I cannot finish this article without observing, that, when the King of Denmark's ministers instructed the Danish travellers to collect historical books in Arabic, but not to busy themselves with procuring Arabian poems, they certainly were ignorant that the only monuments of old Arabian history are collections of poetical pieces, and the commentaries on them; that all memorable transactions in Arabia were recorded in verse; and that more certain facts may be known by reading the Hamasah, the Diwan of Hudhail, and the valuable work of Obaidullah, than by turning over a hundred volumes in prose, unless indeed those poems are cited by the historians as their authorities.

IV. The manners of the Hejazi Arabs, which have continued, we know, from the time of Solomon to the present age, were by no means favourable to the cultivation of arts; and, as to sciences, we have no reason to believe that they were acquainted with any; for the mere amusement of giving names to stars, which were useful to them in their pastoral or predatory rambles through the deserts, and in their observations on the weather, can hardly be considered as a material part of astronomy. The only arts in which they pretended to excellence (I except horsemanship and military accomplishments) were poetry and rhetoric. That we have none of their compositions in prose before the Koran, may be ascribed, perhaps, to the little skill which they seem to have had in writing, to their predilection in favour of poetical measure, and to the facility with which verses are committed to memory; but all their stories prove that they were eloquent in a high degree, and possessed wonderful

powers of speaking, without preparation, in flowing and forcible periods. I have never been able to discover what was meant by their books called Rawasim; but suppose that they were collections of their common or customary law. Writing was so little practised amongst them, that their old poems, which are now accessible to us, may almost be considered as originally unwritten; and I am inclined to think that Samuel Johnson's reasoning on the extreme imperfection of unwritten languages was too general; since a language that is only spoken, may nevertheless be highly polished by a people who, like the ancient Arabs, make the improvement of their idiom a national concern, appoint solemn assemblies for the purpose of displaying their poetical talents, and hold it a duty to exercise their children in getting by heart their most approved compositions.

The people of Yemen had possibly more mechanical arts, and, perhaps, more science; but, although their ports must have been the emporia of consideble commerce between Egypt and India, or part of Persia, yet we have no certain proofs of their proficiency in navigation, or even in manufactures. That the Arabs of the Desert had musical instruments, and names for the different notes, and that they were greatly delighted with melody, we know from themselves; but their lutes and pipes were probably very simple, and their music, I suspect, was little more than a natural and tuneful recitation of their elegiac verses and lovesongs. The singular property of their language, in shunning compound words, may be urged, according to Bacon's idea, as a proof that they had made no progress in arts, "which re

quire," says he, "a variety of combinations to express the complex notions arising from them;" but the singularity may perhaps be imputed wholly to the genius of the language, and the taste of those who spoke it, since the old Germans who knew no art, appear to have delighted in compound words, which poetry and oratory, one would conceive, might require as much as any meaner art whatsoever.

So great on the whole was the strength of parts, or capacity, either natural or acquired from habit, for which the Arabs were ever distinguished, that we cannot be surprised when we see that blaze of genius which they displayed, as far as their arms extended, when they burst, like their own dyke Arim, through their ancient limits, and spread like an inundation over the great empire of Iran. That a race of Tazis or Coursers as the Persians call them, "who drank the milk of camels and fed on lizards, should entertain a thought of subduing the kingdom of Feridun," was considered by the General of Yezdegird's army as the strongest instance of fortune's levity and mutability; but Firdausi, a complete master of Asiatic manners, and singularly impartial, represents the Arabs, even in the age of Feridun, as disclaiming any kind of dependence on that monarch, exulting in their liberty, delighting in eloquence, acts of liberality, and martial achievements; and thus making the whole earth," says the poet, "red as wine with the blood of their foes, and the air like a forest of canes with their tall spears." With such a character they were likely to conquer any country that they could invade; and if Alexander had invaded their dominions, they would unquestionably have made an obstinate, and probably a successful resistance.

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But I have detained you too long, gentlemen, with a nation who have ever been my favourites, and hope at your next anniversary meeting to travel with you over a part of Asia which exhibits a race of men distinct both from Hindus and from the Arabs. In the mean time, it shall be my care to superintend the publication of your transactions; in which, if the learned in Europe have not raised their 'expectations too high, they will not, I believe, be disappointed: my own imperfect essays I always except; but, though my other engagements have prevented my attendance on your Society for the the greatest part of last year, and I have set an example of that freedom from restraint, without which no society can flourish, yet, as my few hours of leisure will now be devoted to Sanscrit literature, I cannot but hope, though my chief object be a knowledge of Hindu law, to make some discovery in other sciences, which I shall impart with humility, and which you will, I doubt not, receive with indulgence,

DISCOURSE V.

delivered FEBRUARY 21, 1788.

ON THE TARTARS.

The boundaries of Tartary.-Ancient Scythians.-Tartary considered according to Pliny.-The Atlantis of Plato.-Remarks on de Guignes, and other modern authors.-Dialects of the Tartars.-Of the Moguls.-Of the Persians.-The primitive religion of mankind.-The laws of Zamolxis.-Religious opinions and allegorical fables of the Hindus.-Ancient monuments of the Tartars.-On the Tuzac of Taimur.-Asia originally peopled by the Hindus, Arabs, and Tartars.

GENTLEMEN,

AT the close of my last address to you, Gentlemen, I declared my design of introducing to your notice a people of Asia, who seemed as different in most respects from the Hindus and Arabs, as those two nations had been shown to differ from each other; I mean the people whom we call Tartars: but I enter with extreme diffidence on my present subject, because I have little knowledge of the Tartarean dialects; and the gross errors of European writers on Asiatic literature have long convinced me that no satisfactory account can be given of any nation with whose language we are not perfectly acquainted. Such evidence, however, as I have procured by