a Phoenician merchant, who sat by, was disposed to treat the subjeet with raillery, and alleged, "that, considering the barbarous state "of ancient Greece, before CADMUS introduced humanity among "its early inhabitants, he saw nothing extravagant in the pretensions "of those Greeks who make their first ancestors the spontaneous product of the earth.” "It must be owned (replied PYTHON) that "there is a great mixture of fable in the early periods of the Gre"cian history. But will not the same objection lie to the history "of all other nations, if you attempt to trace them up to their first original? Thus, if INACHUS be styled the offspring of OCEANUS "and TETHYS, this carries his antiquity to that height, as to leave it "uncertain who were his progenitors. And is not SEMIRAMIS, "in like manner, reported to be the daughter of the Syrian god"dess ?" "I have had (said TEASPES) several opportunities of conversing intimately with the priests of Byblos, who, you will "allow, deserve to be consulted in points of the earliest antiquity; " and I can with confidence affirm, that of the antiquities of the “Greeks, till the æra of the Olympiads, there is very little certainty ❝ to be collected from any traditions or monuments that have been "preserved by their own historians. I must so far, however, dis"sent from IROMUS, as to believe, that there were distinct commu"nities and forms of government established by the Pelasgi, before

the coming of CADMUS into Greece. Phoenicia had sent colonies "thither long before that which he settled at Thebes in Boeotia. "The very name of INACHUS, who is the reputed founder of the Argive kingdom, betrays his Phoenician original; and РHORO“NEUS bears an affinity to an Egyptian name. It was under his government that the scattered families of the Pelasgi were brought "to unite themselves in a regular society with the newly-transplanted colonies, who followed PHORONEUS into that country

"soon

" soon after the expulsion of the Phoenicians out of Egypt." "You must allow, then, (interposed PYTHON,) that the Pelasgi "themselves were more ancient in Greece, than the colonies you speak of." "Some indeed (replied TEASPES) must have got "sooner there than the rest; and I use the word Pelasgi, because, 66 upon the authority of the Greeks themselves, I find no name "more ancient for the first inhabitants of that country. But you "cannot be ignorant, I suppose, that the name of Pelasgi could "only belong to a people who had passed the sea, and sufficiently "destroys the high pretensions of your countrymen, of being "coeval almost with the territory itself. And here I cannot help "repeating your own fabulous account of INACHUS, under which seems to be disguised some historical tradition, when it is said "that he was the offspring of OCEANUS and TETHYS; which, allowing that he came from a country beyond the seas, is easily explained, but is otherwise a senseless legend." "I must beg leave (said I, here interposing)" to offer something in support of the great " antiquity of the Athenians. It is a tradition among the Ægyptian priests, that they were originally a Sethroite colony; and that "OSIRIS left TRIPTOLEMUS with them, in their new territory, to "teach them the art of tillage. The Phoenician sacred records

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relate, how CHRONUS travelled about the world with his daughter " ATHENA, and gave her the coast of Attica; so that both these "authorities fix the first settlement in Attica, as high as the times " of OSIRIS. And there is reason to believe, from the testimony "of those two nations, which contend for the earliest antiquity, "that these eastern countries, which have successively been the "seats of empire, were overspread, about the same time, from one common stock. Beyond the times of OSIRIS we find nothing "in the Egyptian account but mythology. I am not ignorant

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"there are Phoenician traditions pretended to be derived from "TAAUTUS, which carry up the history of the human race for "ten generations higher than CHRONUS. But you, TEASPES, I "know, consider that ancient epoch of OSIRIS, about which ends "with the Ægyptians the reign of their demi-gods, as the time "when the earth began to be planted anew after the universal deluge." "I do (replied TEASPES); and I make no doubt but "that SISUTHRUS and his family, who so miraculously, as it is "related in the books of the Chaldæan sages, escaped the universal deluge, might pass among posterity for a remnant of the race, of "the demi-gods, who had existed in another state of things. And "if we consider how impossible it was for any monuments to have "been preserved of the antediluvian ages, and what the state of "most nations, after their first planting, must have been; we shall necessarily be brought to fix here the earliest æra of the historical "times. And the Greeks cannot complain, though we allow not "of their springing from the earth itself, that we have made their origin too recent."

"I thank you both, (said PYTHON,) for this polite and rational inquiry into a subject, which appears, in the light you have con"sidered it, to be of the greatest moment for establishing an " universal benevolence among the human species. You could else, I am ready to believe, have more easily indulged me in my Gre"cian prejudices. But to speak the truth, I am much less con"cerned for what becomes of the boasted original of my Athenian "friends, that I am for improving, as far as may be, those prin

ciples of humanity, which are so forcibly inculcated from the "consideration of the whole race, as being descended of one common stock. But my curiosity is much excited, to know the opi

"nion of your enlightened sages, with regard to the origin of man, "and when he first existed upon the earth. The subject of our "present conversation naturally leads to this further inquiry." "This question (said TEASPES) is closely connected with our Magian doctrines of the Cosmogony. However, I shall not be unwilling to gratify your curiosity; since an explanation upon "these subjects will do honour to the religion of ZOROAster, "and clear up our philosophical opinions from those gross mistakes, which some of your countrymen have entertained concerning them."

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L.

LETTER CXLII.

CLEANDER to GOBRYAS. From Athens.

THE HE fortune of the war, which, since my last dispatches, inclines to the side of Athens, has given a sudden turn to the affairs of this country, which, if some unforeseen event does not arise, may produce consequences, not less advantageous to the Grecian states, than detrimental to Persia. Thou must have judged from all the accounts of Pylus, that it was reduced to the last extremity; and indeed so little expectation of preserving it remained here, that nothing could be more surprizing, as well as agreeable, than the news we received within these few days, that the blockade was raised by sea, and a truce concluded with the Lacedæmonian generals. Those who have been long conversant in political business, must have frequently observed, that when their hopes seem best founded, and their thoughts are employed in pursuing a series of imaginary triumphs, one unlucky incident reduces them to despair, and soon after, a stroke of good fortune, as unlooked-for as the bad, restores spirit and resolution to their counsels.

Without making a particular application of this remark to the Athenian republick in the present crisis, I will hasten to explain the facts which gave rise to it. Not long after the desperate assault maintained by DEMOSTHENES, (of which my last letters made mention,) the Athenian admiral from Zacynthus came up with forty sail, and offered battle to the Lacedæmonian fleet, which, instead of accepting the challenge, kept itself ranged in a line close to the shore within the harbour. Upon this NICIAS called a council of war,

where