been gratefully accepted. But that the Egyptians did nothing of all this, appears from the Chinese being without an ALPHABET to this very day. And yet I am persuaded, it was the confounding of these two things, one of which was practicable and useful, the other useless and impracticable, I mean the communication of an alphabet, which was common in the ancient world; and the communication of a real character, which was never heard of till now, I say, it was the confounding of these two things that gave birth to this strange conceit. And then the similitude of shape between the Egyptian and the Chinese marks, was thought to complete the discovery. The letter-writer did not seem to reflect, that the shapes of real characters, after great improvements made in them by a long course of time, such as the Egyptian and the Chinese, must needs have a great resemblance, whether the characters were formed by ANALOGY or INSTITUTION. In the first case nature made the resemblance, as being the common archetype to both nations. In the latter, necessity, for only straight and crooked lines being employed to form these marks, there must needs arise from a combination of such lines infinitely varied, a striking resemblance between the real characters of two people, though most distant in genius and situation. But the folly, which such conjectures are apt to fall into, is, that, if the forms of the marks be alike, the powers must be alike also.

What is here said will enable us likewise to appreciate another ingenious contrivance of one M. de Guignes, of the Academy Royal of Inscriptions, &c. to get to the same discovery. Upon a supposition of the truth of what I had laid down, that the first Egyptian alphabet was taken from their hieroglyphic characters,* this academician fell to work, to ANALYZE, as he terms it, the Chinese characters; when to his great surprise, he found, that their contents were only a certain number of LETTERS belonging to the oriental alphabets, packed up, as it were, for carriage: which, when taken out, developed, and put in order, formed an Egyptian or Phenician word, that expressed the idea for which the Chinese real character stood, as its representatives. How precarious, and of how little solidity this fanciful analysis is, may be understood by all who have seen these Chinese marks and oriental alphabets; both of which consist of the same straight and curve lines variously combined; so that it cannot be otherwise but that in every Chinese mark should be found, that is, easily imagined, composition of any alphabetic letters which the profound decipherer stands in need of. But the pleasantry of the conceit lies here, that though the Chinese have alphabetic characters (which this ingenious author has, with great astonishment, now first discovered) yet they themselves know nothing of the matter, as he at the same time has assured us.+

I might likewise insist upon this scheme's labouring under the same absurdity with M. Needham's. For though when M. de Guignes speaks of that part of the Chinese real character whose marks are symbolic, or formed upon analogy, pp. 71, 72, he is willing to have it believed (what his titlepage enounces), that China was inhabited by an Egyptian colony, which carried along with them the hieroglyphics they now use: yet where he examines that other part, consisting of arbitrary marks, or marks by institution, p. 64 and seq. he supposes them, as we see above, communicated to the Chinese by the Egyptians. On pouvoit donc presumer, says he, que les Egyptiens avoient communiqué aux Chinois les caractères que je venois de decouvrir.

To conclude, the learned world abounds with discoveries of this kind. They have all one common original; the old inveterate error, that a similitude of customs and manners, amongst the various tribes of mankind most remote from one another, must needs arise from some communication. Whereas human nature, without any other help, will, in the same circumstances, always exhibit the same appearances.

P. 33, T. L'alphabet Ethiopien est de tous ceux que l'on connoit qui tient encore des hieroglyphes.-Fourmont, Reflexions Crit. sur les Hist, des Anc. Peuples, tom. sec. p. 501. Kircher illustrates this matter in his account of the Coptic alphabet. But as on his system every thing that relates to Egypt is a mystery, the shapes and names of the letters of their alphabet we may expect to find full of profound wisdom: yet, methinks, nothing could be more natural, than for a people long used to hieroglyphic characters, to employ the most

M. Warburton avoit pensé que le premier alphabet avoit emprunté ses elemens des hieroglyphes mêmes; et M. l'Abbé Barthelemy avoit mis cette excellente théorie dans un plus grand jour, en plaçant sur une colonne diverses lettres Ægyptiennes, en correspondance avec les hieroglyphes qui les avoient produits. On pouvoit donc presumer que les Egyptiens avoient communiqué aux Chinois les caracteres que je venois de decouvrir, mais qu'ils les regardoient eux-mêmes alors comme des signes Hieroglyphiques, et non comme des lettres proprement dites.-De l'Origine des Chinois, pp. 63, 64.

Les caracteres Chinoises dans l'etat où nous les avons à present, constituent trois sortes de caracteres; l'epistolique ou ALPHABETIQUE, le hieroglyphique et le symbolique; c'est un nouveau rapport des plus singuliers avec l'Egypte, qui n'a point été connu jusque à present, QUE LES CHINOIS EUXMEMES IGNORENT, et qui me jette dans le plus grand étonnement, un examen attentif-me l'a fait connoitre, &c.- Mem. de Lit. tom. 29, p. 15.

celebrated of them, when they invented an alphabet, in forming the letters of it: and if the Chinese, who yet want an alphabet, were now to make one, it is not to be doubted but they would use the most venerable of their characteristic marks for the letters of it. However, let us hear Kircher for the fact's sake:-Ita Ægyptiis natura comparatum fuit, ut quemadmodum nihil in omnibus eorum institutis sine mysterio peragebatur, ita et in lingua communi, uti ex alphabeto eorundem, mysteriosa literarum institutione ita concinnato, ut nulla fere in eodem litera reconditorum sacramentorum non undiquaque plena reperiretur, patet. De primævis Ægyptiorum literis variæ diversorum sunt opiniones. Omnes tamen in hoc consentiunt, plerasque ex sacrorum animalium forma, incessu, aliarumque corporis partium sitibus et symmetrio desumptas. Ita Demetrius Phalereus, qui septem vocales assignans, septem diis consecratas, ait, cæteras ex animalium formâ desumptas. Eusebius adstruit idem.-Theatr. Hierogl. p. 42. tom. iii. of his dip. Egypt. As for this fancy, mentioned by Demetrius Phalereus, it had a very different original from what Kircher supposes; being only an enigmatic intimation of the different natures of vowels and consonants. The latter being brute sounds without the aid of the former, by which they are as it were animated. P. 33, U. The very learned and illustrious author of a work intitled, Recueil d'Antiquités Egyptiennes, Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines, vol. i. M. the Count CAYLUS, after having confuted the idle conjectures of certain learned men concerning the contents of a sepulchral linen, marked over with Egyptian alphabetic characters, proceeds thus:-Il me semble qu'on tireroit de plus grands avantages de ce monument, si au lieu de s'obstiner à percer ces ténébres, on tâchoit, de remonter par son moyen à l'origine de l'écriture, et d'en suivre le developpement et le progres: si l'on cherchoit enfin à connoître la forme des anciennes lettres, et le pays où l'on a commencé à les employer. Ces questions et tant d'autres semblables ne pourront jamais être eclaircies par les temoignages des auteurs Grecs et Latins. Souvent peu instruits des antiquités de leur pays, ils n'ont fait que recueillir des traditions incertaines, et multiplier des doutes, auxquels on prefereroit volontiers l'ignorance la plus profonde: c'est aux monumens qu'on doit recourir. Quand ils parleront clairement, il faudra bien que les anciens auteurs s'accordent avec eux. Avant le commencement de ce siécle on ne connoissoit point l'ecriture courante des Egyptiens, et plusieurs critiques la confondoient tantôt avec celle des anciens Hebreux, et tantôt avec les hieroglyphes; mais depuis cette epoque il nous est venu plusieurs fragmens, qui ont fixé nos idées; et il faut espérer que de nouvelles recherches nous en procureront un plus grand nombre. Conservons avec soin des restes si précieux, et tachons de les mettre en œuvre, en suivant l'exemple de celui des modernes, qui a repandu les plus grandes lumières sur la question de l'antiquité des lettres. M. Warburton a detruit l'erreur où l'on étoit que les prêtres Egyptiens avoient inventé les hieroglyphes pour cacher leur science: il a distingué trois epoques principales dans l'art de se communiquer les idées par écrit: sous la première, l'écriture n'étoit qu'une simple representation des objets, une veritable peinture; sous la seconde, elle ne consistoit qu'en hieroglyphes, c'est-à-dire, en une peinture abrégée, qui, par exemple, au lieu de representer un objet entier, n'en representoit qu'une partie, un rapport, &c. Enfin sous la troisieme epoque, les hieroglyphes altérés dans leurs traits devinrent les élémens d'une écriture courante: M. Warburton auroit pû mettre cette excellente theorie à portée de tout le monde, en plaçant dans une premiére colomne une suite d'hieroglyphes, et dans une seconde les lettres qui en sont dérivées; mais sans doute que les bornes qu'il s'étoit prescrites ne lui ont pas permis d'entrer dans ce detail. Quoi qu'il soit, tous ceux qui recherchent l'origine des arts et des connoissances humaines, peuvent verifier le systême du sçavant Anglois, et se convaincre que les lettres Egyptiennes ne sont que des hieroglyphes deguisés. Nous avons assez de secours pour entreprendre cet examin. Les recueils des antiquaires offrent plusieurs monumens Egyptiens chargés d'hieroglyphes: et la seule bande de toile que l'on publie ici [Pl. No. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV.] suffiroit pour donner une idée de l'écriture courante de s'assurer que l'alphabet de la langue Egyptienne emanoit des hieroglyphes, il suffira d'avoir un assez grande quantité des lettres isolées, et de comparer avec les figures représentées sur les monumens Egyptiens. Or je puis assûrer que l'on appercevra entr'elles la liaison la plus intime, et les rapports les plus sensibles; et pour s'en convaincre, on n'a qu'à jetter les yeux sur le No. I. de la XXVI. planche. J'y ai fait graver sur une première colomne une suite d'hieroglyphes tirés la plupart des obelisques, et dans une colomne correspondante, les lettres Egyptiennes qui viennent de ces hieroglyphes. On trouvera, par exemple, que le premier hieroglyphe representant une barque, a produit un element d'écriture, dont la valeur a pû varier, suivant les points ou les traits dont il étoit affecté: que le troisieme hieroglyphe, qu'on croit être l'image d'une porte, en perdant son arrondissement a formé la lettre qui lui est paralléle; que la figure d'homme ou d'animal accroupie au No. IV. est devenue une lettre qui ne conserve que les linéamens du symbole original; enfin que le serpent figuré si souvent sur les monumens Egyptiens, No. XIX. s'est changé en un caractère quí retrace encore aux yeux les sinuosités de ce reptile. On trouvera aussi que les autres hieroglyphes, tels que le II. le V. le VI. le XI. le XIII. &c. ont passé dans l'écriture courante, sans éprouver le moindre changement. Au reste, ce n'est ici que le leger essai

d'une operation qui pourroit être poussée plus loin, et dans laquelle on appercevroit peut-être des rapports différens de ceux que j'ai établis entre certaines lettres Egyptiennes prouve visiblement leur origine; et plus il est approfondi, plus il sert à confirmer le sentiment de M. Warburton, p. 69. Thus far this learned person. I have borrowed the scheme he refers to, and the reader will find it marked, Plate VII.

P. 33, X. M. Voltaire, in a discourse intitled, Nouveau plan de l'Histoire de l'Esprit humain, speaking of the Chinese printing, which is an impression from a solid block, and not by movable types, says they have not adopted the latter method, out of attachment to their old usages-On sait que cette imprimerie est une gravure sur des planches de bois. L'art de graver les charactéres mobiles et de fonte, beaucoup supérieure à la leur, n'a point encore été adopté par eux, TANT ILS SONT ATTACHES A LEURS ANCIENS USAGES. Now I desire to know of M. Voltaire, how it was possible for them to adopt the method of a font of types or movable characters, unless they had an alphabet. That they had no such, M. Voltaire very well knew, as he gives us to understand, in the same place. L'art de faire connoitre ses idées par l'écriture, qui devroit n'être qu'une methode très simple, est chez eux ce qu'ils ont de plus difficile; chaque mot a des charactéres differens: un savant à la Chine est celui qui connoit le plus de ces charactéres, et quelques uns sont arrivés à la vieillesse avant que de savoir bien écrire. Would not Caslon or Baskerville be finely employed to make a font of letters for this people, who have so many millions of real characters? But this historian of men and manners goes on in the same rambling incoherent manner, and so he can but discredit the Jewish history, he cares little for the rest.—Qui leur donne une superiorité reconnue sur tous ceux qui rapportent l'origine des autres nations, c'est qu'on n'y voit aucun prodige, aucune prediction, aucune même de ces fourberies politiques que nous attribuons aux fondateurs des autres états, excepté peut-être ce qu'on a imputé à Fom, d'avoir fait accroire qu'il avoit vû ses loix écrites sur le dos d'un serpent ailé. Cette imputation même fait voir qu'on connaissait l'écriture avant Fohi. Enfin, ce n'est pas à nous, au bout de notre Occident, à contester les archives d'une nation que étoit toute policée quand nous n'étions que des sauvages-First, China has the advantage of the western world, because the founders of its religious policy employed neither miracles nor prophecies, nor the founders of its civil policy state tricks and cheats, like other leaders. And yet he is forced, before the words are well out of his mouth, to own that Fohi pretended to have seen his laws written upon the back of a winged serpent: and one can hardly think that Fohi now gotten into so good a train would stop there. Secondly, By this, however, the historian gains (and he bids us observe it) a very early date for writing amongst the Chinese, whereas in truth they have no writing in the sense the historian gives to the word, even at this day and as for hieroglyphic characters, all nations had them from the most early times, and as soon as men began to associate. Thirdly, We barbarians of yesterday must not pretend, he says, to contradict the records of this ancient nation. And why not, I pray, when superior science has enabled this upstart people of the west to detect the falsehood of the records of Egypt, a nation which pretended to as high antiquity as the Chinese? This they have done, and, I suppose, to the good liking of our historian, if ever he has heard of the names of Scaliger and Petavius, of Usher and Marsham.

P. 33, Υ. — ̓Αλλὰ γὰρ οὐ μόνον Αἰγυπτίων οἱ λογικώτατοι, πρὸς δὲ, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων βαρβάρων, ὅσοι φιλοσοφίας ὠρίχθησαν, τὸ συμβολικὸν εἶδος ἐζήλωσαν φασὶ γοῦν καὶ ̓Ιδανθούραν TEKTONN Baoiλía, &c.—Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. v. p. 567. Thus this learned father; who being in the general prejudice that hieroglyphics were a late art, invented by philosophic men, to secrete their knowledge, expresses himself accordingly, oro pinocopias wgśxenray and yet, methinks, the story he tells of the Scythian king might have directed him to another original.-Eustathius says the same thing: Oi di ya wadaioì, ózołóv Ti xai oi Aiγύπτιοι ἐποίουν, ζωδιά τινα ιερογλυφοῦντες καὶ λοιποὺς δὲ χαρακτῆρας εἰς σημασίαν ὧν λέγειν ἐβούλοντο, οὕτω καὶ αὐτοὶ καθὰ καὶ τῶν τινες ὕστερον Σκυθῶν, ἐσήμαινον ἃ ἤθελον εἴδωλά τινα καὶ πολυειδῆ γράμματα ξέσματα ἐγγράφοντες.— In Iliad. vi. ver. 168.

P. 34, Z. In judging only from the nature of things, and without the surer light of revelation, one should be apt to embrace the opinion of Diodorus Siculus [lib. ii.] and Vitruvius [lib. ii. cap. 1.] that the first men lived, for some time, in woods and caves, after the manner of beasts, uttering only confused and indistinct noises; till associating for mutual assistance, they came, by degrees, to use articulate sounds, mutually agreed upon, for the arbitrary signs or marks of those ideas in the mind of the speaker, which he wanted to communicate to the hearer. Hence the diversity of languages; for it is confessed on all hands, that speech is not innate. This is so natural an account of the original of language, and so unquestioned by antiquity, that Gregory Nyssen [adver. Eunomium, lib. xii.] a father of the church, and Richard Simon [Hist. Crit. du Vieux. Test. lib. i. cap. 14 et 15. lib. iii. cap. 21,] a priest of the oratory, have both endeavoured to support this hypothesis: and yet, methinks, they should have known better; scripture plainly informing us, that language had a different original. This was just the case of SACRIFICES. It is

very easy to conceive, that one sort arose naturally from the sense of gratitude to our divine Benefactor, and the other from a sense of our demerit towards him (as will be shown hereafter); yet it is certain they were of divine appointment. In this indeed the two cases differ; language, I believe, had, for its sole original, divine instruction; whereas sacrifices amongst many people were certainly of human invention, and underived from tradition. But to return to the subject of language. It is strange, as I say, that these learned men should not have been better informed. We see, by scripture, that God instructed the first man, in religion. And can we believe, he would not at the same time teach him language, so necessary to support the intercourse between man and his Maker? For quietism is a thing of modern growth; this, with mysticism of all kinds, is the issue of that wantonness which makes favoured man grow tired of his two great blessings, REASON and LANGUAGE.-If it be said, Man might gain language by the use of reason, I reply, so might he gain religion likewise and that much easier and sooner. Again, when God created man, he made woman for his companion and associate; but the only means of enjoying this benefit is the use of speech. Can we think that God would leave them to themselves, to get out of the forlorn condition of brutality as they could? But there is more than a probable support for this opinion. If I am not much mistaken, we have the express testimony of MOSES, that God did indeed teach men language: it is where he tells us, that God brought every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, unto Adam, to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. Gen. ii. 19, 20. Here, by a common figure of speech, instead of directly relating the fact, that God taught men language, the historian represents it, by showing God in the act of doing it, in a particular mode of information; and that, the most apposite we can conceive, namely, elementary instruction, in the giving names to substances; such as those with which Adam was to be most conversant, and which therefore had need of being distinguished each by its proper name: how familiar an image do these words convey of a learner of his rudiments-And God brought every beast, &c. to Adam, to SEE what he would call them. In a word, the prophet's manner of relating this important fact, has, in my opinion, an uncommon elegance. But men of warm imaginations overlooked this obvious and natural meaning to ramble after forced and mysterious senses, such as this, that Adam gave to every creature a name expressive of its nature. From which fantastic interpretation, all the wild visions of Hutchinson, and his cabalistic followers, seem to have arisen. Nor are the freethinkers much behind them in absurdities. "Some," says Tindal, "would be almost apt to imagine that the author of the book of GENESIS thought that words had ideas naturally fixed to them, and not by consent; otherwise, say they, how can we account for his supposing that God brought all animals before Adam, as soon as he was created, to give them names; and that whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof?" [Christianity as old as the Creation, 8vo ed. p. 228.] But though Moses thought no such thing, I can tell him of one who did : a very ancient writer, and frequently quoted by the men of this tribe to confront with Moses, I mean HERODOTUS; who not only thought this, but thought still more absurdly, that ideas had words naturally affixed to them. See the famous tale of Psammetichus and his two boys, lib. ii. How would these men have rejoiced to catch Moses at the same advantage! -To conclude. From what hath been said, it appears, that God taught man language; yet we cannot reasonably suppose it to be any other than what served his present use: after this, he was able of himself to improve and enlarge it, as his future occasions should require consequently the first language must needs be very poor and narrow.

P. 35, A A. "How many commands did God give his prophets, which, if taken according to the letter, seem unworthy of God, as making them act like madmen or idiots? As for instance, the prophet Isaiah walked for three years together naked for a sign; Jeremiah is commanded to carry his girdle as far as Euphrates,-to make bands and yokes, &c.— Ezekiel is commanded to draw Jerusulem on a tile," &c. &c. [Tindal's Christianity as old as the Creation, p. 229.] The prophet Jeremiah, says a learned writer, is ordered to buy a girdle, &c.-He is also sent about with yokes-Ezekiel besieges a pan-tile.- He shaves his head and beard.-No reasonable man can believe these actions were really performed. See Dissertation on the History and Character of Balaam.

P. 35, B B. Quemadmodum autem vidit in visionibus [propheta] quod jussus fuerit [Ezech. cap. viii.] fodere in pariete, ut intrare et videre posset, quid intùs faciant, quod foderit, per foramen ingressus fuerit, et viderit id quod vidit; ita quoque id quod dictum est ad eum. Et tu sume tibi laterem, &c. [Ezech. cap. iv.] quod item alibi ei dictum legitur, Novaculam hanc tonsoriam cape tibi, [Ezech. cap. v.] ita, inquam, ista omnia in visione prophetiæ facta sunt, ac vidit, vel visum fuit ipsi, se ista opera facere, quæ ipsi præcipiebantur. Absit enim ut Deus prophetas suos stultis vel ebriis similes reddat, eosque stultorum aut furiosorum actiones facere jubeat.- More Nev. p. ii. cap. 46. But here the author's reasoning is defective,-because what Ezekiel saw in the chambers of imagery

in his eighth chapter was in vision, therefore his delineation of the plan of the siege, and the shaving his beard, in the fourth and fifth chapters, were likewise in vision. But to make this illation logical, it is necessary that the circumstance in the eighth, and the circumstances in the fourth and fifth, be shown to be specifically the same; but examine them, and we shall find them very different: that in the eighth was to show the prophet the excessive idolatry of Jerusalem, by a sight of the very idolatry itself; those in the fourth and fifth, were to convey the will of God, by the prophet to the people, in a symbolic action. Now in the first case, as we have shown above, the information was properly by vision, and fully answered the purpose, namely, the prophet's information; but, in the latter, a vision had been improper; for a vision to the prophet was of itself no information to the people.

P. 36, C C. The general moral, which is of great importance, and is inculcated with all imaginable force, is, that weak and worthless men are ever most forward to thrust themselves into power, while the wise and good decline rule, and prize their native ease and freedom above all the equipage and trappings of grandeur. The vanity of base men in power is taught in the fifteenth verse, and the ridicule of that vanity is inimitably marked out in those circumstances; where the bramble is made to bid his new subjects, who wanted no shadow, to come and put their trust in his, who had none; and that, in case of disobedience, he would send out from himself a fire that should devour the cedars of Lebanon, when as the fire of brambles, and such like trash, was short and momentary even to a proverb, amongst the Easterns.-TINDAL, speaking of the necessity of the application of reason to scripture, in order to a right understanding of those passages in the Old Testament, where God speaks, or is spoken of, after the manner of men, as being jealous, angry, repentant, reposing, &c. (Modes of expression very apposite, where the subject is God's moral government of the world; very necessary, where it is his civil government of a particular people.) Tindal, I say, brings this in, amongst his instances,-Wine, that cheereth God and man; as if Jotham had meant God the Governor of the universe; when all, who can read antiquity, must see his meaning to be, that wine cheereth hero-gods and common men. For Jotham is here speaking to an idolatrous city, which ran a-whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god; a god sprung from amongst men, as may be partly collected from his name, as well as from divers other circumstances of the story. But our eritie, who could not see the sense, it is certain, saw nothing of the beauty of the expression; which contains one of the finest strokes of ridicule in the whole apologue, so much abounding with them; and insinuates to the Shechemites the vanity and pitiful original of their idolatrous gods, who were thought to be, or really had been, refreshed with wine. Hesiod tells us, in a similar expression, that the vengeance of the fates pursued the crimes of gods and men :

ΑΠ' ΑΝΔΡΩΝ τε ΘΕΩΝ τι παραιβασίας ἐφίπουσαι,

Ουδέποτε λήγουσι θεαὶ δεινοῖο χόλειο,

Πρίν γ' ἀπὸ τῷ δώωσι κακὴν ὅτιν ὅστις ἁμάρτη.Θεογ. ver. 220.

P. 37, D D. Judges ix. 7. COLLINS, the author of the Scheme of literal Prophecy considered, speaking of Dean Sherlock's interpretation of Gen. iii. 15, says-" What the dean just now said is nothing but an argument from the pretended absurdity of the literal sense, that supposes the most plain matter of fact to be fable, or parable, or allegory; though it be suited to the notions of the ancients, who thought that beasts had, in the first ages of the world, the use of speech, agreeable to what is related in the Bible of Balaam's ass, and told after a simple historical manner, like all the relations in the Old Testament, wherein there is nothing savours of allegory, and every thing is plainly and simply exposed."-P. 234. By this it appears that Mr Collins thought that fable, parable, and allegory, were the same mode of speech, whereas they are very different modes. A fable was a story familiarly told, withcut any pretended foundation of fact, with design to persuade the hearers of some truth in question; a parable was the same kind of story, more obscurely delivered; an allegory was the relation of a real fact, delivered in symbolie terms: of this kind was the story of the FALL; a real fact, told allegorically. According to Mr Collins, it is a fable to be understood literally, because it was suited to the notions of the ancients, who thought that beasts had, in the first ages of the world, the use of speech. By the ancients he must mean, if he means any thing to the purpose, those of the Mosaic age: and this will be news, His authority is, in truth, an authentic one! It is Balaam's ass.-Agreeable, says he, to what is related in the Bible of Balaam's ass, and told after a simple historical manner. Now the Bible, to which he so confidently appeals, expressly tells us, that Balaam had the gift of prophecy; that an angel intervened; and that God Almighty opened the ass's mouth. But however he is pleased to conceal the matter, he had a much better proof that the ancients thought beasts had the use of speech in the first ages of the world than Balaam's ass; and that was Esop's Fables. And this might have led him rather to the story of Jotham, so plainly and simply exposed, that, had not only the serpent, but the tree of knowledge likewise spoken, he could have given a good account of the matter, by Jotham's fable;