382 ANTIQUITY OP WR1TINO. 



mitted to us, will not enable us to trace the knowledge of tlu'ffl ; 

 though this want of materials is no proof, that letUrs were not 

 known, until a century and a half after the deluge. 



As for the pretensions of the Indian nations, we must I).? belter 

 acquainted with their records, before we can admit of their claim 

 to the first use of letters j especially as none of their MSS. of great 

 antiquity have as yet appeared in Europe. That the Arabians 

 vvi-rc not the inventors of letters, hath appeared by the confession 

 of their own authors. 



Plato somewhere mentions Hyperborean letters, very different 

 from the Greek ; these might have been the characters used by the 

 Tartars, or ancient Scythians. 



ANTE-DILUVJAN WRITING. 



IT may be expected, that something should be said concerning 

 those books, mentioned by some authors to have been written be. 

 fore the deluge * j but as Moses is silent upon the subject, we have 

 no materials that will enable us to form an opinion. St. Jude, in 

 his Epistle, v. 14, tells us, that Enoch prophesied ; but this apostle 

 might quote a Jewish tradition, for he does not say that Enoch 

 wrote. The tales which have been told us concerning the books of 

 this patriarch, are too absurd to deserve serious attention i. With 

 respect therefore to Writings attributed to the ante-diluvians, it 

 seems not only decent but rational, to say, that we know nothing 

 concerning them ; though it might be improper to assert, that let. 

 ters were unknown before the deluge recorded by Moses. 



As for the pillars, mentioned by Josephus to have been erected 

 by the sons of Seth, whereon they wrote their invented sciences, we 

 agree with the learned abbot of Claraval, that the bare reading of 

 Josephus, is all that is requisite to prove them imaginary. 



* Amongst others, Dr. Parsons, who supposed that letters were known to 

 Adam. Remains of Japhct, p. 340,359. The Sabeans produced a book which 

 they pretend was written by Adam. Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 720, fol. edit. 



j Origen reports, that certain books of Enoch were found in Arabia Felix, in 

 the dominions of the queen of Saba. Tertullian roundly affirms, (hat hr saw and 

 read several pages of them ; and, in his Treatise de Habitu Mulierum, he places 

 these books among the canonical ; but St. Jerome and St. Austin look upon 

 them as hypocryphal. WiHiam Posfcllus pretended to compile his works, De 

 Originibus from the book of Enoch. Thomas Bangius published, nt Copenha- 

 gen, in 1657, a work which contains many singular relations, concerning the 

 manner of writing among the Antr-diluvians, wherein arc contained several 

 pleasant tale* concerning the books of Enoch. 



