imperfectly told. This famous expedition was certainly of high importance to the men engaged in it. It was glorious to the name of Greek. But could it stand in any fuch light of confequence to the Perfians? It might be sufficient for their writers fimply to mention, that a rebellion had broke out; that it had made a progrefs; and that it was crushed: without judging it in the leaft neceffary, to trace the fcattered remains of the defeated army thro' all the difficulties of a route they did not know or to relate adventures, which could never apparently reach their ear. *

k

BUT indeed the filence of the Perfian hiftorians, with regard to fuch an event, could never, in my opinion, injure it in the leaft: any more than their filence on the internal wars and politics of Greece would affect Thucydides or the great Athenian orators. Details fo minute, so accurate, and fo apparently authentic, ftand not in need of collateral fup-port and muft even fo far affect the authority of contradictory writers, that, on this ground, I coincide entirely with Mr. Hume; "Diodorus Siculus is a good writer: but it is "with pain I fee his narration contradict, in "fo many particulars, the two most authen"tic pieces of all Greek hiftory, viz. Xeno

phon's expedition, and Demofthenes's ora❝tions."

UPON the whole, I beg leave to repeat, that I entertain no undue partiality for Eastern writers: nor will I, in many respects, lift them to a level with the Greeks. Their manner is different, and less adapted to an European tafte. They have their prejudices too, as well as the Greeks; but we cannot so easily make an allowance for the one, as we have been accustomed to make for the other. It is to matters of fact, however, that I chiefly point. On this ground I have endeavoured to fhew, that the Greeks are not always to be trufted. Some of their best friends, I have also fhewn, think they are hardly to be trusted at all. Though the Afiatics therefore may have fome failings, they may have likewise fome merits and that they might, in judicious hands, amend our received history of Eastern countries, is not, I hope, too bold a thought. I have already obferved, that the chief Perfian hiftorians are fubfequent to the Mohammedan era: but I have also observed, that they drew their materials from much older writers. Those writers, it is true, are not at present known but that is no argument, why they may not, in time, be found. M. D'Herbelot obferves, that a collection of

ancient Perfian hiftorians had been long ago tranflated into Arabic by Ebn Mocanna. Could even this tranflation be recovered, fome judgment might poffibly be formed of the authenticity of those we already have. But this must be a distant object. Eastern studies have but few admirers. And, indeed, till the Great and the Learned, as bodies or as individuals, fhall be more forward in their encouragement of fuch difcoveries, thofe who may beftow much attention upon them, may boast perhaps more zeal than discretion; and poffi◄ bly may write what very few will read."

SECT. II.

Of the Importance of women in the Eaft. Their Station in fociety not justly underflood by Euro-. pean travellers. They enjoy in many parts privileges fimilar to thofe of Europe. The rife and progress of the Mohammedan religion connected perhaps with thofe privileges. Inftances of the influence of women in public affairs. Marriage fettlements. Divorces. Nuptial ceremonies. Singular modes of marriage. Drefs of Eaftern women. Many European fashions of great antiquity in the Eaft.

TRAVELLERS, in general, do not appear to have conceived a just idea of the fituation of Women in many Eastern countries. They are, for the most part, confidered by them as of fmall confequence in the ftate they are reprefented as mere flaves to the paffions of the stronger fex: and, because the great men keep many beautiful Circaffians locked up from public view, a proper distinction does not feem always to have been

made between them and free born women. But an attention to the languages and customs of Afia, will give us reason to believe, that fuch indifcriminate obfervations are partial, fuperficial, and inconclufive. I have already (p. 198, &c.) thrown out some ideas on this subject: and shall here offer a few more facts, which appear to ftrengthen my opinion.

In Arabia, very early, we find the women in high confideration; and poffeffing privileges hardly inferior to those which they enjoy in the most enlightened countries of Europe. They had a right, by the laws, to the enjoyment of independent property, by inheritance, by gift, by marriage fettlement, or by any other mode of acquifition. The wife had a regular dower, which he was to enjoy in full right after the demise of her husband: and she had also a kind of pin-money, or paraphernalia, which the might difpofe of in her life-time, or bequeath at her death, without his knowledge or confent.

To this confideration and weight, which property, by the laws and customs of the Arabians, gave to the female fex, it may even perhaps be no extravagant stretch of thought, to trace the fuccefs, if not the origin, of a religion; which, from the extensiveness of its operations, may be confidered as one of the