"THIS account has an air of probability; it places "Menes about 1400 years before the Olympiads, near 200 years after the flood, and it agrees well with the Mofaic hiftory.

"WE have, by this means, a series of profane history, "from the first man to the first Olympiad, agreeing with "the Scripture. Sanchoniatho begins his history with Protogonus (Adam) and brings it down to Thoth, the "fecond king of Egypt. Eratofthenes begins his catalogue “with Menes (Misor) and Athothes (Thoth) which is "connected with the Olympiads.

"THIS is what I take to be an improvement on the fubject; a discovery that has hitherto escaped the in"quifitiveness of all other learned men.”

THIS quotation, from a man who was well acquainted with the bishop's views and genius, must have great force in confirming the real fenfe of what that heathen's, Sanchoniatho's, true meaning was; and the fagacious methods he made use of to investigate the matter of his fragment, when he was first struck with the hint, mentioned above, foon broke through the difficulty and obfcurity that seemed, at first fight, to veil it.

ONE part of the confideration, that opened the way to his enquiry, was, that because those who were deified in one place, were not owned with the fame honour in all places, and fome of their relations were still known, and not deified any where, he thought the difficulty of finding out their gods not altogether insuperable. “Thus,

(fays he) in that place from Eupolemus, which I before quoted from Eufebius, Canaan not being any where “deified,

deified, his name is left unchanged; and his being owned "the fon of Cronus, leads us to know that Cronus is Ham, "who was his father. And fo Meftraim's, or Mifraim's

άléσ, being not fo much regarded at Babylon, left "his name unchanged there; which was a key to let me "into this whole hiftory, ftill taking it in conjunction "with divers other things.

"THIS obfervation, fays he, gives a fatisfactory account why all the deified perfons, we meet with in this history,

are found under other names here than in Mofes's books: "Elioun for Lamech, Ouranus for Noah, Cronus for "Ham, Ifiris or Ofiris for Mifraim, Sydyc for Shem, &c.

yet their natural relations, fathers and children, owned "in this history, are certain marks which determine them "to be the fame perfons: for the fame reafon, Protogonus "must be Adam. No other person can be the first man, " and be just ten generations before Noah."

THESE judicious obfervations, by which this great man found fo many interefting truths, were feconded by others, relating to a comparison of what Sanchoniatho delivers concerning the times of certain of his deities, with the line. of Shem, which was the particular care of Mofes. He therefore lays it down as a poftulate for his foundation, that the fons of Cain may be rationally concluded, in their feveral fucceeding generations, to live about the fame number of years before the flood, that the fons of Seth's line attained to; and in like manner after the flood, that the descendants from Ham and Japhet lived about as long as the descendants of Shem downwards to Abraham's time, or farther, to the time of the deliverance from the Egyptian bondage.

"THIS

"THIS poftulate is rational, fays the bishop, because we find just ten generations in Cain's line recorded by our Sanchoniatho, to reach to the time of Ouranus, or "Noah; and an eleventh generation fuppofed by him "fynchronal to Cronus, or Ham; and befides, it has "been always agreed that fuch temporal favours, as length “ of life, are disposed of by Providence much alike, to the good and to the bad.

C.C

Now though this heathen author, in his fragment, intended only to record the line of Ham, in order to aggrandize the idolatrous religion, which he profeffed himself, and very likely was as willing to conceal every thing that related to the TRUE GOD, as Hermes or Thoth was, whose theogony he followed, as copied by the Cabiri, who were the amanuenses of that prince; yet he has just mentioned the two brothers of Ham, Shem by the name Sydyc, and Japhet by that of Nereus; this latter he mentions, in a very brief manner, as having concerns in the affairs of Ouranus: affirming, that this line was not derived from Cronus, but that it was cotemporary with him. He intimates, that this Nereus was the firft of his line; that from him Pontus defcends, with whom Typhon is joined: from Pontus defcends Pofidon, whom the Latins call Neptune, and a famous woman for fongs, called Sidon. It is well proved from Scripture, and the strongest reasoning by our bishop, that this Nereus is Japhet, and the others his defcendants, to whom I refer the reader; my bufinefs being only to fhew briefly how the names given by the Greek writers to the patriarchs, may be known to fignify the same whom Mofes calls by the Scripture names,

to the further elucidation of what is intended in this work.

THUS far, I flatter myself, this end is thoroughly anfwered, as to what regards the first patriarchs; and it would feem fufficient to fatisfy every candid enquirer into antiquity, that the connection I have made, in this arduous research, is unravelled in a manner, which indeed is hardly to be doubted; because the authorities are good, and the deductions from them natural and easy. But as, in matters of so high antiquity, too much cannot be faid in confirmation of the above chain of history, there is yet a number of anecdotes concerning some of the fucceffors of the first patriarchs, which I shall now draw from both facred and profane history, of no lefs credit than those I have already produced, on their accounts.

It will, however, be neceffary first to return to our enquiry after the Pelafgians, fince we have begun with them in this chapter. Too much cannot be offered to the reader upon their account, because they will become principal evidences, for the truth of what we imagine to be the state of the cafe, with respect to the origin of the languages of Europe: and by proving that both Celts and Scythians were first Pelafgians, we shall be able to ascertain what is offered in a future chapter, that the Gomerians and Scythians or Magogians spoke the fame language, though there is now fome small difference in its prefent ftate in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

THE Phoenicians and Egyptians began very early to attempt fending colonies to neighbouring countries; and as they both sprung from the fame ancestors, the fons of

Ham, they must have had much the fame œconomical difpofitions to improve their commercial and other interefts. Maritime countries feem to be the first objects of their intentions; and where could they find any places fo likely to answer their ends, as the ifles of Elifba, Greece, now inhabited by the Pelafgians, the iffue of Gomer, and many of the defcendants of Magog.

WE

We are informed, by Strabo and Dion. Halic. that they fent colonies thither, and began to disturb the Pelafgians two generations, or fixty years, before the wars of Troy; and from that time continued to intrude, by fucceffive numbers, till they had well nigh replaced the original inhabitants, and had fubdued the maritime parts. It was then they became a mixed people, confifting of Pelafgians, Phoenicians and Egyptians; and from that time the era of the Greek tongue may be dated. All was Pelafgian before the incurfions of Phoenicians and Egyptians, and the gradual combination of the languages of these with the Pelafgian begat the Greek, called afterwards the Helenian tongue, in complaifance to Deucalion's fon, who, at his arrival there, found this language forming; while the Pelafgians enjoyed their own, unchanged, in the other parts of Greece, Afia Minor, in the country of the Trojans, Scythia, and all the neighbouring islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and all over Thrace, &c.

Ir may, from hence, be eafily feen, that the people of all these countries were the fame, defcended from Japhet, through Gomer, Magog, and his other sons, and spoke the fame language wherefoever they dwelt, until the incurfion mentioned into Greece, which was, in time, called Celtic, Gaulish, &c.

Thucyd.