224 
s Thus Mr. Pinkerton is compelled to 
acknowledge the event of the deluge in sup- 
port of his system, though he had before 
denied it: vt after all, his svstem rests on 
the vague authority of Justin, who lived at 
Jeast 3800 years after the event, according to 
Mr. P.’s own chronology, even supposing 
that there was no proof of the passage being 
corrupted.” 
Feeble as this argumentation may ap- 
pear, it is a very sufficient refutation of 
Mr. Pinkerton’s wild and baseless hypo- 
thesis, of a primeval Scythic empire. 
The oldest historians are the best autho- 
rities for the oldest events; and they 
know nothing of this Scythic empire. 
These oldest historians are the Jewish 
writers, and Herodotus; by a diligent 
and critical comparison of whom, all 
that can be known of very ancient his- 
tory must be inferred. Certain theolo- 
gians have rendered it probable, that 
the Pentateuch was reduced to its pre- 
sent form in the family of Hilkiah, and 
was ‘probably completed by Jeremiah at 
the time of his return to Jerusalem, 
under Cyrus, with the new name or 
title of Sheshbazzar. The accounts of 
the creation, of the deluge, and of the 
building of the tower of Babel, appear 
to be? Babylonian documents, first ob- 
tained during the captivity. But the 
history of Abraham seems to be an ori- , 
ginal account, cotemporary with that 
patriarch, which had been preserved by 
his descendants in the land of Goshen, 
and brought from Egypt by Meses. 
Many documents cotemporary with 
Moses appear to be transcribed with en- 
tire fidelity ; especially those inserted in 
the book of Numbers. In the Exodus, 
there are symptoms of epic embellish- 
ment ; and there are directions for the 
priesthood, which cannot have origi- 
nated in the wilderness; but imply a 
long established worship, and a curious 
progress in the arts of manufacture. In 
the Leviticus again, there is a great 
deal of legislation, which must have 
been subsequent to the conquest of Ca- 
naan. These circumstances do not in- 
validate, they corroborate, the histori- 
cal importance of the Jewish scriptures ; 
and encourage the antiquary to lean on 
them with confidence, as satisfactory 
testimonies of fact. The earliest sketch 
of the distribution of the primeval na- 
tions is that contained in the tenth chap- 
ier of Geresis. It is geography in the 
form of genealogy ; as Bochart, Schloet- 
‘ter, and Michaelis have evinced: as if 
we were to say: London is the son of 
HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS.. 
Middlesex, the son of England; or, a¢ 
Ferishta does say: Dekkan is the son of 
Hind, the son of Asia; meaning that 
Dekkan is a subdivision of Hindostan, 
which is a subdivision of Asia. Now 
this tenth chapter of Genesis contains 
no traces of the Scythic empire in ques- 
tion; although it enumerates all the na- 
tions or tribes eventually comprehended 
under the sway of Cyrus, and Darius 
Hystaspis. The first state of all nations 
is anarchic. Each family submits to its 
own patriarch. It requires conquest to 
consolidate scattered villages under a 
common commander. Now Herodotus 
pointedly states Dejoces to have first 
combined the Medes; as the writer in 
Genesis states Nimrod to have first com- 
bined Babylon and the contiguous vil- 
lages in Shinar. These petty exploits 
could not be still to perform, if there 
had already been an empire in that dis- 
trict. Among savages in the hunter- 
state every family has its separate lan- 
guage: the consociation of tribes for 
plunder or defence renders many words 
common to a whole district: at length 
a common sovereign and metropolis 
popularizes a common dialect. These 
nations are expressly stated to have dif- 
fered widely in language from each 
other, and therefore to be separate. Of 
course they had never yet submitted to 
a common sway. Languages are con- 
fluent, not diffluent : the doctrine of an 
original language is opposed by the 
observations of all who have travelled 
among the savage nations, and is con- 
tradicted by the universal analogy of 
experience. Indeed, Mr. Pinkerton’s 
Scythian empire must be banished, with 
Baillie’s astronomical Siberians, among 
the reveries of irrational philosophy. 
The second section investigates the 
meaning of tue term Scythian. The 
word is very likely contracted from 
East-Goth: but it was certainly used by 
the ancients in the same indefinite man- 
ner as the Chinese use the word Tartar, 
or as we use the word Indian. We talk 
of Indians in Canada, of Indians in 
Peru, of West Indians in Jamaica. Thus 
Scythia is applied by the ancients to the 
whole /erra incognita behind the Alps, the 
Carpathian mountains, the Euxine, Cau- 
casus, and the Caspian. Scythians, ac- 
cording to Herodotus, are defeated by 
the king of Egypt in Palestine; Scy- 
thians are chased by Darius from the 
banks of the Dnieper: but who shal] 
vouch for their being allied in language? 
