pofition of the Turks feemed to be a diforder that had no remedy, yet when they difperfed the clouds of ignorance with the study of polite letters, many of them became a light to the world*. But here we must be understood to speak merely of poetry, rhetoric, moral philofophy, hiftory, and the lefs abftrufe parts of knowledge; for we muft confefs, and the Afiatics confefs themselves, that they are far inferior to the natives of Europe in every branch of pure and mixed mathematics, as well as in the

In Turkish,

ترکلک طبعي

گرچه اومده

بر مرض در که پوقدر انه علاج

لیک علمیہ ظلمت جہلی

محو ایدوت اولدیلر جهانه سراج

But this opinion is contradicted by a satirist, who asserts that, if a Turk excelled in every branch of science, and were the ablest scholar of his age, yet a certain rudeness would ever adhere to his disposition.

فرید روزگار اولسه فنوان علمیده بر ترک اشکلب ذره چه اولیز مزاجندن اتک رایل

arts of painting and fculpture, which their re ligion forbids them to cultivate: a very abfurd piece of fuperftition! which the Perfians and Indians wifely neglected, as they knew that their legislator prohibited the imitation of vifible objects to the Arabs of his age, left they should relapfe into their recent folly of adoring images; and that when the reason of the law entirely ceases, the law itself ought alfo to cease. They begin, however, to imitate our studies; and they would undoubtedly have made a confiderable progress in the sciences, if the prefs at Conftantinople had not failed upon the death of Ibrahim, an officer of the Porte, and, what was more fingular, a very learned and able printer, whofe place has not yet been supplied. This enterprising Turk, who had learned Latin by his own induftry, and was no contemptible writer in his native language, founded a fet of Arabic types, and printed, under the protection of the court, feveral pieces of Oriental history, fome treatises of geography with maps, and an effay of his own upon the military difcipline of the Euro

peans*; but none of his countrymen have continued his project; because it is impoffible

to understand the claffical writings of the Turks without more than a moderate knowledge of Perfian and Arabic, to which none can pretend, who have not made those languages their particular study for many years; and this is no doubt the reason, why there are fewer men of letters among the Turks than among us; for though an intimate acquaintance with the Greek and Roman authors is neceffary to fupport the character of a scholar, yet a very flight tincture of the ancient languages is sufficient for a popular writer, and scarcely any is requifite for a fuperficial reader.

The Mohammedans in general are paffionately fond of history, and not lefs fo of that miscellaneous kind of learning which the Greeks called wooμáda, or a general knowledge of a vast variety of subjects. The

*See a catalogue of the books printed by Ibrahim, at the end of this discourse.

This kind of learning was called varia eruditio by the Romans, among whom Varro was the most eminent for it. The most curious and entertaining works of this

Turks have more historical pieces in their language, than moft European nations; and we may judge of their erudition by the large work compofed in the feventeenth century by Cútibzadeh, which contains an accurate account of all the books that had been written till his time in Turkish, Arabic, and Perfian.*

These works are very imperfectly known in Europe; for though Donado, a fenator of Venice, and ambaffador from that ftate to the

nature are, the Banquet of Athenæus, the Nights of Aulus Gellius, and the Chiliads of Tzetzes; but the Arabi, ans were fonder of this various erudition than any people whatever. This species of writing begins to grow contemptible among us, since nothing can be more trifling than to transcribe our common-place book, and nothing more easy than to quote a multitude of authors in the margin.

Cashfi كشف الظنون The title of this book is *

nun, or the Discovery of Opinions; but it might justly beintitled,

افوار الافلاك في اظهار

علم الاعراب والاحجام

والاتراک

or, A comprehensive View of the Learning of

the Arabs, Persians, and Turks.-M. d'Herbelot has inserted the best part of this work in his Bibliothèque Orin alo,

Porte, published a fhort effay in Italian on the literature of the Turks, yet he knew little or nothing of their language, and took all his accounts of their books from an interpreter, who led him into several mistakes.

The golden age of the Turkish learning, was the reign of Soliman the Second, or The Legislator, in the fixteenth century: and indeed the most shining period in the history of nation must certainly be that, in which the example of the fovereign gives the nobles a turn for letters, and in which a reputation for knowledge opens a way to riches. and honour.

any

Ali Chelebi, who wrote a very celebrated book of morality, was appointed Molla, or ecclefiaftical judge of Adrianople, and had he lived, would have been raised to the dignity of Mufti, or fupreme interpreter of the law. He had spent several years in compofing an elaborate paraphrafe of Pilpai's Fables, in which, however, he was a close imitator of an excellent Perfian author, named Cafbefi. His work, which he intitled Homaiûn Námeh,