dialect was nearer to the old Pelafgic, before they began to foften the found of it, and to vary the terminations of it by inflec tion, they had as many words ending in mute confonants as the Latins. Thus, as I obferved before, I cannot doubt, but in place of asy, they said of old for, as the Latins fay; in place of; and instead ar, they used the Latin prepofition or 6. And yet, notwithstanding the difference of termination betwixt the Greek and Hebrew, fome learned men are of opi

of από

nion, that the Greek resembles the Hebrew more than the Latin. But, befides the refemblance of termination, which, as I have obferved, is a strong mark of affinity betwixt two languages, it is natural to think, that the old Pelafgic would undergo lefs change in Italy, and be lefs cultivated and improved, than it was in Greece, and consequently have the greater resemblance to the Hebrew.

I have infifted the more upon this likenefs of termination betwixt the Hebrew and Latin, that I think it has not been suf

*See Ogerius De linguae Graecae et Latinae cum Hebra ica affinitate.

ficiently attended to by learned men; but it appears to me fo ftrong a mark of resemblance, that it is very near as clear a proof of the Latin being derived from the Hebrew, as of our English being derived from the Gothic: For the flection in these two laft-mentioned languages is very different; and it is as much by the likeness of the termination, as by the fimilarity of the found of the words in other refpects, that we know them to be so near akin.

If any more arguments were wanting to prove the affinity betwixt the Latin or old Pelafgic, and the Hebrew, this alone, I think, might suffice, that as the Pelafgi came from Afia, they must have spoken some Afiatic language. Now we know, that the dialects that were spoken in that part of Afia, fuch as the Syriac, Phoenician, and Chaldaic, are all connected with the Hebrew.

If the reader is fatisfied of the connection betwixt the Hebrew and the Latin, it will follow of confequence, that the Hetrufcan language is also connected with the Hebrew. For it is evident, from the monuments of that once great and powerful nation still extant, particularly the Tabulae Eu

gubinae *, that their language was the fame, or a dialect of the fame language with the Pelafgic or Latin; and the connection betwixt it and the Hebrew may be accounted for in the fame way as the connection betwixt the Hebrew and the Pelafgic, namely from the origin of the people, who came from Afia, as well as the Pelafgi, being originally Lydians, as Herodotus has informed us.

And thus it appears, that not only the northern parts of Afia, but the southern parts adjoining to the Mediterranean fea, and Greece, and Italy, and we may fay all Europe, once spoke the fame language, or dialects of the fame language. And the fact appears to have been, that in very antient times a language of art has been formed in one or other of thofe countries, or in fome country adjoining to them, and by degrees has been propagated over Europe and Afia, even to nations the most barbarous. it is in this way, that we are to account for fuch barbarians as the Laplanders and

And

See with refpect to thefe tables the Mufeum Hetruf cum of Gorius, and the Collection of Hetrufcan Antiquities, lately publifhed in fo fplendid a form by Mr Hamilton, vol. 1. p. 48.

Greenlanders fpeaking a language of art. Nor is this propagation of language to be much wondered at, when we confider that the fame language, which is fpoken in New-Zealand, is now difcovered to be fpoken in the Island of Otaheite in the South Sea, feparated from it by two thousand miles of ocean.

But what shall we fay of the parent-country of all arts and fciences, at least to this western part of the world, I mean Egypt? What was the language fpoken there? Was it peculiar to them? Or was it borrowed from any of their neighbours? Or did their neighbours borrow from them? This is a matter of curious inquiry, and well deferves a chapter by itself.

Of the Antiquity of the Egyptians.-That the Pelafgi got their Language from Egypt, and brought it into Greece.-That the Athenians were a Colony of the Egyptians.-That Egypt was a Country very proper for propagating or for inventing a Language. No Univerfal Language now exifting.

T cannot, I think, be doubted, that the Egyptian nation was of very great antiquity, compared at leaft with any nation in Europe: For nothing is more certain in antient history, than that Egypt was a great kingdom, flourishing in arts and sciences, religion, and policy, while Europe was inhabited, if at all inhabited, only by favages. The only nation in Europe in antient times that had any pretenfions to antiquity was the Greek: But the wifer even among them confidered themselves as childern, and of yesterday, compared with the