ignorance, and are feldom willing to allow any excellence beyond the limits of our own attainments: like the favages, who thought that the fun rose and set for them alone, and could not imagine that the waves, which furrounded their ifland, left coral and pearls upon any other shore. Another obvious reason for the neglect of the Perfian language is the great scarcity of books, which are necessary to be read before it can be perfectly learned, the greater part of them are preserved in the different museums and libraries of Europe, where they are shewn more as objects of curiofity than as fources of information; and are admired, like the characters on a Chinese screen, more for their gay colours than for their meaning. Thus, while the excellent writings of Greece and Rome are studied by every man of a liberal education, and diffuse a general refinement through our part of the world, the works of the Perfians, a nation equally distinguished in ancient hiftory, are either wholly unknown to us, or confidered as entirely deftitute of tafte and invention. But if this branch of literature has met with fo many obftructions from the ignorant, it has, certainly, been checked in it progress by the learned themselves; most of whom have confined their study to the minute researches of verbal criticism; like men who discover a precious mine, but instead of searching for the rich ore, or for gems, amuse themselves with collecting smooth pebbles and pieces of crystal. Others mistook reading for learning, which ought to be carefully distinguished by every man of sense, and were satisfied with running over a great number of manuscripts in a fuperficial manner, without condescending to be stopped by their difficulty, or to dwell upon their beauty and elegance. The reft have left nothing more behind them than than grammars and dictionaries; and though they deserve the praises due to unwearied pains and industry, yet they would, perhaps, have gained a more shining reputation, if they had contributed to beautify and enlighten the vaft temple of learning, instead of spending their lives in adorning only its porticos and avenues. There is nothing which has tended more to bring polite letters into discredit, than the total infenfibility of commentators and criticks to the beauties of the authors whom they profess to illuftrate: few of them seem to have received the smallest pleasure from the most elegant compofitions, unless they found some mistake of a tranfcriber to be corrected, or some established reading to be changed, fome obfcure expreffion to be explained, or fome clear paffage to be made obfcure by their notes. It is a circumstance equally unfortunate, that men of the most refined taste and the brightest parts are apt to look upon a close application to the study of languages as inconsistent with their spirit and genius: fo that the state of letters feems to be divided into two claffes, men of learning who have no taste, and men of taste who have no learning. M. de Voltaire, who excels all writers of his age and country in the elegance of his style, and the wonderful variety of his talents, acknowledges the beauty of the Persian images and fentiments, and has versified a very fine paffage from Sadi, whom he compares to Petrarch: if that extraordinary man had added a knowledge of the Afiatick languages to his other acquifitions, we should by this time have seen the poems and histories of Perfia in an European dress, and any other recommendation of them would have been unneceffary. But But there is yet another cause which has operated more strongly than any before mentioned towards preventing the rife of oriental literature; I mean the small encouragement which the princes and nobles of Europe have given to men of letters. It is an indifputable truth, that learning will always flourish most where the ampleft rewards are proposed to the industry of the learned; and that the most shining periods in the annals of literature are the reigns of wife and liberal princes, who know that fine writers are the oracles of the world, from whose testimony every king, statesman, and hero must expect the cenfure or approbation of pofterity. In the old ftates of Greece the highest honours were given to poets, philofophers, and orators; and a fingle city (as an eminent writer observes) in the memory of one man, produced more numerous and fplendid monuments of human genius than most other nations have afforded in a courfe of ages. The liberality of the Ptolemies in Egypt drew a number of learned men and poets to their court, whose works remain to the present age the models of tafte and elegance; and the writers, whom Auguftus protected, brought their compofition to a degree of perfection, which the language of mortals cannot surpass. Whilft all the nations of Europe were covered with the deepest shade of ignorance, the Califs in Afia encouraged the Mahomedans to improve their talents, and cultivate the fine arts; and even the Turkish Sultan, who drove the Greeks from Constantinople, was a patron of literary merit, and was himself an elegant poet. The illustrious family of Medici invited to Florence the learned men whom the Turks had driven from their country, and a general light fucceeded the gloom which ignorance and fuperftition had spread through the western world. But that light has not continued to shine with equal splendour; and though some slight efforts have been made to * Afcham. restore restore it, yet it seems to have been gradually decaying for the last century it grows very faint in Italy; it feems wholly extinguished in France; and whatever sparks of it remain in other countries are confined to the closets of humble and modest men, and are not general enough to have their proper influence. The nobles of our days confider learning as a fubordinate acquifition, which would not be consistent with the dignity of their fortunes, and should be left to those who toil in a lower sphere of life: but they do not reflect on the many advantages which the study of polite letters would give, peculiarly to perfons of eminent rank and high employments; who, instead of relieving their fatigues by a series of unmanly pleasures, or useless diversions, might spend their leisure in improving their knowledge, and in converfing with the great statesmen, orators, and philofophers of antiquity. If learning in general has met with fo little encouragement, still less can be expected for that branch of it, which lies so far removed from the common path, and which the greater part of mankind have hitherto confidered as incapable of yielding either entertainment or instruction : if pains and want be the lot of a scholar, the life of an orientalist must certainly be attended with peculiar hardships. Gentius, who published a beautiful Perfian work called The Bed of Rofes, with an useful but inelegant translation, lived obfcurely in Holland, and died in mifery. Hyde, who might have contributed greatly towards the progrefs of eastern learning, formed a number of expensive projects with that view, but had not the support and affistance which they deserved and required. The labours of Meninski immortalized and ruined him: his dictionary of the Afiatick languages is, perhaps, the most laborious compilation that was ever undertaken by any fingle man; but he complains in his preface that his patrimony was exhausted by the great expence of em ploying and fupporting a number of writers and printers, and of raifing a new prefs for the oriental characters. M. d'Herbelot, indeed, received the most splendid reward of his industry: he was invited to Italy by Ferdinand II. duke of Tuscany, who entertained him with that ftriking munificence which always diftinguished the race of the Medici: after the death of Ferdinand, the illuftrious Colbert recalled him to Paris, where he enjoyed the fruits of his labour, and spent the remainder of his days in an honourable and easy retirement. But this is a rare example: the other princes of Europe have not imitated the duke of Tufcany; and Christian VII. was referved to be the protector of the eastern mufes in the prefent age. Since the literature of Afia was so much neglected, and the causes of that neglect were fo various, we could not have expected that any flight power would rouze the nations of Europe from their inattention to it; and they would, perhaps, have perfifted in defpifing it, if they had not been animated by the most powerful incentive that can influence the mind of man: intereft was the magick wand which brought them all within one circle; intereft was the charm which gave the languages of the East a real and folid importance. By one of those revolutions, which no human prudence could have foreseen, the Perfian language found its way into India; that rich and celebrated empire, which, by the flourishing state of our commerce, has been the fource of incredible wealth to the merchants of Europe. A variety of causes, which need not be mentioned here, gave the English nation a most extensive power in that kingdom: our India company began to take under their protection the princes of the country, by whose protection they gained their first settlement; a number of important affairs were to be tranfacted in peace and war between nations equally jealous of one another, who had not the common inftrument of conveying their sentiments'; the servants of the company received letters which they could not read, and |