as to the seventh century; the description of Mecca; the antiquity of the Arabic language, and the practice of their most ancient authors to write in verse; their year, months, weeks, and methods of computation; their love for poetry and rhetoric, &c.

Great heroes are recorded to have flourished among them, such as Abdelrahmanus, and Abi Amer Almoapheri.

Abdelrahmanus lived in the beginning of the tenth century, and Abi Amer Almoapheri at its latter end. The first, having subdued innumerable factions and seditions, reigned at Corduba with reputation for fifty years, famed for his love of letters, and his upright administration of justice. The second, undertaking the tuition of a young prince, (who was a minor, named Hescham,) and having restored peace to a turbid kingdom, turned his arms so successfully against its numerous invaders, that he acquired the honourable name of Almanzor, that is, the Defender. (See vol. ii. of this Catalogue, pages 37, 49, 50.)

Arabian Spain had too its men of letters, and those in great numbers; some whose fame was so extensive, that even Christians came to hear them from remote regions of Europe. But this has been already mentioned, p. 488 of these Inquiries.

Public libraries (not less than seventy) were established through the country; and noble benefactions they were to the cause of letters, at a time when books, by being manuscripts, were so costly an article, that few scholars were equal to the expense of a collection.

To the subjects already treated, were added the lives of their famous women; that is, of women who had been famous for their literature and genius.

It is somewhat strange, when we read these accounts, to hear it asserted, that the religion of these people was hostile to literature; and this assertion founded on no better reason, than that the Turks, their successors, by being barbarous and ignorant, had little value for accomplishments of which they knew nothing.

These Spanish Arabians, also, like their ancestors in the East, were great horsemen, and particularly fond of horses. Accounts are preserved both of horses and camels; also of their coin; of the two races of caliphs, the Ommiadæ and the Abbassadæ; of the first Arabic conqueror of Spain, and the conditions of toleration granted to the Christians whom he had conquered.

It further appears from these Arabic works, that not only sugar, but silk was known and cultivated in Spain. We read a beautiful description of Grenada and its environs; as also epitaphs of different kinds; some of them approaching to Attic elegance.

When that pleasing liquor coffee was first introduced among them, a scruple arose among the devout (perhaps from feeling

its exhilarating quality) whether it was not forbidden by the Alcoran, under the article of wine. A council of Mahometan divines was held upon the occasion, and the council luckily decreed for the legality of its use. (See vol. ii. of this Catalogue, P, 172, 173.)

The concessions made by the Arabian conquerors of Spain to the Gothic prince whom he subdued, is a striking picture of his lenity and toleration. He neither deposed the Gothic prince, nor plundered his people, but, on payment of a moderate tribute, stipulated not to deprive them either of their lives or property; and gave them also their churches, and a toleration for their religion. See this curious treaty, which was made about the year 712 of the Christian era, in the second volume of this Catalogue, p. 106.

When the posterity of these conquerors came in their turn to be conquered, (an event which happened many centuries afterward,) they did not experience that indulgence which had been granted by their forefathers.

The conquered Moors (as they were then called) were expelled by thousands; or, if they ventured to stay, were exposed to the carnage of a merciless inquisition :

Pueri, innuptæque puellæ,

Impositique rogis juvenes ante ora parentum.

It appears that many of these Arabic-Spanish princes were men of amiable manners, and great encouragers both of arts and letters, while others, on the contrary, were tyrannic, cruel, and sanguinary.

There were usually many kingdoms existing at the same time, and these on every occasion embroiled one with another; not to mention much internal sedition in each particular state.

Like their Eastern ancestors, they appear not to have shared the smallest sentiment of civil liberty; the difference as to good and bad government seeming to have been wholly derived, according to them, from the worth or pravity of the prince who governed. See p. 495 of these Inquiries.

The reader will observe, that the pages referring to facts, in the two historical volumes of these manuscripts, are but seldom given, because whoever possesses those volumes (and without them any reference would be useless) may easily find every fact, by referring to the copious and useful index subjoined to the second volume, which index goes to the whole work.

PART II.

CONCERNING THE MANUSCRIPTS OF LIVY, IN THE ESCURIAL LIBRARY.

Ir having been often asserted, that an entire and complete copy of Livy was extant in the Escurial library, I requested my son, in the year 1771, (he being at that time minister plenipotentiary to the court of Madrid,) to inquire for me, what manuscripts of that author were there to be found.

He procured me the following accurate detail from a learned ecclesiastic, Don Juan de Pellegeros, canon of Lerma, employed by Monsr. De Santander, his catholic majesty's librarian, to inspect for this purpose the manuscripts of that valuable library.

The detail was in Spanish, of which the following is a translation.

Among the MSS. of the Escurial library are the following works of T. Livy.

1. Three large volumes, which contain so many decads, the first, third, and fourth, (one decad in each volume,) curiously written on parchment, or fine vellum, by Pedro de Middleburgh, or of Zeeland, (as he styles himself.)

The books are truly magnificent, and in the title and initials curiously illuminated. They bear the arms of the house of Borgia, with a cardinal's cap, whence it appears that they belonged either to pope Callixtus the Third, or to Alexander the Sixth, when cardinals.

2. Two other volumes, written by the same hand, one of the first decad, the other of the third; of the same size and beauty as the former. Both have the same arms; and in the last is a note, which recites, "This book belongs to D. Juan de Fonseca, bishop of Burgos."

3. Another volume of the same size, and something more ancient than the former, (being of the beginning of the fifteenth century,) containing the third decad entire. This is also well written on parchment, though not so valuable as the former.

4. Another of the first decad, finely written on vellum. At the end is written as follows: "Ex centum voluminibus, quæ ego indies vitæ meæ magnis laboribus hactenus scripsisse memini, hos duos Titi Livii libros Anno Dni. 1441, ego Joannes Andreas de Colonia feliciter, gratia Dei, absolvi ;" and at the end of each book, "Emendavi Nicomachus Fabianus."

In the last leaf of this book is a fragment either of Livy himself, or of some pen capable of imitating him. It fills the whole leaf; and the writer says, it was in the copy from which he

transcribed. It appears to be a fragment of the latter times of the second Punic war.

5. Another large volume, in parchment, well written, of the same century, viz. the fifteenth, containing three decads. 1. De Urbis initu. 2. De Bello Punico. 3. De Bello Macedonico. In this last decad is wanting a part of the book. This volume is much esteemed, being full of notes and various readings, in the hand of Hieronimo Zunita, its former possessor.

6. Another very valuable volume, cortaining the first decad, equal to the former in the elegance of its writing and ornaments. This also belonged to Hieronimo Zunita; the age the same.

7. Lastly, there is another of the first decad also, written on paper, at the beginning of the fifteenth century. This contains nothing remarkable.

In all, there are ten volumes, and all nearly of the same age. Here ends the account of the Escurial manuscripts, given us by this learned Spaniard; in which manuscripts we see there appears no part of Livy but what was printed in the early editions.

The other parts of this author, which parts none of the manuscripts here recited give us, were discovered and printed afterwards.

As to the fragment mentioned in the fourth article, (all of which fragment is there transcribed,) it has, though genuine, no peculiar rarity, as it is to be found in all the latter printed editions. See particularly in Crevier's edition of Livy, Paris, 1736, tome ii. pages 716, 717, 718, beginning with the words Raro simul hominibus, and ending with the words increpatis risum esse, which is the whole extent of the fragment here exhibited. From this detail it is evident that no entire copy of Livy is extant in the Escurial library.

PART III.

GREEK MANUSCRIPTS OF CEBES, IN THE LIBRARY OF THE KING OF

FRANCE.

THE picture of Cebes, one of the most elegant moral allegories of Grecian antiquity, is so far connected with the middle age, that the ingenious Arabians of that time thought it worth translating into Arabic.

It was also translated from Greek into Latin by Ludovicus Odaxius, a learned Italian, soon after Greek literature revived there, and was published in the year 1497.

After this it was often printed, sometimes in Greek alone, sometimes accompanied with more modern Latin versions. But

the misfortune was, that the Greek manuscripts, from which the editors printed, (that of Odaxius alone excepted,) were all of them defective in their end or conclusion. And hence it followed that this work for many years was published, edition after edition, in this defective manner.

Had its end been lost, we might have lamented it, as we lament other losses of the same kind. But in the present case, to the shame of editors, we have the end preserved, and that not only in the Arabic paraphrase, and the old Latin translation of Odaxius, but, what is more, even in the original text, as it stands in two excellent manuscripts of the king of France's library.

From these MSS. it was published in a neat 12mo. edition of Cebes, by James Gronovius, in the year 1689; and after him by the diligent and accurate Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Græca, vol. i. p. 834, 835; and, after Fabricius, in a small octavo edition, by Thomas Johnson, A. M. printed at London, in the year 1720.

Whoever reads the conclusion of this treatise will find sufficient internal evidence to convince him of its authenticity, both from the purity of the language, and the truth, as well as connection of the sentiment.

However, the manuscript authority resting on nothing better than the perplexed account of that most obscure and affected writer, James Gronovius, I procured a search to be made in the royal library at Paris, if such manuscripts were there to be found.

Upon inspection of no less than four manuscripts of Cebes, preserved in that valuable library, numbers 858, 2992, 1001, 1774, it appeared, that in the second and in the third, the end of Cebes was perfect and entire, after the manner in which it stands in the printed editions above mentioned.

The end of this short essay is to prove, that the genuineness of the conclusion thus restored does not rest merely on such authority as that of James Gronovius, (for Fabricius and Johnson only follow him,) but on the authority of the best manuscripts, actually inspected for the purpose.

PART IV.

SOME ACCOUNT OF LITERATURE IN RUSSIA, AND OF ITS PROGRESS TOWARDS BEING CIVILIZED.

THE vast empire of Russia extending far into the north, both in Europe and Asia, it is no wonder that, in such a country, its in