479. 



XVL 



DISCOURSE THE NINTH,. 



ON THE ORIGIN AND FAMILIES OF NATIONS.- 

 DELIVERED 23 FEBRUARY, I 



By the President.. 



YOU have attended, gentlemen, with fo much indulgence to my dif- 

 courfes on the five Afiatick nations, and on the various tribes efla- 

 folifhed along their feveral borders or interfperfed over their mountains, 

 that I cannot but flatter myfelf with an afTurance of being heard with equal 

 attention, while I trace to one centFe the three great families, from which 

 thofe nations appear to have proceeded, and then hazard a few conjectures 

 on the different courfes, which they may be hippo fed to have taken toward 

 the countries, in which we find them fettled at the dawn of all genuine 

 hiftory„ 



Let us begin with a {hort review of the proportions, to which we have 

 gradually been led, and feparate fuch as are morally certain, from fuch as 

 a r e only probable : that the firft race of Perjians and Indians, to whom 

 we may add the Romans and Greeks, the Goths, and the old Egyptians or 

 EthiopSy originally fpoke the fame language and profeffed the fame popu- 

 lar faith, is capable, in my humble opinion, of iheontefiable proof j that 

 the Jews and Arabs, the Jjfyrians, or fecond Perfian race, the people who 



