35 



poetry without its mufic would mifs of its efFe£t. We arc not, indeed, 

 well informed to what extent the cunning Mahomet improved the Ara- 

 bian verfe, when he boafted the beauty of his Koran to be fuch, that 

 neither angel nor devil could mend it ; but this very boaft ferves to 

 fliew, that the poet had preferved the form at leaft, and charafters of 

 the national verfe ; yet are we not fo wholly in the dark, for with- 

 out putting our infidel feet into the Temple of Mecca for more ancient 

 proofs and authorities, in fome of the European libraries, as well as in 

 private cabinets, are to be found a number of Arabian manufcripts prior 

 to the age of Mahomet, all of which are written in rh'tme.* 



Where materials have been wanting for regular hiftory, oral tradition 

 not unfrequently fupplies the defeft. All nations are proud of their 

 defcent, and be their manners ever fo rude and barbarous, delight to 

 perpetuate their flory. Ambitious of renown, they attach the highefl: 

 merit to the highefl: antiquity ; and that point once eftablilhed, are little 

 felicitous about intermediate charafter. Narrated events pafs for re- 

 corded hiftory ; and having fmall defire to falfify, the tranfmitter relates 

 the progrefllve ftory of his anceftors as he received it from them. The 

 very fables of antiquity prove by their difguife the truth of the fafts 

 they include; and where language throws afide her robe of myftery, 

 fimple narration has a claim to confidence. Greece thought it no diflionor 

 to declare the founders of her greatnefs to have been pirates ; and Rome 

 avowed that (he owed her origin to a band of robbers. The vagrant 

 mode of life to which the Arabians had been fated, did not permit them 

 to preferve fo many records of their hiftory as other nations of better 

 fortunes have done. But they admit, (and the admiflion hot being much 

 in their favor, deferves full credit) that their manners and cuftoms have 

 continued unvaried for thefe thoufand years. Now, we know that 

 nothing fo much preferves a language as a continuance of the fame habits 

 and manners j for afluredly, new cuftoms and modes of life are followed 



E 2 by 



* Quem Jiumermn, (rythmum) uti in omnmm gentium et nationum fermone r.alura ge- 

 neraTit; ita quoque in antiquiflima hac gente Arabum obfervatur." {Sptc, /Irab. Ibid) 



