usque adeò Doctos et eorum doctrinam æstimantes et celebrantes.

Sed præter Mohammedanos, multi Christiani Orientales sua opera, tam ad sacram historiam quam ad plurima pietatis capita spectantia, Arabicè scripserunt. Et inter alios habemus duos libros, quorum alter Arabicè vocatur Praxis Pietatis, alter verò Totum hominis Officium, tam nomine quàm stylo et materiâ nostris de eodem argumento Anglicis libellis adeò similes, ac si nos ab illis, aut illi à nobis transtulissent.

Porrò Arabes Mohammedani (quod pænè oblitus fueram) optimè scripserunt de Historia Naturali, uti de meteoris, de plantis et animalibus, et de mineralibus et gemmis. Et quidem Nos in hoc loco elegantissimum de Gemmis Libellum in futuris prælectionibus explicaturi sumus (Dei permissu) in Vacatione æstivâ.

Infinitum esset hujus Linguæ utilitates et optima scripta percensere. Ideoque vela contraham Oratiunculam ad colophonem perducturus, obnixè rogando et hortando ut hasce Literas curare velletis; non pigrescentes in culturâ hujus Linguæ, quæ tot et tam egregia in omni eruditionis genere scripta exhibet; in quâ etiam adhuc plura et præstantiora contineri credendum est, cùm fidem mihi fecerit Legatus Maroccanus, in suâ patria extare Bibliothecas, in quarum unâ centum millia, in aliâ ducenta Voluminum Arabicorum servantur ; præter alias Bibliothecas minoris notæ ac molis, quarum una viginti mille Libros Arabicos continens in Hispaniam olim translata est.

Ad hujus Linguæ acquisitionem faciliorem præsternenda est Linguæ Hebraïcæ cognitio; et tum facilis erit ad Arabicam aditus, cùm inter has sit cognatio multa. Pars quidem Grammaticalis in quâvis Linguâ est sterilis et sicca, et prima fronte infructuosa videtur. Et sic omnium disciplinarum initia primò ardua et stupenda apparent, postea verò evadunt grata et facilia. Eodem modo prima hujus Linguæ elementa discentibus initio fortassis ingrata habeantur: sed postea fruendi beneficium discendi laborem abunde compensabit. Fructus enim et fruendi spes, omnes labores reddit faciliores. Ideoque ad Arabismum feliciter colendum invitet Vos politioris in eo contentæ Doctrinæ Suada. Arabicos libros nocturnâ versate manu, versate VOL. IV. No. VIII.

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diurna: nec formidatæ hujus linguæ difficultates leviores, generosas vestras mentes ad majora natas absterreant. Nam impiger animus ne quemvis laborem perferre recusat, cùm improbus labor omnia tandem vincat. Difficilia sunt pulchra: nec ad Paradisum cœlestem nisi per hujus mundi salebras transitur. Ideoque nec in ipso limine terreantur studiosi, quamvis primò viæ ignaris eundum sit per Arabiam Desertam, et deinde per Arabiæ Petrææ salebrositates transeundum; cùm tandem ad Arabiam Felicem tanquam omnis viroris et amœnitatis Elysium perveniendum sit, dulcissimum exantlati studii et laboris fructum certò reportaturis.

Cùmque à doctissimo Electorum Quintumviratu pro illustrissimâ eorum virtute et pio Literarum Patrocinio, hæc provincia jam mihi demandata sit, magnum operæ pretium futurum æstimavero, si mei in hâc parte labores debitum effectum sortientes, in studiosâ juventute optatum fructum pepererint; ut ita nec Pientissimus Fundator frustra hunc sumtum fecisse, nec Lector incassùm suam operam collocâsse videatur.

Dumque pro virili hujus Linguæ propagationem instituero, indubitata spes est, eam tanto gratiorem et fructuosiorem apud Juventutem futuram, quanto magis doctissimus et vigilantissimus Vice-Cancellarius suo nutu eam approbaverit, et suâ interpositâ autoritate, eandem frequentari curaverit.

Deus verò Clementissimus orandus est, ut inclyta hæc Academia semper beata sit Fide purâ et Religione sincerâ, floreatque eruditarum literarum cultu in perpetuum, donec tandem lassatis humeris sub onere fatiscat Atlas, et, effusis è sinu stellis, in unum coalescant regna.

AN ESSAY,

DESCRIPTIVE OF

A CHART OF THE TEN NUMERALS

IN TWO HUNDRED LANGUAGES;

Printed in the last No. of the CLASSICAL JOURNAL.

On the first peopling of GREECE and ITALY, EUROPE, and ASIA, and on their parental tongues, or rather dialects of one Speech.

As a preface to my Essay, I must quote the following passages from those great linguists, Wilford and Sir William Jones. [Jones' works, p. 131, 133.] " Seven hundred, or one thousand years is sufficient time for the (Mosaic] propagation, diffusion, and esta blishment of the human race. All politicians, arithmeticians, and lawyers agree, [Hales "on the Origination of Mankind," the writers in the first volume of the Ancient Universal History, and yet more, Mr. Malthus on Population,] that men increase in the geometric progression, 2, 4, 8, 16, &c. Hence it is easy to multiply the increase by the number of years." Page 132. " Iran is the centre of the circle to the three great tribes, Arabs, Indoos, Tartars, [the parents of our race, the only aborigines.]" (In page 65, 66, 64, of the Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. of the Calcutta edition.) alone is central; hence, therefore, the three great races diverged. There is no tradition of an ancient, [post-diluvian, primitive, aboriginal,] emigration the opposite way; [from the frigid to the temperate zone.]" In Jones's works, p. 135. The three sons of Noah travelled in three subdivisions. The children of Yafet, [the Japetus of the Latins,] seem from the traces of Sclavonian [or Sarmatian] names, and from the mention of being "enlarged," to have produced the race, which, for want of a correct appellation, Vol. IV. No. VIII.

" Iran

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we call Tartarian. The colonies formed by the sons of Shem and Ham appear to have been nearly simultaneous, and among those of the former race, so many names are incontestably preserved at this hour in Arabia, (for Job, or his author wrote in that tongue,) that we cannot hesitate in pronouncing them Arabians; while Ham's branch, the most adventurous of whom were the progeny of Cush, Mesr, and Rama, (names remaining unchanged in Sanscrit, and highly revered by the Hindus,) were, in all probability, the race whom I call Indian, and to which we may give any other name more comprehensive.' [Page 150.] One of the dwipas, or great peninsulas of the earth, is called by the Sanscrit geographer Valmick, Cush; Cush is among the sons of Brama, and at the head of an ancient pedigree in the poem now (wholly) translated, the Ramayan; his name occurs too in the family of Rama; and he arose, say the Vedas, [in their style of allegory, which approaches the words of Moses,] soon after the deluge.' (Page 64.) Pinkerton on the Goths, and 'Mohsani on the Twelve Religions, (translated partly in Campbell's "Asiatic Annual Register, for A. D. 1806,") prove, that in Persia there was a monarchy long before the Assyrian, which may be called the Hindu, the Cufian, the Casdean, [or Chaldee,] or the Scythic. It subsisted many centuries. Its history has been ingrafted on that of Owde, [and that of Owde on the first Chinese dynasty.'] [Page 66.] • A late author [Gibbon in his posthumous works, or Mr. Pinkerton] concludes that the Goths or Scythians came from Persia. The Saxon Chronicle, with reason, brings the oldest Britons from Armenia : another [Vallancey or O'Halloran] contends, that the Irish, as well as they, came from the borders of the Caspian.' In Jones's Life, by Lord Teignmouth, p. 297. • The Sanscrit has certainly an affinity with the old Irish tongue.' [Vol. 1st, and page 242d, of the Asiatic Researches of the Calcutta edition.] There is reason [from the roots of their verbs, and the forms of their grammar,] for supposing both the Celtic and the Gothic, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit: and the old Persian may be added to the same family.' [Wilford, in vol. viii. p. 265. 269. of the Asiatic Researches. With re. gard to the languages both ancient and modern, from India to Britain, their radical words, verbs, and nouns, with others regularly deduced from them, are in a great measure Sanscrit. It cannot be expected that their respective grammars should preserve much affinity. In the eastern parts of India I have traced the decay of the Sanscrit, in some of its [twelve] dialects more, in some less. One very old dialect, theBali, or Bali-putras, was spoken at the court of Magadha, or Berar. These kings descended from Bali, or Nanda. It perhaps somewhat differed from that used in Ava, Siam, Ceylon.' [Jones in p. 64, vol. ii. of the Asiatic Researches, in the Calcutta edition.] • The language [of the first monarchy, prior to the Assyrian,] was the mother, first of the Sanscrit, and this of Parsi, Zend, Gothic, Greek, Latin; second of the Assyriac, Pahlavi and Chaldee; third of the Tartar, though as the last had no books, we cannot trace their idiom.' [And at p. 422, vol. i.] ' I find a language here, which I will call the Hindi [Indoo,] prior to the Sanscrit, though five words in six be Sanscrit; yet its basis, the inflection and regimen of verbs, differ as widely from it, as the German from the Greek. Though the Devanagari characters of the old Indian tongues be not so very ancient as are some inscriptions now found in the caverns of India, [and on antiquarian stones, now wisely removed to Calcutta, and valued there as highly as our Arundelian marbles, or the Duillian inscription ;) still the square Chaldaic letters, in which most, though not all, Hebrew books, [and words, for the coins in the Punic and Samaritan letter must be excepted,] are now copied, were originally the same, or copied from the same prototype with the Indian, Arab, Punic, and Ethiopic letter.' Wilford, Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 265. Even the Sanscrit alphabet, when stripped of its double letters, and of those peculiar to that tongue, is the Pelasgic, and every letter is to be found in that or the old [Runic, or Irish] alphabets of Europe. One book, elegant and costly, but useful and learned, and even simple, will prove this fact. It is called Fry's Pantographia: and its stolen copy, "the Guide to Printers," proves it also. Jones's works, p. 125. • Though the Greeks and Phrygians differed somewhat in manners, and perhaps in dialect, they had an apparent affinity in religion, as in language: the Dorian, Ionic, and Eolian families migrated [says Strabo,] from Europe; and it is agreed, they first passed from Egypt to Europe.' [Page 146.] Some passed into Italy and Greece, which they found thinly peopled, and supplanted some tribes and united with others.' Fry's book traces the history of the following letters; the Eugubine, Pelasgian, Sigean. Pinkerton's very compressed Dissertation on the Goths and Scythians,' pursues these Pelasgic tribes in their emigration from Persia into Thrace, Thessaly, Macedonia, Etruria, and all Italy, and happily terms the mixture of Coptic and Punic in that old post-diluvian, or Assyrian Greek, called the Pelasgic, " a fermentation, which