41 6 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



IV. The firft men, of whom we have any 

 account, were born in Afia, on that part of the 

 globe which we call, in our fituation, the eaft. 

 They were, doubtlefs, born with the fame facul- 

 ties of the mind as all their defcendants. When 

 they had obtained fecurity and fubfiftence, they 

 naturally began to exercife their reafoning facul- 

 ties. Neceflity itfelf made them foon induftri- 

 ous. We muft confequently look for the origin 

 of arts and fciences where the firft men dwelt, 

 that is, in the eaft. Hiftory confirms what rca- 

 fon teaches us relative to this matter : it mews 

 what was the ftate of letters in ancient Arabia, 

 in Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Perfia, and among the 

 Phoenicians, the people to whom we owe the in- 

 vention of writing, and from whom all the arts 

 and fciences feem to have proceeded. It alfo 

 fhews how far the powers of the human mind 

 were extended, in thofe iirft ages, by the other 

 nations of the known earth. The monuments 

 that are ftill remaining of thofe diftant times, as 

 for example, the famous ruins of Palmyra, a 

 city of Syria, near to Arabia the Defart, plain- 

 ly fhew that this firft age of the arts and 

 fciences ought not to be forgot or defpifed j and 

 that the moit pleafing inventions are nor owing 

 to the Greeks, as the moft ancient people ex- 

 celled in the arts, and it was with much difficulty 

 that the Greeks attained an equal degree of per- 

 fection i they could even never give that air of 

 grandeur to their productions, which we difco- 

 ver in the works of their predecefibrs. It is to 



be 



