XU THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 



from the Trojan horfe of the poets, have iffued fo 

 many confummate warriors, whole • domain has 

 extended at leail from the banks of die Jhffus to 

 the mouths of the Ganges. On your left are the 

 beautiful and celebrated provinces of Iran, or 

 Perjia ; the unmeafured, and, perhaps, unmea- 

 furable, deferts of 'Arabia ; and the once flou- 

 rifhing kingdom of Yemen, with the plealant ides 

 that the Arabs have fubdued or colonized : and 

 farther weftward, the AJiatick dominions of the 

 Turkijh fultans, whole moon feems approaching 

 rapidly to its wane. By this great circumference 

 the field of your ufeful refearches will be inclofed:. 

 but, lince Egypt had unqueftionably an old con- 

 nexion with this country, if not with China ; fmce; 

 the language and literature of the A byjjinians bear 

 a manned affinity to thofe of Afia ; fince the 

 Arabian arms prevailed along the African coafl of 

 the Mediterranean, and even eretied a powerful- 

 dynafty on the continent of Europe ; you may 

 not be difpleafed occafionally to follow the ftreams 

 of AJiatick learning a little beyond its natural 

 boundary. And if it be neceflary, or convenient, 

 that a {fiort name or epithet be given to our Socie- 

 ty, in order to dininguifh it in the world, that of 

 AJiatick appears both claifical and proper, whether - 

 we confider the place or the object of the inflitu- 

 tion ; and preferable to Oriental, which is, in 

 muh, a word merely relative, and though com-, 

 monly ufed in Europe, conveys no very diflinct 

 idea. 



If now it be afked, what are the intended ob- 

 jects of our inquiries within thefe fpacious limits, 

 weanfwer, Man and Nature; whatever is per- 

 formed 



