and the invention of letters, which has occupied the heads

and pens of many learned men. They generally have stopped contentedly, where Herodotus led them to the company of Cadmus, and gave it up, that he was the inventer of letters; and that men were illiterate before his arrival in Greece. This was doing no great honour to the most ancient people of the world; and, at the fame time, confeffing a credulity in a thing as unlikely to be true, as any piece of fabulous hiftory whatsoever. Yet we fhall find the use of letters much higher, even in the antediluvian world; but will not anticipate, in this place, what we have to fay, in vindication of our opinion, concerning

that matter.

THESE, and fuch like methods, were the means by which I have endeavoured to discover the original language of Europe, and to trace it to the house of Japhet: and, in my progress, have profited of feveral quotations from ancient authors, which other moderns have made use of; but not for the fame purposes. They were appofite enough to my scheme, but could not ferve them; because they could not produce the coinciding testimonies, which I was furnished with, to corroborate what I brought them

to prove.

Now, it is hard to fay when the Japhetan language began; there is a fufpicion of its being related to the Hebrew, among fome ingenious gentlemen, either as a mutilated dialect of it, or as a fifter-dialect with that, of fome more ancient antediluvian tongue: indeed, the expreffions ›

of both, in the mouths of Jews, Welsh and Irish, with the concifeness of their phrases, are exactly fimilar, and a great number of their words have the fame fignification; yet none of the names of the numbers, among the Hebrews, have any sort of affinity with thofe of the Japhetan language. However this may be, fince we cannot think that Japhet's people, or those of Shem, were at all concerned in the affair of Babel, we must suppose them both to have been languages of the antediluvian world, and both in the house of Noah: even as many families in every nation, at this time, speak two languages; as with us, French and English, Welsh and English, Irish and English, and fo on of other countries: for it cannot be supposed that Japhet, who was near one hundred years old when he went into the ark, could have learned a new language, when there were no people but the few of his own family upon the face of the earth; and it will appear, in this work, that the children of Gomer, Magog, Mefbech and Tubal, were in poffeffion of their own territories and language, in the ifles of Elifba (Greece) and in Scythia, before any thing was begun at Babel concerning the tower, or difperfion.

In the course of this work, the reader will find fome repetitions, which could not be avoided: because, as the work is divided into diftinct chapters, under their refpective heads, feveral evidences, from foregoing chapters, were neceffarily wanting in the fucceeding parts, to fupport the arguments in each, arifing from their peculiar

fubjects.

fubjects. This, I hope, will be excused, fince the neceffity of recurring to certain peculiar passages will be easily seen by the candid reader, as he goes on.

I HAVE purposely avoided bringing into this work, either marginal notes, or many quotations at large from authors, for two reasons; first, because it would fwell the work to a greater fize than would be confiftent with the price it is fold for, or with the patience of the reader; and, fecondly, because insertions of that kind only serve to make frequent interruptions in the course of reading.

AND, as I am ever cautious of affuming too much, or of appearing felf-sufficient in any thing I undertake, well knowing how imperfect, even the most shining geniuses of this world are, I am induced to make fome apology for whatever defects, or inaccuracies of ftile, may occur in this research. Concise and plain differtations were all that appeared necessary to me, in a work of this nature; fince I had neither the refined politics of ministers, nor the characters of heroes or princes, nor the fublime fpeeches of fenators, to treat of.

THIS Confideration, in a great measure, alleviates an anxiety, which must otherwise have affected me very much from a consciousness of my own infufficiency; and, at the fame time, leads me to look with high efteem upon the modern writers of our English history, whose works are equal, if not fuperior, to thofe of any other nation, in elegance of ftile, conciseness, and fine fentiment. Among whom, the two lateft are fhining exam

ples,

ples, and befpeak the greatest applaufe from all lovers of learning.

THE noble author of the Hiftory of the Life of Henry II, &c. could raise an elegant bed of flowers, from the foils of fuch former reigns, as were deemed, by many judicious men, unfertile and void, fufficient to amufe and inftruct the hiftorical ftudent, and fill his heart with noble sentiments. The other, though one of the more delicate part of the creation, yet engaged in matters as heroic, has a just claim to our greatest respect; if being one of those from whom, in general, no high erudition is expected, yet who excels in polite writing; and if freedom and impartiality in delivering historical facts, and in afferting the natural rights of mankind, with a laudable deteftation of fuperftition and tyranny, are objects agreeable to the fentiments of good men, this author, I fay, has a double claim to the attention of the world.

I CANNOT close this preface, without declaring my fatisfaction at an incident which happened on the ninth of this inftant July, the day of the recess of the Royal and Antiquary Societies: the Reverend Doctor Gregory Sharp entertained the latter with a learned differtation upon the antiquity of letters, and fome account of the Pelafgi. This could not fail of giving me the highest pleasure, because it is the very fubject I have been feveral years confidering, of which two-thirds of my historical enquiries were now printed off; and it was impoffible, that either of us could have had the leaft knowledge of what the other was

doing upon that head. Yet, I was happy in hearing the ftrongest concurrence of his opinions, upon so high a part fo of antiquity, with my own, and his evidence the very fame which I made use of to corroborate my fentiments, as far as he went; for this fhort differtation is but a small part of a learned work he is now publishing, on the origin and structure of the Greek tongue. However, fo close an agreement between this part of my book, and that of fo eminent a character in the republic of letters, cannot fail of adding weight to any thing I can produce, and giving it credit with the learned world.