[ II 3 



It is always neceffary that every age fliould 

 labour to dilcover fomething, and not fit down 

 content with the difcoveries of our forefathers ; for 

 experience ftiews, that the knowledge of our an- 

 ceftors dwindles away, and decays daily-, for fuch 

 is the nature of time, that it obfcures or deftroys 

 the knowledge of paft ages by the many wafle- 

 ful events which happen in a long courfe of yearSj 

 fuch as fire, rapine, inundations, lofs of the liber- 

 ties of countries, and many other things. But, 

 more than all thefe, the change of languages af- 

 feds our knowledge -, for no language continues 

 the fame for many centuries : infcriptions indeed 

 have continued fome thoufands of years, but 

 when the languages are dead in which they are 

 wrote, the fenfe of them by ages becomes darker 

 and darker, till at laft they are utterly obfcure, 

 as we find the mofl ancient are ; witnefs the mo- 

 numents of the ancient Egyptians, the ruins of 

 Perfepolis, Palmyra or Balbeck, and many others 

 in divers parts of the vv^orld which have almoft 

 outlived their defcriptions ^ fo that we cannot 

 depend on the knowledge of the ancients as a 

 perpetual fund -, but muil gather what we can 

 from them, and add to it as much as we can 

 of our own, that the ftock we have may be kept 



up 



