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They concur in placing the theatre of the first memorable events, that hefell the human race, within the limits of Iran^ understood in its true and extended signification, between the Oxus and the Euphrates, the Arme- nian mountains and the borders of India. "What howeVei' Is still more decisive to the present purpose, and confirms the superior accuracy of the Hebrew historian, is the cir- cumstance, that the literature of India, lately ex- plored; records the establishment of the Brah- minical religion in Iran, previously to its adoption in Hihdoostan. We are informed that a mode of faith and worship, essentially different from that 121 of Zoroaster, was anciently professed in Persia, and continlied to be secretly entertained by many eminent men, long after the general predominance of the latter. That subt^ system of metaphysical theology, which inculcates the doftrine that nothing exists absolutely but God, and that the human soul is an emanation from his essence, notions now so conspicuous in the religion of the Brahmins, have been long professed, and even now prevail in Persia, though in some measure subdued by the influence of the Zoroastrian tenet of two coeval principles. The same aversion from mari- time voyages, which now prevails among the Hindoos, was also enjoined by the religion of the ancient Persians j an aversion which they carried so far, that there was not any city of note built upon their sea coasts. • • From the same authority we learn, that a powerful monarchy was estsiblished in Persia, long before the foundation of the Assyrian power. This monarchy was established on principles, iexa£lly similar to those, which afterwards regu- lated the polity of the Brahmins. It is related that their first monarch of the present age, who ir Ammun. Mwcel, 1, S3, c. e. 12f governed Iran and the whole earth, divided the people into four orders ; the religious, the mili- tary, the eominercial, and the servile ; to vi^hich he assigned names, unquestionably the same ^s those, which are now applied to designate the four primary classes of the Hindoos. We are a}sp assured that this monarch received from the Supreme Being, foy the use of niankind, a book of regjil^tions, which comprehended every lan- guage, ^nd every science. Tjie sapie accov^nt asserts, that -after him, arose thirteen other prophets, who. taught the same religion^ §nd adopted the same institutions ; every successive revelation corroborating the first. Now it ip ^(V^ell known that the Brahmins believe in precisely the same numbei of eelgstial personages, one of whom promulgated a code of laws, which they hold to be of equal authority with the Vedas themselves ; an^ that the histories of Chaldea and of Persia have been engrafted on the Indian history, is a {^% too well known tp require- additional illi!,gtration.=<_ From these circumst^^nceg, yve are authorised to conclude, that the ^rahpiinical faith, in its grand outljfies, though sot in those a^ditiians and POrruptions which it may have suffered dttring * See Oiejiil^tsia, tr^Stlateirby Qladwio, Sec. Z. J33 long course of time, was the first despaartate^from. the pure and primeval religion of" mankind, tliat it was imported, at a vary early peijcM, from Mn inftQ India ; that the tribes; who migrated thither, carried with them some scattered remains of their religion in writing, from which the Vedas and • the Sastra were comptleid ; that these books sieem tQ Hay-e been founded on ancient symbols badly understood, and misinterpreted ; and that what remains of them consists of extravagant allegory, ©f which little can now be decyphered. That Iran, undejjstQod in its true andenlarged signification, was the country from which the tiiree original and distinQ: races of men first separated, is rendered still more probable, from ^ts central situation. It was from this part of the globe that the adventurous progeny of Japftiet eould best transport themselves to those countries, pbieh, Qn account of their being separated fronj Judeaby *he sea, are emphatically styled in the writings csf Moses, " the isles of the Gentiles," in contradistinQiian to Asia, which to Palestine wa's stri£yy continental. It was nearest to this quarter that the peaceful descendants of Shem fettled, themselves in Arabia, where so itoany of ' iheir names may now be discoYereci; and it was from tJiis quajeter,; that ihe.dQMfioniaA'raQe, so 114 femed fof daring exploitSj subdued the vast and fertile countries of India, Ethiopia, and the coun- tries situated on the Nile ; where they have left? so many' vestiges of their scientific' excellence, and of tiieir martial prowess. Having thus endeavoured to ascertain, from the concurrence of historical testimony, as well as from other probable -proofs, the point, from which the general dispersion of mankind took place, our researches become more confined. It is now sufficient to mark the progress of that particular family, whose history and settlement are more intimately connedted with that nation, the religion • of which forms the subject of our present enquiry. It is an idea in the highest degree probable, that a partial migration of the different races of tnankind might have happened, sometime before that remarkable and general dispersion occurred, m consequence of the presumptuous attempt of a particular colony to raise a fabric of immense height in defiance of the divine power. Neither is it necessary to suppose, that the principal founders of the different colonies led -jiheni' all, in person, to those regions, in which 125 .thejr afterwards, settled. It is on the contrary to be expe£ted, that subordinate branches of the parent stock would retain the name of their original progenitor, and afterwards pay divjne honors to his memory, though they might have be^n immediately led to settlement or to conquest, not by himself, but by one of his descendants. Among the most adventurous and enterprizing of all the Ammonian race, the names of Misr, Rama, and Cush, yet remain unchanged in the East, to shew to posterity the greatness of their achievements, and the high veneration, which they must have im^re^sed, on the mipds of distant generations. Itinay indeed appear won- derful, that any single family should have extend- ed itself so widely, and have formed settlements, in so many parts of the world. Their usurpations pre said to have reached as far as India one way, and in the countries called Ethiopia, as far as Mauritania on the other. Differing from the toving nations of Tartary, who have been styled ** the foundery of the human race," but who, with respefit to science and letters, were buried in the most deplorable ignorance, the descendants of Ham have widely diffused those arts, in which they peculiarly excelled, and by which they may, ^t M^ dayj be djso^rped. Their u^irivaUed. %2<5 superiority ill jUanufaQure, theif Iftaghificeiit struftures, so chara£leristical of their laold and ardent temper, the complexion of their religiouS ceremonies, are all too stfongly ftlafked to be mistaken. < .;*i - In 'all the researches ^Vh^ch have been made into the mythology of India, additional evidence has been adducedj to strengthen the conjeSture, that either Cush himself, or one of his progeny assuming his name, led , the first colony from Shinaar eastward, and peopled the country of Hindoostan, or as it is styled by themselves in their sacred geography " the Continent of Cush." The express words of theit own books, the genealogies of their heroes and demigods, -^hich rank this personage among tlieir number, asl well as their peculiarity of religion, and their eminence in scientific pursuits, would ifidisputably prov6 them to belong to the Ammoriian race. But positive and tlnsuppoTted assertidfls of this kind would possibly pass unnoticed, and would certainly fail in producing a complete convidtioM, that a descendant of the Patriarch had really founded the Indian colony ; if the geographical part of the Puranas bf the Hindoos, had not also satisfa£torily pointed out those other iepons, H7 whfebe difFertttt bi^ncfees of th6 same falftily hiie fixedr their feisidence. This hds been effected .with strch i^emarkablj^ accuracyj as not only to farnish a pterspicuous commentary on dtt interest- " ing part of the Mosaical ■sirritings^ but also to confirmj in a striking manner, those testimonies on the subjeft, which are incidentally scattered in the works of several profane wfitefs. The similar*ity between the Indian raeej and the Eastern Ethiopians of Africa, is a circum- stance which seems to have particularly eftgaged the attentiori of the anciept poets, geograjjhei's, and Historians. When Homer condufts Neptune into Ethiopia, he places him in the centre be- tween two nations, both black, but essentially differing >from each other : and he adds, that they inhabited the two opposite extretnities of the world.' Herodotus has marked the differ- ence, which Homer has omitted to specify. He mentions the Eastern Ethiopia, who were con- sidered as Indians ; and that th^y were distin- guished from those of Africa, by the straithess t>f their bait.? Arrian informs liS, that the Ihdiatis differed very little ftoni the Ethiopians of Africa, especially from those of the South, being of the y Odyss, 1. V. 22. ^ Herod, b, 7, p. 498, Ed. Tranc. 1^8. 128 'Same dark cpniplexion, ajid that those who lived in the North more resembled the Egyptians.* Strabo describes them in the same manner, and very strongly insists on the Jikeness between the southern Indians, and the natives <?f Ethiopia.* In the form of their governnient, in their scientific pursuits, and in their religious, tenets, an affinity prevailed, which clearly pointed out a common origin.