of events fo very remote *: and to convince us ftill farther of the truth of this affertion, we find that Eber was born in the year 2281 before Chrift; but those authors tell us, that the kingdom of Egypt was founded by Mizraim in 2188, which is no less than 93 years after the birth of Eber: that date therefore for the foundation of Egypt is very probably wrong; though it is the fame with the date given by Monf. Rollin: for we cannot fuppofe, that Mizraim, the fecond in defcent, should not have been able to have established a kingdom in those early ages of the world, when he had nobody to oppofe him, till Eber, the fourth in descent (or as the index afferts, the fifth in defcent) fhould have been 93 years of age: nay, what is ftill more remarkable is, that the Oxford quarto Bible of 1712, and the Cambridge quarto Bible of 1762, in the chronological index, fhould call Mizraim the grandson of Ham; whereas it ought to have been printed either Mizraim, the fon of Ham; or Mizraim, the grandson of Noah. The time then for his fettling a colony in Egypt, could not poffibly have been fo late as the year 2188; for that would be only three years before the birth of Serug in 2185, who was the great-great-great grandfon of Arphaxad, the grandfon of Noah; which Arphaxad is in the fame degree of defcent from that patriarch with Mizraim himself; Arphaxad being the fon of Shem, and Mizraim the fon of Ham; that date therefore ought perhaps to have been printed 2288, not 2188; and then the Egyptian monarchy would have been founded by Mizraim about 7 years before Nimrod began to exalt himself, or 41 before he built Babylon; and not 59 years after it, according to their account; particularly when we confider that Mizraim, the founder of Egypt, was uncle to Nimrod, the founder of Babylon; and therefore the nephew can fcarce be fuppofed to have established a kingdom 30 years before his uncle, though he might about 41 years after him. From the Hebrew, let us now turn our thoughts on the antiquity of the Greek language. We find by the chronological Tables to the Univerfal Antient Hiftory, that the Egyptians, about the time of Abraham, colonized Greece, under Ægialeus, who founded the kingdom of Sicyon fo early as the year 2079 before Chrift, which is about 83 before the birth of Abraham in 1996; or 159 before his descent into Egypt in 1920+:—and that they sent another colony into Greece, under Inachus, *As the ftudies of Geography and Aftronomy ought to be conjoined; fo ought thofe of History and Chronology to walk hand in hand; for facts without dates are at beft but unedifying inftruction; thus, for inftance, to tell us that fuch a tranfaction was performed, or that fuch an event happened, without telling us at the fame time the period when it was performed, and the date when it happened, is really giving us but very flender information: it is thro' the want of attending to this ufeful part of writing in our earliest historians, that we find fo great a difference in the account of fubfequent writers; thus fome have affirmed, that an eminent perfon performed fuch an exploit, or invented fuch an art; without telling us the time when, or the place where: others tell us that fuch an event happened, or fuch a battle was fought; without ever mentioning the date of either; and if the dates are mentioned, they fometimes differ fo widely, as to render the truth of thofe events very much fufpected, or the veracity of the authors them felves very much doubted: but by fixing the chronology of any action, and telling us the precife time, when fuch an event happened, they give as it were a fanction to their narration, and ftamp it with the authority of time. + Urbem ipfam Sicyonem Abrahami temporibus conditam narrat hiftoria :-Poftremò; quum variis antè affecti cladibus effent Sicyonii, ipfam urbem terræ motus ad folitudinem et vaftitatem redegit.— Bunon in Cluver, 410. This city antiently stood to the Weft of Corinth. to to Argos, about the year 1856.-That Ogyges likewife founded Thebes in Baotia, in the year following, viz. 1855-and that a third colony from Egypt, under Cecrops, established the kingdom of Athens in 1582, fome fay 1571; or rather, according to others, 1556 years before Chrift. It would be impoffible to fay what the Greek language was at thofe early periods; but, whether it was spoken (it certainly could not be written) with that elegance, purity, and perfection, which is found in the writings of their orators, poets, and historians, after the taking of Troy, may be very easily conjectured; and most probably it was not; but this we may without any controverfy be affured of, that at the times of Homer, which was about 1000, or 900 years. before Chrift, or 277 after the fiege of Troy, it was then undoubtedly spoken, and we find it undoubtedly written, or left to be written, by that great poet, with fuch fublimity and elegance, as have rendered his works fo justly admired even to this very day. To convince us then of the great antiquity of the Greek language, let us just take a review of this argument:-Homer is faid to have lived about 1000, or 900 years before Chrift; therefore it can hardly be fuppofed, from what has been here advanced, that the Greek language was then in its infancy; fince his writings are allowed to be the ftandard of Greek epic poetry: that language then muft have fubfifted for many centuries, before it could have arrived at that perfection of tile, that harmony of numbers, and that loftinefs of expreffion, which are to be found in the writings of Homer: two or three centuries only before his own times would carry us up no higher, than the period of those transactions, which are the great fubjects of his Iliad and Odyffey; the taking of Troy, and the adventures of Ulyffes, after that catastrophe; which happened about 277 years before his own birth: but the kingdom of Sicyon had been founded in 2079 before Chrift, which is 895 years before the taking of Troy, or 1172 before Homer; so that the arrangement of thefe numbers will appear thus: From the founding the kingdom of Sicyon, to the fiege of Troy From the fiege of Troy to the times of Homer The year in which Troy was taken From the founding the kingdom of Sicyon to the birth of Christ Total number of years from Sicyon to the present times Bef. Chrift. 895 277 551 356 So long a period has elapfed, fince Greece was first of all colonized :-now, let any one of our antiquaries, or etymologifts, point out to us a period earlier than the taking of Troy, or than even the times of Homer, in which the Celtic, Gaulish, Welsh, Saxon, Teutonic, or Icelandic tongues, were spoken, or written with greater elegance, purity, and perfection, than the Greek was, at either of those carly periods: nay, even tho'a manuscript might at any time hereafter be found, 5 written written in any one of thofe polite languages, and dated five hundred years before Homer; ftill would the kingdom of Sicyon have fubfifted above fix hundred years, before the date of fuch a manufcript. Perhaps here it may be asked, by what channel, and at what period, can we fuppofe the Greek language fhould have made its way into Britain?-to this it may be answered, by means of the Druids, Celts, and Gauls; concerning whom, tho' we have no authentic history before Cæfar*; yet, that there were a people who inhabited this ifland for ages prior to the coming of Cafar, is a fact that is founded on truth; for the Romans at their landing faw it was not only inhabited, but inhabited by a people of a very warlike race; as we fhall find presently in the Fourth article:-but let us firft endeavour to trace out thofe inhabitants, and fee, whether they were the first men, who ever peopled this island. That those inhabitants of Britain, whom the Romans found here, were a race of Celtic Gauls, is a fuppofition very probable; but it is very far from being probable to suppose, that those Celts were the first fet of men who inhabited this country, notwithstanding their proximity to it: and Cæfar himself acknowledges thus much †, because we do not find, nor indeed do we know enough of these antient Britons, or even of thofe Celtic Gauls, to affert, that in thofe early ages of the world, they had any kind of shipping, or made use of any sort of veffels, to carry on the least kind of trade or traffic, by navigation, with other distant parts of the world; for we do not read that the Britons, Celts, or Gauls, for any long period before Cafar's time, were mariners; they might have had barges, and Imall craft enough to cross over to each other: but the Phenicians, Greeks, and other Eaftern nations, are known to have been early navigators, and to have made long voyages: therefore, what Milton fays in the beginning of his Hiftory of England, before the arrival of the Romans, is undoubtedly just; that “ relations, often accounted fabulous, have been afterwards found to contain in them many footsteps and relicks of fomething true:"-this fomething therefore is the only fact required:-permit me then to proceed with his narration. "This island," fays he, p. 8, "might have been inhabited before the Flood; at least this we are affured of from fcripture, that Gomer and Javan, two fons of Japheth, the eldest fon of Noah, journeyed leafurely from the Eaft, and peopled the Western and North-western climes :"-for by their defcendents were the illes of the Gentiles divided; as we have juft now feen in Tables I. and IV. The moft early part of our fabulous hiftory, though it does not look up fo high, as to any period before the Flood, yet, according to Sammes, 148, we find this island peopled, very foon after the Flood, by Mefech, the 5th fon of Japheth, who is furnamed Samothes and Dis: he is faid to have begun his reign in this island, which from him was called Samothea, about 2038 years before Christ, or 310 years after the Flood. *De primis Britanniæ incolis, nihil certum :" fays Sheringham, p. 7.-With regard to the name of Britain, fee the work itself, under the article BRITAIN: Gr. + Britanniæ pars interior ab iis incolitur, quos natos in infula memoriâ proditum affirmant: maritima pars ab iis, qui prædæ, ac belli inferendi caufà, ex Belgio (Gallico) tranfierant. And Sheringham likewife obferves, fub temporibus Cæfaris, coloniæ aliquot è Belgio (Gallico) migraverant, et ad loca quædam maritima habitabant; in mediterraneis, antiqui Britanni; qui fe indiginam gentem putabant, p. 7. Samothes In the days of this Bardus, we are told, that the island was fubdued by Albion, who called it Albion after his own name; about 674 years before the coming of Brutus, the Trojan, who is fuppofed to have arrived here in the year 1117, before Chrift; as we fhall fee presently *. "Hitherto," continues Milton, pages 10, 11, "the things themselves have given us a warrantable dispatch to run them foon over; but now of Brutus and his line, with the whole progeny of kings from him defcended, to the entrance of Julius Cafar, we cannot be fo eafily discharged +: defcents of ancestry, long continued laws, and exploits, not plainly feeming to be borrowed or devised, (are facts) which on the common belief have wrought no fmall impreffion; been defended by many, and utterly denied by few ‡:"-" nay, though Brutus, and the whole Trojan pretence were yeelded up, yet those old and inborn names of fucceflive kings, never any to have bin real perfons, or don in their lives at least fom part of what fo long hath bin remembered, cannot be thought, without too ftrict an incredulity: Brutus then at length paffed the ftraits of the Mediterranean, and landed in Aquitain, or South Gaul; which, after many adventures, he departs Let me here only obferve, that thofe four last names above-mentioned, viz. Magus, Saron, Druis, and Bardus, feem all to be the names, not of perfons, but of office; they being all of the fame import, and fignifying the Druids; particularly the three first, which are all Greek: for Sammes himself, p. 149, acknowledges, "that the Saronides (fo called from Saron) were but another name for the Druids, as appeareth by the derivation of their name from Lagaus, being the fame with Agus, quercus; an oak; as likewife by the defcription Diodorus gives of them; viz. that without the Saronides, no facrifice, either public or private, could be rightly performed: which is the very fame that Cafar writes of the Druids:"-which by the way fhews how early the opinion of the Druids was established in this ifland.-Sammes, 149, imagines " the Druids took their origin from the Oaks that grew in the plain of Mamre in Phoenicia, under which thofe reiigious men, to whom the office of priesthood was com mitted, lived most devoutly and that it was a holy place, we read in Gen. xiv. 13; and xviii. 1, 4, that Abraham dwelt in the plain of Mamre, where three angels appeared unto him, and he feafted them under a tree: from thefe Oaks of Mamre sprang the original fect of the Druids:"-about 1936 years before Chrift: after which, we may fuppofe, the Greek philofophers came and fettled here; and in time, by mingling among the Druids, became one and the fame with them. + Brutus was the fon of Silvius; he of Afcanius; whofe father was Eneas, a Trojan prince: Milton, p. 12.-confequently a Greek. claruit; is de adventu Bruti, et Trojanorum in Britanniam; deque eorum etiam tranfitu per Gallias; "Sigebertus Gemblafenfis, Gallus, circiter annos centum ante Galfridum (Monemuthenfem) de urbe à Bruto condità; de ejufdem viciffim à Galliâ difceffu; de introitu felici in infulanı deftinatam, prout ab oraculo fatidico vaticinium acceperat, mentionem facit; atque hæc omnia in antiquâ Britanniæ hiftoriâ extitiffe teftatur:" Shering. 9:-Geoffry lived about the year 1150, after Chrift, the reign of king Stephen; and confequently Sigebert must have written in the time of Edward the which Brutus may be supposed to have found on this ifland, at the time of his landing, Shering. p. 19, Confeffor, about 20 years before the Norman Conqueft, in 1066:-with regard to the inhabitants, imagines they were fome of the defcendents of Cham; " pauci ev nofteritate Cham, juxta Britannicam hiftoriam, quibus gigantes imperaverint, cùm Br omnes oppreffit, et ab infulâ fugavit: id fi ve Sammes, 148, as we have feen above, fuppo primi infulam incolebant; quos ille it, quin Phoenices fuerint ts of Mefech. fuerint:"— from, Such is the mighty change which that noble language, the Greek, has undergone in its own climate; Tantum ævi longinqua valet mutare vetuftas! and so true is the observation, that it has fared with languages, as it has fared with all the other arts and sciences; they have had their infancy and minority, as well as their maturity and manhood; and then, after having endured for a certain period in their most florishing and profperous ftate, they have declined and fallen away, till at last they are become in a manner exftinct, and may now with true propriety be called the dead languages; for even those two most noble tongues, that ever yet graced the dignity of human elocution, the Greek and Latin, have been in all these different states; as may be easily seen in the writings. of their antient laws and records; in thofe of a maturer date; and in their present state of barbarism and yet, what is ftill more extraordinary, both those languages are, continued down to us, even to this present time, with the utmost purity and perfection, I mean in the writings of their poets, orators, and hiftorians, notwithstanding they have fo long outlived their primitive pronunciation: for the works of thofe eminent Greeks and Romans are totally different from those two languages, as now spoken by the present inhabitants of those countries. Such furprising revolutions have those two tall pillars, thofe firm and graceful fupporters of the English language, undergone; not indeed as to their internal and original structure, but as to their prefent pronunciation in the modern dialect of their own climates: for, whoever were now to vifit the shattered remains of those cities, where once they florished in fo much perfection; whoever were now to go to Sparta, where Lycurgus wrote; or to Athens, where Demofthenes pronounced his thundering orations; whoever were now to visit imperial Rome, where Tully, and where Virgil, and where Horace lived;-would be astonished at the mighty change, which has happened in those places, and to those languages, within that short space of time. But, without going so far from home, let any one but confider what a mighty alteration has been wrought, and what a wonderful change has been produced, in the original language even of this our own ifland: with this only dif ference, that in the former inftances, the change has happened for the worfe; but in the latter it has happened for the better; and fhews the improvement which has been made in the original language of Britain :-the original language did I fay? which was that?-we have had fo many invaders, and been oppreffed by fo many intruders, that it would be difficult to fay, which was the first and original language fpoken on this ifland. Let the first however have been whatever it might, it is certain there is but wery little, if any, of it remaining at this day; and what at prefent pretends to that originality, is found to be fo harsh, fo diffonant, fo rough, and fo difcordant, as fcarce to be understood; and that the very little of it which is intelligible, is fo far altered and transformed, that was an antient Briton to rife up among us at this period, he would not be able to understand his own mother tongue; and with respect to our modern English, he would be at a still greater lofs, and unable to afk for any of the common and ordinary conveniences of life; nay, he would be as utter a stranger to our prefent language, as we ourselves fhould I |