420 THE THIRD DISCOURSE 



turefque elegance peculiar to our ancient language : 

 '' A people (fays he) prefented themfelves to mine eyes, 

 cc clothed in linen garments, fomewhat lowdefcending; 

 " of a gefture and garb, as I may fay, maidenly, and well 

 " nigh effeminate; of a countenance fhy, and fomewhat 

 " eftranged, yet fmilingout a glozed and bafhful fami- 

 " liarity." Mr. Orme, the Hiftorian of India, who 

 unites an exquifite tafte for every fine art with an accu- 

 rate knowledge of Afiatich, manners, obferves, in his 

 elegant preliminary Differtation, that this " country 

 " has been inhabited, from the earlieft antiquity, by a 

 *' people who have no refemblance, either in their figure 

 " or manner, with any of the nations contiguous to 

 "them;" and that, " although conquerors have efta- 

 " blifhed themfelves at different times in different parts 

 c< of India, yet the original inhabitants have loft very 

 " little of their original character." The ancients, in 

 fa&, give a defcription of them, which our early travel- 

 lers confirmed, and our own perfonal knowledge of 

 them nearly verifies; as you will perceive from a paf- 

 fage in the Geographical Poem of Dionyjius, which the 

 Analyft of Ancient Mythology has translated with great 

 fpirit : 



" To th' east a lovely country wide extends, 

 " India, whose borders the wide ocean bounds ; 

 " On this the sun, new rising from the main, 

 " Smiles pleas'd, and sheds his early orient beam. 

 " Th' inhabitants are swart, and in their locks 

 " Betray the tints of the dark hyaciuth. 

 " Various their functions ; some the rock explore, 

 " And from the mine extract the latent gold ; 

 " Some labour at the woof with cunning skill, 

 " And manufacture linen; others shape 



" And 



