·SHAM*, or Syria, has Hajar on the fouth, and part of the lower Afia on the north; its eastern and weftern limits are the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. This country is fo well known to our hiftorians, ancient and modern, and to all our travellers and merchants, that very little needs be faid of it in this place; there is scarce a city in it, which has not had its particular history, written in feveral volumes by authors, who seemed to forget how small a part of the globe they inhabited, compared with the vast Empires defcribed in the preceding pages.

The two

principal cities of Syria are, 1. DAMASHC, or Damafcus, near which is a valley or plain represented by the Arabians as a most charming spot, and one of the four paradises of Afia. 2. HOLAB, or Aleppo, where the learned Pocock acquired fo perfect a knowledge of the Arabick language. 3. JERUSALEM, or Alcods, The Holy, which is ftill held facred by the Mahomedans, who, whatever may be faid to the contrary, are certainly a fect of Chriftians; if, indeed, they deserve the name, while they follow the impious herefy of Arius.

RUM†, or the Roman provinces, which are

also called Anatolia, have the Empire of Iran on the east, and are bounded on the other fides by the Black Sea, the Archipelago, and the Mediterranean; this is the country fo justly famed for producing many of the great poets and fine writers of the ancient world, so that, whatever may be faid of the Perfian and Arabian compofitions by those who are unable to read them, it cannot be denied even by them, that Asia has given birth to men of the brightest parts, and the most exalted genius. The Thracian Bofphorus, fo frequently mentioned in the fictions of the old poets, feparates this part of Afia from the city of CONSTANTINOPLE, which was made the feat of the Turkish Sultans in that memorable period, when learning revived in Italy, and the art of printing, which was then invented, ferved to promote and to fix it; when our apartments were first adorned with the vafes of China and the filks of India; when a new world was discovered and subdued ; when the light of reafon and liberty was spread over part of Christendom, and delivered it from the worst of oppreffion, the tyranny of fuperftition and imposture.