifcones,

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patres literarum inveniuntur ante Græcos, plufquam "mille annis, ut Ariftoteles in magico et Zenon vere afferunt; et non Græci, ut Ephorus mendax, &c. Strabo, qui Octaviani tempore floruit, fcribit in iv. libro Geographiæ Botica, quod afferebant Hifpani. Se habuiffe "literas jam ante sex millia annorum Ibericorum, qui effi"ciunt duo millia folarium. Si vero ab Octaviano fupputes. "retro duo millia annorum, pervenies ad vigefimum annum "Nini, &c. Quare confentiuut ferè Berofus et traditio Strabonis de Origine Literarum apud Hifpanos: quales

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