Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

land, which was the confequence of labour, in frequently ploughing and turning up the foil,

Thus mathematicians in endeavouring to fquare the circle, by infinitely approximating feries, have advanced the progress of science; thus, in fearching after a perpetual motion, discoveries have been made of vaft improvement in navigation, and in phyfical inquiry: -thus also, the endeavouring to find the 'philofopher's ftone, has produced many valuable discoveries in chymistry. The great Sir Ifaac Newton, by inquiring after the nature of gravity, whofe effence he could not discover, and which perhaps can never be discovered, established that beautiful theory of the heavenly bodies, which has been far ther ftrengthened by new difcoveries.

If the laudable attempts of good and wise men have hitherto failed, in acquiring a full demonstration of the Being and attributes of one God by metaphyfical reasoning, I fay, are they to be despised for such pious efforts, which have, however, made approximations wonderfully convincing, and fhew the vast improvement of the human understanding!

That all mankind, at firft, fpoke the fame language is granted, not only by those who admit

admit of revelation, but also by the learned author of the Sketches of Man, who has advanced fome notions, on very vague grounds, which are fubverfive of revelation: but unfortunately, after he had endeavoured to prove, that there are different races of mankind, he overturns his whole fyftem by an unlucky affertion."If, fays he, the common language of men had not been confounded upon their undertaking the Tower of Babel, I affirm, that there never could have been but one language." What! not if there were different races of men, and these men differently formed, to fit them for various climates? Where, according to this fyftem, muft they have had their origin! Or else what fort of a motley appearance muft the whole of mankind have made had they been affembled at the building of the Tower! Would various races of men, fitted, ab origine, for different climates, have been happy in exifting for generations before the Dispersion in climates to which the greater part were not fitted? Abfurdities innumerable arife as the consequence of fuch ideas. But most certain it is, that as mankind all spoke the fame language previous to their difperfion, so alfo were they of one, and the fame genius.

The

The apparent difference now obfervable in the exterior of the various inhabitants of the earth having originated from the difperfion, even as the innumerable dialects and numerous languages which now exift; and it is now the established opinion of most learned men, that forafmuch as rivers, when they burst from their fountains, proceed with greater rapidity, and carry with them such evident marks of their origin as admit of no doubt, and the further they have travelled in their course, and the more remote they are from their fource, the more they gradually lose their original rapidity, so that at last they appear more like to a stagnant pool, than to a flowing river; even fo it is with most languages. The Hebrew, nearly allied to the primæval tongue, (of which the Chaldæan and Syrian appear to be mere dialects, as spoken on the borders of the Tigris and Euphrates and its environs) was the fountain of many others, which in proportion to their diftance from Affyria and Mefapotamia, have retained lefs veftiges of the primeval language. Thus the Arabia and Phoenician tongue, where their regions were near to this fountain, bore the exprefs image of the Hebrew from the Phoenician originated the

Greek,

Greek, from hence the Latin, and from that again the French, the Spanish, and other European languages; which in proportion to their distances from Afia, have undergone the greater change. But with refpect to the Hebrew, Arabic, and Phoenician, it may with great propriety' be faid,

Facies non omnibus una eft,

Nec diverfa tamen, qualem decet effe fororum.

SKETCH

SKETCH V.

THE LEARNING OF MOSES, AND WHENCE DERIVED.

FROM

ROM fearching the records of ancient writers, it must be acknowledged, that the first rudiments of general knowledge were derived from Egypt, and were confpicuous in the writings of Mofes, in teftimony of whose wisdom a crowd of learned witneffes could be produced. It is indeed strange that Origen fhould fay, "Now the name of Mofes is heard which was fecreted among the Jews, for none of the Greeks mention him, nor have we any Gentile history that names him, but now that Chrift has enlightened the world, with him has been introduced the Law and the Prophets."

It is certain, however, that Mofes has been mentioned in a very respectable light by prophane

« VorigeDoorgaan »