acknowledge, that, in both parts of the Introduction, many paffages are borrowed from the celebrated work of M. d'Herbelot; but nothing has been copied from him, which has not also been found in several manuscripts: our materials were taken from the fame originals; and it is natural for two perfons, who search the fame mine, to meet with the fame kind of ore. The principal Geographers, whom I confulted, were Abulfeda, and Ulugbeg; the firft, a King of Hama in Syria, and the fecond, a grandfon of Tamerlane, who was also an excellent Aftronomer, and built a fine Obfervatory in his imperial city of Samarcand. It is much to be wifhed, that a correct Map of Afia were engraved, with all the names properly spelled, and the latitudes of the cities exactly marked, upon the authority of these illuftrious writers; but fuch a work would require infinite labour, fince a number of manuscripts must be collated, left the mistakes of ignorant transcribers should mislead the defigner of the map, and the fine art of engraving be applied to perpetuate their ridiculous errours*. *. Until some Geographer,

* A table of longitudes and latitudes is already prepared by me, with a view to the work here recommended: but I despair of ever finding leifure to execute a task, which requires fuch attention and accuracy.

equally fkilled in the Eastern languages, and in the science which he profeffes, will fupply an able artist with materials to accomplish this useful design, the reader of Afiatick history must be fatisfied with the Maps of M. de la Croix, which are inserted in his Life of Tamerlane, and are far the most accurate of any, that I have had occafion to confult; efpecially in the defcription of Khorafan, where notice is taken even of the castle át Kelat, fo frequently mentioned in the following History. The reader will be candid enough to consider this effay on the Geography of Afia as the sketch only of a larger tract, which, from the very nature of an introductory piece, muft needs be fuperficial and imperfect, for it would be abfurd to make any introduction fo copious, as to divert the reader's attention from the work, which it was intended to illuftrate.

In the short history of Perfia, which follows the chapters on Geography, I purfued, as closely as I was able, the plan of a book compiled by Atticus, which was greatly admired by the Romans, but is now unfortunately loft: it contained an abstract of general Hif tory, and exhibited in one view a relation of the moft interefting events, that happened in a pe

riod of feven hundred years *. Thus the fecond part of my Introduction comprises all the great and memorable occurrences in the Perfian Empire, from the doubtful and fabulous ages to the decline of the Sefi family in the prefent century: it was extracted from several Afiatick writers, Mirkhond, Khandemir, Ferdufi, &c. and might have been confiderably enlarged, if all the fables and dull events, which are found, it must be confeffed, in great abundance in the originals, had been tranfcribed at full length; but it has long been a maxim with me, that, as nothing should be admitted into History, which is false, how agreeable foever it may be, fo nothing fhould be related, merely because it is true, if it be

* Cognofcat etiam rerum geftarum et memoriæ veteris ordinem maximè fcilicet noftræ civitatis, fed eft imperioJorum populorum et regum illuftrium: quem laborem nobis Attici noftri levavit labor; qui confervatis notatifque temporibus, nihil cùm illuftre prætermitteret, annorum feptingentorum memoriam uno libro colligavit. Cic. Orat.

Nempe eum dicis, inquit, quo ifte omnem rerum memoriam breviter, et, ut mihi quidem vifum eft, perdiligenter complexus eft? Iftum ipfum, inquam, Brute, dico librum mihi faluti fuiffe. Tum Atticus: Optatiffimum mihi quidem eft quod dicis; fed quid tandem habuit liber ifte, quod tibi aut novum aut tanto ufui poffet effe! Ille verò et nova, inquam, mihi quidem multa, et eam utilitatem, quam requirebam, ut explicatis ordinibus temporum, uno in confpectu omnia viderem, &c. Id. De Clar. Orat.

not either instructive or entertaining.

The

dulleft records of ancient times fhould be preserved, that they may occafionally be confulted; but they should be repofited in cabinets and archives: as the old arms and utenfils of the Romans are kept in museums for the inspection of the curious, while modern pieces of elegant or useful workmanship are the conftant furniture of our apartments, either for our pleasure, our convenience, or our defence. The poetical fables of the old Perfians, however curious or amusing, ought not to be mixed, like glittering drofs, with the pure ore of true Hiftory: but, if fome ftudent of Eaftern literature would amuse himself with collecting thefe fables, and reducing them to a Syftem of Perfian Mythology, he would greatly affift every learner of the Afiatick languages; who, without fuch help, must be stopped in every page by allufions to adventures, of which he never heard; fince a man, who is unacquainted with the fairies, dragons, and enchanters, fo frequently introduced in the poems of Ferdufi; who knows nothing of the griffon Simorg, the fpeaking horse of Roftam, the dark sea which furrounds the world, the mountain of Kaf, or the battle of the twelve Heroes, can no more pretend to read the finest writings of

Perfia, than he could underftand the Odes of Pindar, if he never. heard of the Trojan war, the groves of Elyfium, the voyage of the Argonauts, or the feveral attributes of the heathen Deities.

The Perfians would not readily forgive my presumption, if they knew what a liberty I have taken with their Chronology, and how many thousand years I have retrenched from the pretended Duration of their Empire. They reckon but eleven Monarchs of the firft race, and nine, including Darius, of the second; yet they affign to the reigns of these twenty princes a period of above three thousand years, or an hundred and fifty to each prince one with another; but these are Perfian tales: human nature is nearly the fame in all ages; and it has been proved by the strongest induction, that Kings feldom reign, one with another, longer than eighteen or twenty years each *: fo that we must ascribe these fictions of the Perfian Chronologers to the vain defire of aggrandizing their country, by raising its Antiquity fo far beyond the truth.

It is with the utmost diffidence, that I venture to add an obfervation of my own upon any work of NEWTON; whofe admirable tracts

* See Newton's Chronology, p. 52.