Such rational doubt is but ill suited with the genius o-P popular vanity.

,among the nations

who have adopted the Mosaic history 0-F the world, the ark of Abai, has been of the
same use, as was -Formerly to the creeks and Romans the sie3e o-P Troy. On a, narrow
basis o-F acknowled3ed truth, an immense but rude superstructure o -P -Fable has been
erected and the vido/ Irishman, as well as the wild - Tartar, could point out the individual
son o-P Japhet, From whose loins his ancestors were lineally descended The last century
abounded with anti9uarians of profound learning and easy -Faith, who, by the dim ielif o-I
legends and traditions, o-F co6ectures and etymologies, conducted the great
grandchildren o-I Abaii From the - rower o-I .8abel to the extremities o-F the globe.
0-P these judicious critics, one o-F the most entertainin3 was Oaps Rudbeck, professor in
the university o-P OpsaJ. Whatever 15 celebrated either in history or -Fable, this jealous
pal-Not ascribes to his country. From Sweden which -Formed so considerable a, part o-F
ancient ermany the creeks themselves derived their aJphabetic0J characters, their
astronomy, and their religion. 0-P that delight-Poi region -For such it I 40eared to the eyes
,

o-F a native the Atlantis o-P flat, the country o-F the -,LtyperNboreans,;he3ardens o-P the
,
wespe r icks, the Fortunate Islands, and even the Elysian Fie/ all but -Faint and
imperfect transcripts. A dime so pro-Fusely -Favored by rd not long remain
desert a-Fter the -Flood The learned Rudbeck aJlows the o-F Abaii a, -Few years to
multiply From e3h1 - to about twenty thousand person n disperses them into small
colonies to replenish the earth, and to propagate /MOM species.

The merman or Swedish detachment which , I am not mistaken, under the

command o-F Askena, the son o-F Japhet distinguished itsel-F by a
more than common Agence in the eut r'an &-F this great work. The northern hive cast
its swarms over the greatest part off', `'curoPe, A-Pr'ca, and Asia and to use the authors
metaphor the blood circulated -Fro exhsemities to the heart
But all this well labored syste German ant9uities is annihilated by a single - Fact
too well attested to admi doubt, and o-F too decisive a nature to leave room
-
-For any reply. The merman age racitus, were unacguainted with the use o-P
lel_lets and the use o-F ers is the principal circumstance that distin3uishes a civiheci
people From a her o-F verges incapable o-P knowledge or re-Flection. Without that
anti-FiciaJ help, the t; memory soon dissipates or corrupts the ideas intrusted to her
charge anal the nobler -Faculties o-I the mind, no longer supplied with models or with
materials, gradually Forget their powers the judgment becomes -Feeble and lethar3ic, the
imagination languid or irregular. Fully to apprehend this important truth, /et us attempt in
an improved society, to calculate the immense distance between the man 0 -F learning and
the illiterate peasant. -rhe -Former, by reading and re-Flection, multiplies his own everience,
anal lives in distant ages and remote countries whilst the latter, rooted to a single
spot, and confined to a -Few years o-P existence, surpasses but very little his -Fellow
laborer, the ox, Jn the exercise o-P his men tai -Faculties. The same, and even a greater,
difference will be -Found between nations than between individuals and we may sa-Fely
pronounce, that without some species o-P writin3, no people has ever preserved the
faithful annals o-P their history, ever 'nark any considerable progress in the abstract
sciences, or ever possessed, in any tolerable degree o-P per-Fection, the use-rul and
agreeable arts 0-F