ON THE HINDUS. 417 



pofition of many proper names, we may very reafonably 

 believe; and that Algeziras takes its name from the 

 Arabick word for an ifland, cannot be doubted • but, 

 when we are told from Europe, that places and pro- 

 vinces in India were clearly denominated from thofe 

 words, we cannot but obferve, in the firft inftance, that 

 the town in which we now are affembled is properly 

 written and pronounced Calicatd ; that both Cdtd and 

 Cut unqueftionably mean places of Jlrength, or, in ge- 

 neral, any inclofures ; and that Gujerdt is at leaft as 

 remote from Jezirah in found as it is in lituation. 



Another exception (and a third could hardly be dis- 

 covered by any candid criticifm) to the Analyjis of An- 

 cient Mythology, is, that the method of reafoning, and 

 arrangement of topicks, adopted in that learned work, 

 are not quite agreeable to the title, but almoft wholly 

 fynthetical ; and, though j(j'wMf/?5 may be the better mode 

 in pure fcience, where the principles are undeniable, yet 

 it feems lefs calculated to give complete Satisfaction in 

 htflori cat ditquihtions, where every poftulatum will, per- 

 haps, be refufed, and every definition controverted. 

 This may feem a flight objection; but the Subject is in 

 itfelf fo interefting, and the full conviction of all reason- 

 able men fo defirable, that it may not be loft labour to 

 difcufs the fame or a fimilar theory in a method purelv 

 analytical, and, after beginning with fafts of general 

 notoriety, or undil'puted evidence, to inveftigate fuch 

 truths as are at firft unknown, or very imperfectly dis- 

 cerned. 



The five principal nations who have in difFerentages 

 divided among themfelves, as a kind of inheritance, the 

 vaft continent of Afia, with the many iflands depending 

 on it, are the Indians, the Chine fe, the Tartars, the Arabs, 

 and the Perfians : who they feverally were 3 whence and 



when 



