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with that of Mofes, they differ in fo many circumftances, that it is evident the writers from one another.

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"To Satyavarman, that fovereign of the "whole earth, were born three fons, the el"deft Sherma, then Charma*, and thirdly

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Jyapeti by name. They were all men of "good morals, excellent in virtue, and vir"tuous deeds, skilled in the use of weapons, "to ftrike with, or to be thrown, brave men, દ 66 eager for victory in battle. But Satyavarman being continually delighted with de"vout meditation, and seeing his fons fit for "dominion, laid upon them the burthen of government.

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"Whilft he remained honouring and fatis

fying the gods, and priests, and kine; one "day, by the act of destiny, the king, having "drank mead, became fenfelefs, and lay asleep "naked. Then was he seen by Charma, and

by him were his two brothers called. To "whom he faid, What now has befallen? "In what state is this our fire?' By those two "was he hidden with clothes, and called to "his senses again and again.

* Colonel Wilford obferves, that in the vulgar dialects Charma is ufually pronounced Cham, and Sharma, Sham. "Having

"Having recovered his intellect, and perfectly knowing what had paffed, he cursed Charma, faying, Thou shalt be the fervant "of fervants; and fince thou waft a laugh

ter in their prefence, from laughter fhalt "thou acquire a name. Then he gave to

Sharma the wide domain on the fouth of "the fnowy mountain. And to Jyapeti he gave all on the north of the fnowy moun"tain; but he, by the power of religious ❝contemplation, attained fupreme blifs."

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Sir William Jones had before advanced a conjecture that the Afghans might be of Hebrew extraction, and part of the ten tribes that were carried into captivity by the Affyrians. In his Anniversary Difcourfe,' prefixed to this volume, he says, p. 6, "There "is folid ground for believing that the Afghans 66 are defcended from the Jews, because they "fometimes in confidence avow that unpopu"lar origin, which in general they fedulous"ly conceal, and which other muffelmen "perpetually affert; becaufe Hazaret, which

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appears to be the Afereth of Efdras, is one "of their territories, and principally because "their language is evidently a dialect of the "fcriptural Chaldaic,

Laftly,

Laftly, after reciting the unfavourable character given of the Jews by their enemies, and acceding to it, for which I am far from seeing fufficient reason, he says, p. 15,

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They had the peculiar merit, among all the races of "men under heaven, of preferving a rational "and pure fyftem of devotion, in the midft "of a wild polytheism, inhuman or obscene "rites, and a dark labyrinth of errors, pro"duced by ignorance, and fupported by inte *refted fraud. Theological inquiries," he adds, " are no part of my present subject, but "I cannot refrain from adding, that the col"lection of tracts which, from their excellence, we call the fcriptures, contain, inde

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pendently of a divine origin, more true "fublimity, more exquifite beauty, purer mo"rality, more important hiftory, and finer "ftrains both of poetry and eloquence, than "could be collected within the fame compafs "from all other books that were ever compofed in any age, or in any idiom. The "two parts of which the fcriptures confift, "are connected by a chain of compofitions" (meaning the prophetical books) "which bear "no resemblance in form or ftyle to any that ❝can be produced from the stores of Grecian,

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“Indian,

"Indian, Perfian, or even Arabian, learning. "The antiquity of these compofitions no man "doubts, and the unftrained application of "them to events long fubfequent to their "publication, is a folid ground of belief, that they were genuine productions, and confe"quently infpired."

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When I compare the decided opinion of fuch a man as Sir William Jones, in which all men of learning will concur, with the confident affertions of Mr. Paine, who fays that the books of scripture are but modern compofitions, I think of a man either really blind, or wilfully shutting his eyes, and declaring that there is nothing to be seen.

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