to believe, that fome of them found their way from the eastern ifles into Mexico and Peru, where traces were discovered of rude literature and Mythology analogous to thofe of Egypt and India; that, thirdly, the old Chaldean empire being overthrown by the Affyrians under CAYU' MERS, other migrations took place, especially into India, while the reft of SHEM's progeny, fome of whom had before fettled on the Red Sea, peopled the whole Arabian peninfula, preffing close on the nations of Syria and Phenice; that, laftly, from all the three families were detached many bold adventurers of an ardent fpirit and a roving difpofition, who difdained fubordination and wandered in feparate clans, till they fettled in diftant ifles or in deferts and mountainous regions; that, on the whole, fome colonies might have migrated before the death of their venerable progenitor, but that ftates and empires could fcarce have affumed a regular form, till fifteen or fixteen hundred years before the Chriftian epoch, and that, for the firft thousand years of that period, we have no hiftory unmixed with fable, except that of the turbulent and variable, but eminently diftinguished, nation defcended from ABRAHAM.

My defign, gentlemen, of tracing the origin and progress of the five principal nations, who have peopled Afia, and of whom there were

confiderable remains in their feveral countries at the time of MUHAMMED's birth, is now accomplished; fuccinctly, from the nature of these effays; imperfectly, from the darkness of the fubject and scantiness of my materials, but clearly and comprehenfively enough to form a bafis for subsequent researches: you have seen, as diftinctly as I am able to fhow, who thofe nations originally were, whence and when they moved toward their final ftations; and, in my future annual difcourfes, I propofe to enlarge on the particular advantages to our country and to mankind, which may refult from our fedulous and united inquiries into the history, science, and arts, of these Afiatick regions, especially of the British dominions in India, which we may confider as the centre (not of the human race, but) of our common exertions to promote its true interefts; and we fhall concur, I truft, in opinion, that the race of man, to advance whofe manly happiness is our duty and will of courfe be our endeavour, cannot long be happy without virtue, nor actively virtuous without freedom, nor fecurely free without rational knowledge.

1

THE TENTH

ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED 28 FEBRUARY, 1793.

BY

THE PRESIDENT.

ON ASIATICK HISTORY, CIVIL AND NATURAL,

BEFORE our entrance, gentlemen, into the difquifition, promised at the close of my ninth annual difcourfe, on the particular advantages, which may be derived from our concurrent researches in Afia, it seems necessary to fix with precision the sense, in which we mean to speak of advantage or utility: now, as we have described the five Afiatick regions on their largest scale, and have expanded our conceptions in proportion to the magnitude of that wide field, we should use those words, which comprehend the fruit of all our inquiries, in their most extenfive acceptation; including not only the folid conveniences and comforts of focial life, but its elegances and innocent pleasures, and even the gratification of a natural and laudable curiosity; for, though labour be clearly the lot of man in

may

lull

this world, yet, in the midst of his moft active exertions, he cannot but feel the fubftantial benefit of liberal amusement, which every his paffions to reft, and afford him a fort of repofe without the pain of total inaction, and the real usefulness of every purfuit, which may enlarge and diverfify his ideas, without interfering with the principal objects of his civil ftation or economical duties; nor fhould we wholly exclude even the trivial and worldly fense of utility, which too many confider as merely synonymous with lucre, but should reckon among useful objects thofe practical, and by no means illiberal, arts, which may eventually conduce both to national and to private emolument. With a view then to advantages thus explained, let us examine every point in the whole circle of arts and sciences, according to the received order of their dependence on the faculties of the mind, their mutual connexion, and the different fubjects, with which they are converfant: our inquiries indeed, of which Nature and Man are the primary objects, muft of course be chiefly Hiftorical; but, fince we propofe to investigate the actions of the feveral Afiatick nations, together with their respective progress in science and art, we may arrange our investigations under the fame three heads, to which our European analyfts have ingenioufly reduced all the branches

of human knowledge; and my present address to the fociety fhall be confined to hiftory, civil and natural, or the obfervation and remembrance of mere facts, independently of rationingtion, which belongs to philofophy, or of imilations and fubftitutions, which are the province

of art.

Were a fuperior created intelligence to delineate a map of general knowledge 'exclufively of that fublime and ftupendous theclogy, which himself could only hope humbly to know by an infinite approximation) he would probably begin by tracing with NEWTON the fyftem of the universe, in which he would affign the tree place to our little globe; and, having enumerat ed its various inhabitants, contents, and pro ductions, would proceed to man in his natural station among animals, exhibiting a deall of al the knowledge attained or attainable by de human race; and thus obferving, pertape, the fame order, in which he had before defolked other beings in other inhabited world; buy, though BACON feems to have had a fimilar reze fon for placing the history of Nature before that of Man, or the whole before one of its part, yet, confiftently with our chief objets wrendy mentioned, we may properly begin with the civil biftory of the five Afiatick nations, which neceffarily comprifes their Geography, or a de