was then from 60 to 80 yards wide, and scarcely to be forded on horseback. Mr. Grey and his friend Don Tommaso a Cushi, a native of Mousul, resided for a short time at the monastery of Dar or Deir Ouassy on the right bank of the river."

CHAPTER IV.

Of the fragment of Sanchoniatho.

THE fragment of Sanchoniatho, translated out of Phoenician into Greek by Philo Byblius, and preserved by Eusebius, cannot be passed over in silence by a writer who treats of the origin and ancient history of the Phoenicians. How far the Greek may vary from the originalhow often Philo may have interwoven his own sentiments with those of Sanchoniatho-and how frequently and unwarrantably Eusebius may have altered and interpolated the version of Philo-are questions which must always be embarrassing to the philologist and the antiquary. There may be indeed reason to suspect, that the Phoenician author, who flourished before the Trojan war, and probably about the time when

Orig.

VOL. III.

I

Gideon was judge over Israel, stated the different accounts and traditions, which existed at the æra when he lived, both among his own countrymen, and among neighbouring nations, concerning the origin of the world, and concerning the origin of society; and that the Greek translator, either from misunderstanding the meaning of his author, or for the sake of conciseness, has compressed all these different accounts into one succinct and continued narrative. There seems to me to be no other way of accounting for the inconsistencies and repetitions with which this short fragment abounds. Neither is it easy to understand otherwise, how the same inventions should be attributed to different persons; or how the same persons should appear on the scene at different epochs. In addition to these embarrassments, we are perplexed with the interpolations of Philo and Eusebius. They introduce the names of the Grecian deities, Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Hephaistos, of whom it is more than probable that Sanchoniatho had never heard. They even make him speak of the inhabitants of Alexandria, which city was

not founded until a thousand years after his death.

There already exists, if I mistake not, an English translation of this fragment by Bishop Cumberland; but I have been unable to procure a copy of it and I am therefore compelled to request the reader's indulgence in favour of my own. In the notes which I propose to subjoin to my version, I shall endeavour to throw as much light as I am able on the Phoenician fragment. I have only to add that I shall translate from the Greek text as faithfully and as literally as I can. If we can judge indeed from the Greek copy, we may easily believe the style of the Phoenician original to have been sufficiently obscure; nor can I hope to render the English version free from the same defect.

Sanchoniatho supposes black and windy air to have been the principle of all things; (') or the dark blast of wind, and turbid chaos, resembling Erebus. (2) But these are infinite, and have no limit through many ages. When, however, says he,

spirit (3) became enamoured of its own principles, and commixtion happened, then that connexion was called desire, which was the beginning of the creation of all things. (4) But spirit knew not its own creation; and out of the connexion of spirit itself (5) Mot (6) was begotten. Some say that this (Mot) is slime; others that it is putrefaction of a watery mixtion ; and out of this were produced every seed of procreation, and the generation of all things. (7) But there were certain animals not possessing sense, out of which were generated intelligent animals; (3) and these were called Zophasemin, (2) that is, contemplators of heaven; and were formed in the shape of an egg: (1) Then Mot shone forth, and the Sun and Moon, and the stars, and the great stars.

Such is their cosmogony, which openly leads to atheism. (") Let us see next, how Sanchoniatho says the zoogony is to be supported. He states then, that the air being translucent, winds, and clouds, and the greatest falls and effusions of the celestial waters, were produced through combustion both of the sea and of the land. Afterwards all things were divided and separated, each from its proper place, through the heat of the Sun, and