the true and inconteftable part of all History confifts; for, whenever he defcends to particular characters, and minute defcriptions, or attempts to relate the very words, and unfold the fentiments, of princes, he will run into wildness and uncertainty, and lead his readers. into a kind of fairy land, while they expect to be conducted through the paths of real nowledge. Since in History, as in Philofophy, we can only catch the general and ftriking features of Truth, it is a folly to deck her picture with our own imperfect colours, and to dress up a phantom of our imagination instead of a reality.

There are a multitude of historical pieces in the Perfian, Arabian, and Turkish languages; some of which are tolerably authentick, all curious and entertaining, but very few written with tafte or fimplicity, and none, which answer in any degree to the Ciceronean idea of perfection: they contain, however, the best materials for an Hiftory of Afia from the age of Mahomed to the prefent century, and the completion of fuch a work, if any man had eifure or courage to undertake it, would greatly enrich our European literature.

We come now, after a long interval, to confider the Perfian Hiftory of the Life of NADER SHAH, which was translated by the

author of the following work. It must be allowed, that his teftimony is not wholly free from suspicion; but his narrative must neceffarily be more authentick, than that of our travellers, who could not poffibly be acquainted with the facts, which they relate fo confidently. The Perfian hiftorian attended his Hero in many of his expeditions, and was an eye-witness of the actions which he defcribes: it is probable, indeed, that his attachment to the Deliverer of his country might induce him to paint Nader Shah in brighter and more pleafing colours than he deferved; to caft a veil over the deformities of his character, and to present us only with the beauties of it; but, as the work was finifhed after the death of the Monarch, and as it paffes a very free cenfure upon the latter part of his life, we may reafonably conclude, that the author delivers his real fentiments, though his veneration for the memory of fo extraordinary a man often betrays him into expreffions, which border upon the meanest flattery. The Perfian language has declined fo much from its original purity, that no great elegance could be expected from Mirza Mahadi: the work is genuine, and may be recommended as a curiofity; but I will fairly confefs, that, had I been left to my own choice, it would have been the last ma

nufcript in the world, which I should have thought of tranflating: out of fo many Perfian books of poetry, ethicks, criticism, science, history, it would have been eafy to have selected one more worthy of the public attention; and the works of Hafez or Sadi might have been printed for half the expenfe, and in half the time.

I was willing, however, to try, whether this Afiatick history might not appear to better advantage without the stiffness of a verbal tranflation; with which intent I drew up a fhort abftract of it in my native language: I ftripped the original of its affected flowers and ornaments, and here present the English reader with all the interefting facts in a plain and natural drefs; but, in compliance with Tully's rules, I have in fome places ventured to interpofe my own judgement upon counfels, acts, and events; have preferved the order of time without anticipation or confusion; and have occasionally interwoven the defcription of remarkable places; taking care to affert nothing of any moment without the authority of the Perfian to fupport it, and not to run after the false gleam of conjectures and reports, by which most of the writers on the fame fubject have been led. After all, I am far from expecting, that this little work

will give me any claim to the title of an hiftorian: when I compare my piece, not only

The

with the idea of Cicero, but even with the productions of others, I am like the drop of water, in the fable of Sadi, which fell from a cloud into the fea, and was loft in the consciousness of its own infignificance. chief merit of the book, if it has any, confifts in exhibiting in one view the transactions of fixty years in the fineft part of Afia, and in comprising in a few fhort fections the fubftance of a large volume. Life is fo fhort, and time fo valuable, that it were happy for us, if all great works were reduced to their quinteffence: a famous scholar at Leipfick proposed to reprint the vaft compilation of M. d'Herbelot, enlarged to the double of its prefent fize; but he would deferve better of the learned world, if he would diminish it to a fourth part of its bulk, by rejecting all its repetitions and fuperfluities.

Before I conclude this preface, it seems neceffary to give fome account of the two short tracts, which were defigned as preparatory to the principal work.

It was thought useful to prefix to the Life of Nader Shah, a fuccinct defcription of Afia, and particularly of the Perfian Empire, that the reader, upon opening the Hiftory, might

not find himself in a country wholly unknown to him; and that he might be prepared for the Oriental names, which in fuch a work could not poffibly be avoided, and are not eafily accommodated to an European ear. Many readers are disgufted with the frequent return of harsh and unpleafing names of rivers, cities, and provinces, the very found of which, they say, conveys the idea of fomething favage; but they would be at a loss to affign a reason, why the Aras and the Forát are words lefs melodious than the Dnieper and the Bogh; why the archbishop of Gnefne has a fofter title than the Mulla of Ifpahan; or why the cities of Samarcand and Bokhara are lefs agreeable to the ear than Warfaw and Cracow; yet the accounts of the northern kingdoms are read with pleasure, and are thought to abound with a variety of interesting events, while the histories of the East are neglected, and the Afiatick languages confidered as inharmonious and inelegant. It muft, nevertheless, be remembered, that a great part of Perfia, and all Sogdiana, lie in the fame climate with Italy and the South of France; and that the people of Asia had among them a number of fine writers, fublime poets, eminent artists, at a time, when our part of the world had neither learning, poetry, nor arts; when