21^ 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ORIENTAL LITERATURE. 



A HE literature of Asia, the birth-place and cra- 

 dle of our species, where Philosophy first reared 

 her head, and whence Greece and Rome borrowed 

 a large portion of their knowledge, cannot be 

 otherwise than highly interesting to the enlighten- 

 ed and inquisitive mind. At the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century much had been written, but 

 comparatively little was really knozvn, concerning 

 that important part of the globe. The works of 

 Pococke and Hyde, of Great Britain ; of Erpenius 

 and Golius, of Holland ; and of d'Herbelot^ Bo- 

 chart, Bouchet, and others, of France, toward the 

 close of the preceding century, had all communi- 

 cated to the public much curious and valuable 

 information respecting various eastern countries, 

 particularly Arabia, Periia, and some parts of 

 India* But these works had so limited a circula- 

 tion, and the intercourse between Europe and the 

 east was so small, that few were excited to pay 

 much attention to this branch of literature. In 

 Great Britain especially, during the first half of 

 the century, oriental learning was at a low ebb, 

 insomuch that, during the reign of George I, a 

 great orientalist was a rare phenomenon. 



But in the latter half of the century under con- 

 .sideration more encouraging prospects began to 

 open. Indeed, within the last forty years, some 



