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racters the ancient Britains ufed, whether that, which the Saxons used, as your Lordship (if I remember well) is of opinion, or the fame with your ancient Irifb, I dare not take upon me to determine; but shall here fubjoin what I met with in a very old manufcript of St. Dunstan's in which befides Ars Euticis Grammatici de difcernendis conjugationibus, in the beginning, and Ovid de arte Amandi, at the end, are contained several * other pieces, fome in Saxon characters, fome in Greek and Saxon characters" which characters were faid to be invented by a person of the name of Nemninus; others impute them to the Irish, who certainly had the knowledge of letters long before the Britains. It is acknowledged by Hermannus Corringius, in his preface to the book of Cornelius Tacitus de moribus Germanorum, that neither Cefar nor Tacitus could find in Germany any traces of letters; nor even in Britain, which he acknowledges in fome ages after had acquired that knowledge, but much before the Germans: this knowledge he fuppofed came from the Romans. But it is moft probable that the hatred which the Britains had to the Romans, would not suffer them to learn from themi

them; and if that had been the cafe, their first alphabet would not have been fuch as already defcribed, but nearly what it is at prefent, nor would the Britains have pretended, as it is faid they did, that their characters were invented at home, to wipe off the reproach of being late learned.

What has been advanced relative to the invention of letters, and the probability of Mofes having been preceded by perfons eminent for literary acquirements, is a fufficient anfwer to that queftion of Sir John Marsham, obliquely thrown out as an objection to that teftimony of scripture which says, that Mofes was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians his words are,-" quænam vero fuit ifta Egyptiorum fapientia, nondum enim Mercurius fecundus abfconditas Thothi artes evulgaverat ?" "What was that wisdom of the Egyptians, for as yet, the fecond Mercury had not published the hidden arts of Thoth ?" This objection has no weight, because there were fufficient fources from whence Mofes might have received information, whether they originated with Thoth or not; and it is most probable, that whatever difcoveries might have been made by the first Mercury, altho' not publicly known until

the

the time of the. fecond Mercury, might have been communicated by the literati, or priests of Egypt, fucceffively to each other, and of confequence to Mofes, who was inftructed by them. What this Egyptian literature was, I fhall treat of fomewhat more particularly in another place.

SKETCH

SKETCH IV.

WHETHER THE HEBREW BE THE PRIMÆVAL LANGUAGE, OR NOT.

IT

T is the opinion of many learned perfons, not only among Chriftians and Jews, but also prophane writers, that language was taught men by God, their maker: and it appears from the inftance of the wild man taken in the woods of Hanover, and other matters of a fimilar nature, that man, with all his boafted reafon, would never have been able to form and conftruct a language diftin&ly, articulate, and expreffive of ideas, without divine inftruction; and that the Primeval Language was partly loft at the time of the Dif perfion.

In treating of this fubject, it may be neceffary to premife fomething relative to the building

building of the Tower of Babel, and the confufion of Tongues. Various and foolish have been the conjectures on the fubject. Some imagined the intention of this great work was to fecure a place of fafety in cafe of a Second Deluge: Had this been the cafe, they would never have defcended into a plain, fituated between two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Ganges: if they meant to fecure hemselves against deftruction by fire, from Heaven, which is faid to have been predicted by Seth, they would not have attempted to afcend towards Heaven, to meet the lightning flashing from the clouds, but would much rather have fought the hollow rocks, and the caves of the earth.

But we are told by Mofes, that mankind were urged by two motives, the one of ambition, whereby they hoped to immortalize their names; the other of prefervation, fo natural to man, left they fhould be difperfed. For men were then occupied principally in attending their flocks and herds, leading the wandering life of fhepherds, dwelling in tempórary huts; from hence it might come to pass, that they might ftray from the grounds where they intended, one time or other, to form a great fociety: they might have there

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