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IV. 

 A LETTER 



FROM 



THE LATE HENRY VANSITTART, ESQ. 



TO THE PRESIDENT, 



Sir, 



HAVING some time ago met with a Persian 

 abridgment, composed by Maulavi Khairuddin> 

 of the asrarul Afaghinah, or the secrets of the Afghans, 

 a book written in the Pushto language by Husain, the 

 son of Sabir, the son of Khizr, the disciple of Hazrat 

 Shah Kas'im Sulaimani, whose tomb is in Chunargnr y 

 I was induced to translate it. Although it opens with 

 a very wild description of the origin of that tribe, and 

 contains a narrative which can by no means be offered 

 upon the whole as a serious and probable history ; 

 yet I conceive that the knowledge of what a nation 

 suppose themselves to be, may be interesting to a So- 

 ciety like this, as well as of what they really are. In- 

 deed the commencement of almost every history is 

 fabulous ; and the most enlightened nations, after 

 they have arrived at that degree of civilization and 

 importance which has enabled and induced them to 

 commemorate their actions, have always found a va- 

 cancy at their outset which invention, or at best pre- 

 sumption, musr supply. Such fictions appear at first 

 in the form of traditions ; and having in this shape 

 amused successive general ions by a gratification oi : 

 their national vanity, they are committed to writing, 

 and acquire theauthority of history* 



F 2 



