their new seats, to which they had affixed dates utterly incompatible therewith. Eolus saith expressly that Ia-ban and the Og-eag-eis moved westward from Ardmenia into a strange land 2170 years before Christ. The Hebrews say, the sons of Japheth colonized the isles of the Gentiles, and designated Greece as the land of Javan, the son of Japheth, the first emigrator, an important fact, wherein, as in very many others, the Hebrews and Iberians agree; we hear of cities being built in the southern extremity of Greece in 2089, of a king Ogyges in Attica in 1766 before Christ. We are told of the Goths boasting of their being a modern nation, not more ancient than 1500 years before Christ, and yet these modern Goths are the ancestors of the first colony that separated from the Noe-maideis, identified so clearly by Eolus, and the Hebrews, whose footsteps are so accurately marked from Ardmenia to Thrace, Macedon, and Greece as to leave no room for doubt. We are informed by Justin, the abbreviator of Trogus Pompeius, that the Scythians contended with the Egyptians for antiquity, that the controversy was determined in their favour. That they held the supremacy of Asia for 1500 years before the commencement of the Assyrian empire; and yet it is clear that the same Trogus Pompeius describes these ancient Scythians dwelling north of Caucasus, the ancestors of those who had invaded the lands of the Cimmerii, who by their own account were a modern nation; here are contradictions not to be reconciled, and only to be accounted for by the extreme ignorance of the ancients; but I cannot discover that any ancient has derived the extraction of any of the tribes south of the Ister from the Scythian Goths, and that they could not with truth, shall be more distinctly proved in our progress north of Caucasus, when I come to speak of these latter people. SECTION II. The next opinion to be noticed is,-That Scandinavia was the parent country of the Scythian race! an idea conceived in the 6th century by Cassiodorus, fostered by Jornandes, Bede, and others of their times, adopted by numbers in these our days, distinguished by the honourable title of learned, who, inverting the order of nature, fancied that from the frozen and almost sterile regions of the north, myriads of warriors poured forth, penetrated to Caucasus, which they surmounted, and contended with the Egyptians for the empire of the world. To dispel this surprising vision, to quench this ignis fatuus that hath dazzled the intellectual eye of many, who should not have been so deceived, it is enough to appeal to the common sense of all, save such as have an ambition to be remarkable for an extravagance of imagination, at the expence of reflection, and to be held in remembrance for singularity, though their judgment may be liable to impeachment thereby ; but as I think there would be as great an absurdity in setting about seriously to disprove such a conceit, as in the conceit itself, I shall dismiss the further consideration thereof, with the observation, that this fantasy originated in the total ignorance of antiquity in the framers, who mistook the irruption of Og-eis Caun into Asia, for the wars of Tanaus and Vexoris, and confounded the era of 640 with that of 3663 before the birth of Christ. SECTION III. The third opinion I shall lay before you is from a note of a bible commentator, on a passage in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, which (in the description of the dispersion of mankind from Shinar, and the several destinations of the children of Noah) saith of the sons of Japheth: "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided, in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." Whereupon the commentator delivers the opinion of the Christian priesthood thus: "Though there entered but eight persons into the ark, yet the best authors agree that there might be no less than 3,333,333,330 pair of men and women proceed from them by this time!!! And now God dispersed them over the face of the earth, to replenish it; thus Japheth and his sons peopled · part of Asia, and in process of time the offspring of his son Gomer, extended themselves beyond the Danube, into Germany and France, and were called Cimmerii and Cimbri; from thence they passed into Britain, and are thought to have been the founders of the Welch, who at this day call themselves Kumero. Magog became the father of the Scythians, Madai of the Medes; Javan peopled Greece, Meshech Muscovy, Tiras Thrace." This passage hath not been selected by way of pre-eminence, or inferiority, but merely as a specimen of the dogmas which the youth of Christendom have been instructed to receive for very truth. Having neither leisure nor inclination to examine the whimsical calculation of those best authors, to whom the annotator alludes, I shall pass over this part of the subject, with expressing my surprize at the omission of a miracle, so essential on this occasion, to account for the means, whereby such a hyper multitudinous host, dwelling together, were sustained; no manna, quails, nor locusts, and proceed to enquire how far the other assertions are warranted. This scheme is founded on the credit, really or pretendedly attached to the Hebrew relation of a deluge, in the strictest sense of the word, and of the annihilation of the human race, save four males and four females, preserved in Ardmeuia, which would have produced the necessary consequence of the whole earth being replenished from thence by the survivors; but from the fact of the first colonists of Europe known to mortal (the bible commentators excepted) having met with animals of the human race, on their entrance into that quarter of the world, it became incumbent on those, who derive excessive power, superabundance of riches, from the invention and establishment of miracles and mysteries, whereby they are clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day-Why Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed, like one of these, to account for the prior occupants, on failure of which, they must have surrendered the entire machinery, to the ruin of their temporal interests, for which, if we may believe themselves, they would feel no anxiety, compared with their solicitude for the eternal happiness of mankind, whom, nevertheless, they are in the constant habit of tyrannizing over, making miserable, by terrifying, insulting, and rendering subservient by all manner of ways and means, not merely to their necessities and comforts, but to the disgusting luxuries in which they indulge, diametrically opposed in the whole tenor of their lives to the precepts and example of the meek, benevolent, and philanthropic Jesus, to whom they give abundance of mouth, honor, and glory, whilst their practice betrays the falsehood of their tongues. In this embarrassment it occurred, fortunately for their pious or their impious frauds, that the Greeks and Romans called the original inhabitants of the north of Europe, Kimerioi and Cimmerii, which, by a slight alteration, the men of miracle changed to Gomer-ii, and thus the Aborigines of Europe became metamorphized into the posterity of Gomer, the son of Japheth, the Scythian. This marvellous chimera we are now to examine, and as I entertain the reasonable hope, that you are in a fit temper of mind to investigate the subject, as becomes a being endowed with reason; that you view the deluge of the Hebrews in its true light, viz. the overthrow of the ancient Scythian empire by the Assyrians, like unto the flood of Ogyges, Deucalion, or the Cimbric Chersonese; that you are aware the dispersion of mankind, in the days of Peleg, is one and the same event, as the migrations of the Scythians, in consequence of that stupendous revolution; that you are perfectly convinced the human species is the growth of every clime. And that the diversity of languages expressive of fears and hopes, wants, and desires, hath resulted from the original variety of genera of mankind, I make no doubt of the very few proofs for the refutation of this scheme about to be submitted, being satisfactory to your unprejudiced understanding, proofs not to be opposed, but by miracle, mystery, and inspiration, which, however potential in poetry and the drama, should have no weight in history. From what source of antiquity, sacred as the writings of the Hebrews are reverentially termed, or profane as the writings of all other people are ridiculously called, this annotator derived his information, I am at a loss to conceive, that all profane authorities are opposed to his opinion is certain, nor can I discover in the sacred Scripture notwithstanding the great latitude allowed to inspiration, any ground therefor. Unfortunately for the cause of knowledge, those who undertake to expound the composition of the Hebrews, are priests, who never comment on the text, but on the many different readings and interpretations of precursors of their order, dignified with the title of saints, all of whom, let their ways be ever so various, conduct us to one and the same gloomy labyrinth, where in a putrid cavern lie concealed the filthy brood of miracle and mystery, chained by the delicate finger of nice art, the guardians profusely nourished by the hand of ignorance, that doth make the meat whereon they gorge, whilst the poor dupe doth starve, to which, wisdom in other times interdicted by the avengers fire and sword, is in these days of clemency, liberality, and perfect freedom of opinion, prevented only by loss of liberty, property, health, and the jewel reputation, dearer than all; for myself I will adhere to the letter of the record, from which no consideration shall induce, or compel me to swerve, always entertaining doubt and suspicion of evidence delivered enigmatically or confusedly, proofs of lack of honesty or of understanding, charges in no wise applicable to the text before us, which is plain enough, and declare that "by the posterity of Japheth the son of Noah, the isles of the Gentiles were divided, &c." by which the bible commentators say the Hebrews meant, the countries separated from the land of Canaan by the sea, and that the Gentiles are the children of Japheth distinguished from the descendants of Shen and Ham; now I take leave to say such is not the Hebrew meaning of the term Gentiles, the one only and true signification in the Scythian language being, people of another Gein, Genos, Genus, or race, and that such was their acceptation of the word is apparent from the context, which is more explicit than is usual with them, the sons of Japheth had divided the lands; of whom? Of the Gentiles; another |