of our Dictionary we modeftly

ert to be entirely new, the ufe of which, both in speaking and writing, muft at first view appear to every intelligent Reader; and we have endeavoured to execute it without running into any whimfical notions, or fantastic affected niceties.

III. Instead of a very few Lives of Statesmen, Authors, Poets, &c. which other fimilar Publications, very often with little propriety, contain; we have prefented our Readers with a concife though comprehenfive Epitome of the Annals of this Country, exhibiting the characters of its feveral Monarchs, their most remarkable actions, and the most distinguished events of their reigns; with a brief account of the progrefs of the Arts and Sciences under each Monarch, as well as of the most eminent perfonages, whether Statesmen, Men of Letters, Authors, &c. who flourished in each refpective period.

This department of our Dictionary will certainly prove of great utility to two kinds of Readers: First, to thofe who have not time, abilities, nor inclination to study the Hiftory. of their Country in larger volumes. Secondly, To youth at Schools it will be found very ferviceable in a double respect, By this Epitome they may be inftructed in that neceffary and ufeful part of knowledge, the Hiftory of their own Country, even imperceptibly; for it will prove rather an amusement than a task for them to turn to and find out thofe hiftorical articles in the Dictionary, which would escape their attention, perhaps, in reading the best written Hiftory, especially if impofed upon them by way of task, The fkilful Teacher may, in this cafe, find out methods of playing (if we may ufe the expreffion) his pupils into this valuable branch of knowledge.

Again: Thefe Hiftorical Anecdotes may be given as very proper and ufeful Exercifes to Youth at Schools. Let the Maiter prefcribe to his pupils, as he judges proper, any one Reign, or any part of it, to be fairly, tranfcribed by them. Let him next, according to their capacities, fet them to point out the feveral parts of it; the character of the Monarch, whether a good or a bad prince; for what actions and exploits he was remarkable; what great events happened during his reign; with the other particulars as mentioned before. This will ferve as a whetftone to fharpen and try

their wit and ingenuity, and put them upon exercifing their judgment concerning facts which come within the sphere of their capacities.

But this is not all: The Mafter may advance one step farther with his pupils. Let him next put them upon drawing up, from the feveral parts of it, as they lie fcattered in the Dictionary, a complete History of England, beginning with King Egbert, the Saxon, and taking every reign, in its chronological order, down to the prefent period. This will prove both a pleafing and profitable exercife to young lads of any ingenuity, and will by eafy degrees lead them into fuch a knowledge of this part of Literature, as will prepare them for reading the English Hiftorians with advantage.

The fame method may with equal facility and benefit be pursued with other articles-fuch as Geography, in particular; which part of our Work we will venture to pronounce to be more copious, better arranged, and more uniform, than in any other Dictionary of this kind, and will therefore prove very ufeful to Youth, in facilitating the knowledge of the Globes and Maps, which every one knows to be a neceffary and pleafing branch of Polite Literature.

It may not be unneceffary to observe on this part of our plan, that the Distances of the different Places, Cities, Towns, &c. of England, and Scotland, from London, have been taken with the greatest care from the latest and most

accurate measurements.

The CITIES, TOWNS, BURGHS, and MARKET TOWNS of SCOTLAND, are to be found in no other Dictionary; an article which, we hope, will render this Work peculiarly acceptable to our Readers in that country.

The fhort, but clear accounts of the feveral RELIGIOUS SECTS, both in the JEWISH and CHRISTIAN CHURCH, are more copious and numerous than are given in the very few Publications of this kind which have adopted them, and must therefore be acceptable to thofe Readers who defire information in this particular, but have neither time nor inclination to fearch for it in other Books.

The Outlines of Natural Hiftory, i. e..of Beafts, Birds, Fishes, &c. and the terms of Chymiftry, Painting, Medicine, &c. which are occafionally explained in this Work, will not only ferve to aflift the memory, but may alfo, to

gether with the articles comprizing the Hiftory of the HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY, be used as Exercises to Youth at Schools, according to the difcretion of the Mafter.

We fhall conclude this Preface with recommending to the special attention of our Readers the following articles, all of which, except the 3d and 6th, are peculiar to this Dictionary.

I. A FREE INQUIRY into the ORIGIN and ANTIQUITY of LETTERS.

II. A Short ESSAY on the ORIGIN and ANTIQUITY of the ENGLISH TONGUE.

III. A Compendious ENGLISH GRAMMAR.

IV. An ESSAY on the CONSTITUTION, TRADE, and GOVERNMENT of ENGLAND. This Effay was thought neceffary to accompany, and in fome degree to illuftrate, the Hiftory of England.

V. An OUTLINE of ANTIENT and MODERN HISTORY: Containing a chronological feries of remarkable events, difcoveries, and inventions, from the Creation to the prefent time: Together with a complete lift of the GRECIAN, RoMAN, and ENGLISH CLASSICKS. This article is entirely new, and will be found extremely useful to almost every clafs of Readers.

VI. The Lift of the moft ufual Chriftian Names of Men and Women, with the abbreviations of them used in common difcourfe, will certainly ferve both to amuse and inftruct feveral forts of Readers, and is therefore no improper conclufion of a Work calculated for thofe purposes.

In a word, we fubmit the whole Work, both as to plan and execution, to the candid judgment of the Public, and fhall efteem ourselves much obliged to any Gentleman who will point out to any of the Publishers the errors and defects of this Edition, that they may be rectified in the next.

A

FREE INQUIRY

INTO THE

ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF LETTERS. By the ABBOT ANSELM,

Member of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris.

OTWITHSTANDING it would be a concern of no fmall moment or importance, to be capable of rightly informing you, at what particular time the Art of Writing, or Ufe of Letters, was firft found. out; yet I must ingenuously acknowledge my infufficiency to refolve fo abftrufe, fo myfterious a fecret. All that I fhall pretend to is, to collect, out of various conjectures, thofe opinions on fo critical a topic, to which fome of the most learned and judicious Antiquarians have paid a more than ordinary deference and regard.

Nothing doubtless could be of greater fervice; nothing could poffibly be more entertaining to human life, than an ability of recollecting what was paft, and of giving an established Being, as it were, to the fentiments of the Soul, by virtue whereof, we might tranfmit them down to latest pofterity, without the leaft variation.

This, one would imagine, indeed, Nature might have prompted Mankind to have ac complished; and yet, it must be allowed, it was an arduous task, a difcovery of the laft importance.

We are fenfible, however, as profound as the fecret was, it has been found out; and it is felf-evident, that Cultom, from its being first brought to light, not only received, but eftablished and confirmed it.

Such Authors, as give the leaft Antiquity at all to the Invention of Letters, afcribe the honour of it to Moles. Others, however, will not admit, that it could ever poffibly be difcovered by any Human Penetration, by any Dint of Thought, how profound, how deep foever; and for that reafon give God alone the Glory of it; and peremptorily infift, that the Knowledge of Letters had never been found out to the final diffolution of all things, had not the Almighty condefcended to have written the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, on two Tables of Stone, with his own right-hand, in which are interfperfed (as they very fhrewdly obferve) all the letters in general of the Hebrew Alphabet, the Teth only excepted. And on what reafons that conjecture is grounded, we shall remark by the bye; though we cannot allow them to be conclufive.

Thus far we will admit, indeed, that the Art of Letters was known only by a few, and but very little practifed before the Law was delivered to Mofes upon Mount Sinai; and we will farther admit, that divers nations have been, time immemorial, without it; and this has been the main, if not the fole occafion of thofe confufed and abfurd accounts that we find, not only in the Ancient Stories of thofe Nations, but in the Religion and Genealogies of their Gods.

Thefe conceffions, however, are no convincing evidence, that the Art of Letters was altogether unknown, that Mofes had no Manufcripts, no Hiftorical Memoirs in his custody, which had been preferved, as an invaluable treafure, with the utmost care and circumfpection, in the families of his predeceffors.

Now thole who peremptorily affert, that the Art of Letters was a human, and not a divine Invention, and that we are indebted to the fuperior knowledge and profound penetration of Mofes for that ineftimable bleifing, produce the following arguments to strengthen their conjecture:

Mofes, fay they, never quotes any book prior to his Law: that not the least hint is given either of Letters, or the Art of Writing, in fuch places, where, had it been difcovered at all, due notice had doubtless been taken of it; and again, that if the commemoration of former great and heroic actions has been preferved, fuch Memoirs, or Historical Accounts, could have been tranfmitted to their defcendants no other wife than by word of mouth; or, in other terms, by oral tradition.

How plaufible, or how convincing foever, this argument may poffibly be to the abettors of that opinion, I fhall not take upon me to determine; yet there are fome very eminent. and learned Antiquarians, who ftrenuously oppofe it; and infift, that Mofes himself has quoted a book anterior to his own Pentateuch: for, in the xxift chapter of his Book of Numbers, (after having given a fuccinct account of the feveral places where the Children of Ifrael had pitched their tents in the Wilderness, which was before Moab) he proceeds thus: "Wherefore, it is faid in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, what he did in the Red-Sea, "and in the brooks of Arnon, and at the ftream of the brooks that goeth down to the "dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab."

Now the' it must be granted, that many of the most judicious Literati are much divided in their opinions concerning that Treatife, as being a work, of which but very few have the leaft tranfient idea; yet St. Auftin imagines, in his Commentaries on the Book of Numbers, that it was not the compofition either of any Patriarch or Prophet, but written by those very nations themselves that had been conquered by their enemies, and looked upon that War fo fatal to them, as to deferve the title that it bore. And then that great Author goes on, and tells us, That when Mofes makes mention of that book, he beftows no greater authority upon it, than St. Paul has given to a Grecian Poet, when he had quoted a short paffage from his works: this, however, notwithstanding the glofs that is put upon it, is, in our humble opinion, a felf-evident proof, that that Treatife was written long before the birth of Moses. . Furthermore, thofe who infift, that we are indebted to Mofes for the invention of Letters, pretend, that not the leaft notice is taken of this Art, in divers circumstances of fuch mo ment and importance, as that, had there been any prior knowledge of it, it is highly probable, they would have been committed to writing. When Abraham, fay they, fent Eliezer into Mefopotamia, to fettle and adjust the marriage articles, between Ifaac and Rebecca, not one line was written; no credentials had that faithful fervant to fhow from his Mafter, even on to folemn an occasion. Again, fay thefe Advocates for Mofes, when Ifaac had those Wells dug up, which the Philistines had filled with earth and tones; we have no other acr count of that remarkable occurrence than this, That after they were opened by his orders, he, gave them the fame name that his father had done before him. Again, fay they, when the Patriarch Jacob had erected, at Bethel, the tone which he had made ufe of as a pillow, in commemoration of his Vision in that place, there is not the least account of any infcrip tion having been made upon it..

"

Once more, when Jofeph's Brethren, fay they, went down into Egypt, as we find it recorded in the xxviiith chapter of Genefis; and when Jofeph fent to his dearly beloved brother Benjamin, as we find that affectionate circumftance told in the xliiid chapter of the fame book, not a word was written, either from the Son to the Father, or vice verfa, on lo momentous, an occafion. And, from this prefumption, the admirers of Mofes inter, that Letters, or the Ufe of Writing, was not known in those days; but, with fubmiffion, those plaufible arguments feem to me to be no ways conclufive.

Job lived, it is univerfally allowed, long before Mofes had any exiftence; and his Hiftory muft, in all probability, have been written long before Mofes compofed his Pentateuch.

Some, however, deny, that the last conjecture is juft; for, if that had been matter of fact, fay they, Mofes would never have omitted fuch an illuftrious example of patience to the inceffant murmurs and complaints of his difcontented Ifraelites. Nay, farther, it is imagined, that Job laboured under his fevere afflictions, even at that very time, when the Ifraelites were under Egyptian hondage; for there is not fo much as one word mentioned either of the Law, or of the Prophets, in the long dialogues which paffed between Job and his most miferable Comforters, tiled his Friends; neither is there, indeed, the leaft hiot concerning the one or the other, throughout the long conference which God Almighty vouchfafed to hold with that most upright, though diftreffed Prince.

To the above allegation our reply is this: It would be very prefumptuous to fix the time when that history was wrote, or by whom; though it be received as canonical, and confequently as compofed by Divine Infpiration. For it is mere conjecture, and nothing more, that fome afcribe it to Mofes; fome again to the Prophet Ifaiah; and others, with more pro bability, to King Solomon, who, it is well known, was thoroughly verfed in dialogical difcoveries and prudential maxims.

It is univerfally allowed, likewife, that he was Mafter of the most fublime Poetry, and no ftranger to the tile of the Arabians, as may rationally be prefumed from his converfation with the Queen of Sheba.

It cannot, I think, fairly be denied, however, but that Job was acquainted with the Art of Writing, or the Ufe of Letters, and the various methods, that in his time were made ufe of in engraving on both lead and ftone :-for, in the xixth chapter of that book, is the following very remarkable expo'tulation; "Oh that my words were now written! Oh, that "they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rocks

4 for ever!!!