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racters the ancient Britains used, whether that which the Saxons used, as your Lordship (if I remember well) is of opinion, or the fame with your ancient Irish, I dare not take upon me to determine; but shall here fubjoin what I met with in a very old manuscript 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, Some in Saxon characters, Some 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 Cæfar nor Tacitus could find in Germany any traces of letters; nor even in Britain, which he acknowledges in some ages after had acquired that knowledge, but much before the Germans: this knowledge he supposed came from the Romans. But it is most probable that the hatred which the Britains had to the Romans, would not fuffer them to learn from them

them; and if that had been the cafe, their first alphabet would not have been fuch as already described, but nearly what it is at present, 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 persons eminent for literary acquirements, is a fufficient answer to that question 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 ista Egyptiorum sapientia, nondum enim Mercurius fecundus abfconditas Thothi artes evulgaverat ?" "What was that wisdom of the Egyptians, for as yet, the second Mercury had not published the hidden arts of Thoth?" This objection has no weight, because there were sufficient fources from whence Mofes might have received information, whether they originated with Thoth or not; and it is most probable, that whatever discoveries might have been made by the first Mercury, altho' not publicly known until

the

the time of the second Mercury, might have been communicated by the literati, or priests of Egypt, successively to each other, and of consequence to Mofes, who was instructed by them. What this Egyptian literature was, I shall treat of somewhat more particularly in another place.

SKETCH

SKETCHIV.

WHETHER THE HEBREW BE THE PRIMÆVAL LANGUAGE, OR NOT.

T

I is the opinion of many learned persons, not only among Christians and Jews, but also prophane writers, that language was taught men by God, their maker: and it appears from the instance of the wild man taken in the woods of Hanover, and other matters of a fimilar nature, that man, with all his boafted reason, would never have been able to form and conftruct a language diftinctly, articulate, and expressive of ideas, without divine instruction; and that the Primæval Language was partly loft at the time of the Difperfion.

In treating of this subject, it may be necessary to premise something relative to the building building of the Tower of Babel, and the confufion of Tongues. Various and foolish have been the conjectures on the subject. Some imagined the intention of this great work was to fecure a place of fafety in case 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 secure hemselves against destruction by fire, from Heaven, which is said to have been predicted by Seth, they would not have attempted to ascend 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 lioped to immortalize their names; the other of preservation, so natural to man, left they should be difperfed. For men were then occupied principally in attending their flocks and herds, leading the wandering life of shepherds, dwelling in temporary huts; from hence it might come to pass, that they might stray from the grounds where they intended, one time or other, to form a great fociety: they might have there