dialect. He was educated at Constantinople, and acquainted from his earliest youth with the genius and manners of the Turks; and as he was eminently skilled in the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages, he was enabled to draw his knowledge of their affairs from the fountain-head: for which reason, if his narrative were not rather too succinct, and if he had dwelt somewhat longer on the subject of the Eastern government and literature, or had unfolded all the causes of the greatness and decline of the Othman empire, his work would have been complete, and my present attempt entirely superfluous. As to his piece, considered as a literary performance, it contains all the qualities which Tully lays down as necessary to constitute a perfect history*: nothing is asserted in it that has the appearance of falsehood; nor any essential thing omitted that has the least colour of truth; there is no reason to suspect the writer either of partiality or disaffection; the order of time is accurately preserved, and the description of remarkable places frequently inserted; the author gives his judgment, openly, on the counsels of kings ply the Russians with provisions, yet remained an idle spectator of their calamity, till their camp was threatened with a famine. Thus, one of the finest writers of our age accuses a generous and amiable prince of ingratitude, avarice, and perfidy, merely for the sake of comparing him with Mazeppa, and of drawing a parallel between the conduct of Charles XII. and Peter I.; and he deserves still more to be censured, for deviating knowingly from the truth, since it appears from some parts of his General History, that he had read the works of Cantemir, and admired his character. See the Life of Charles XII. book v.; and the History of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. chap. 2. * Cicero de Oratore, ii. 15. and and generals; he relates the circumstances of every memorable act; and shews both the causes and consequences of every important event: with regard to the persons, he describes the lives and characters not only of the sultans, but of all the eminent men who bore a considerable share in the great transactions of the nation: and he dresses the whole piece in an easy, natural, and flowing style, without affecting any merit, but that of clearness ; except where, for the sake of variety, he drops a few flowery expressions in the Oriental manner. To which may be added, (a qualification that Cicero seems to have omitted in the passage just referred to,) that he has made his work extremely agreeable, and has infused into it that exquisite charm, so necessary in all finished compositions, which makes the reader leave it unwillingly, and return to it with eagerness. It is almost needless to say, after this just encomium, that CANTEMIR's history renders the compilations of Knolles and Rycaut entirely useless; though both of these works are well written, and the former even elegantly for the age in which the author lived: yet I must do them the justice to acknowledge, that I have borrowed several hints from them, though I could not make any positive assertion upon their authority, as they were both ignorant of the Turkish language; and since a very sensible writert observes even of Plutarch, that though he was supposed to have resided * Φίλτρον καὶ ἴυγγα, as the Greeks called it. in Rome nearly forty years at different times, yet he seems never to have acquired a sufficient skill in the Roman language to qualify himself for the compiler of a Roman history, the same objection may certainly be made to the two historians abovementioned, one of whom spent most of his time in a college, and the other, though he resided many years in Turkey, was forced to converse with the Turks by the help of an interpreter.' The letters of a lady, famed for her wit and fine taste, are in every body's hands; and are highly estimable, not only for the purity of the style, and the liveliness of the sentiments, but for the curious picture they give of the Turkish manners in the present age, and particularly of the women of rank at Constantinople, whose apartments could not be accessible to a common traveller. The author of Observations on the Government and Manners of the Turks had, from his residence in their metropolis, and the distinguished part that he bore in it, an opportunity of inspecting their customs and forming a just idea of their character. It is a singular pleasure to me to find many of my sentiments confirmed by the authority of so judicious a writer; nor do I despair, if this essay should fall into his hands, of giving him a more favourable opinion of the Turkish language, which he supposes to be formed of the very dregs of the Persian and Arabian tongues; and a higher notion of the Persian poetry, which, he observes, it is al most most impossible, as far as he can find, for the best translator to convert even into common sense*. But the latest, and perhaps, the most curious. publication on the subject of the Turks, was, A Treatise on Tactics, written in Turkish, in the year 1731, and translated two years ago by a foreign nobleman, who added to it a very sensible preface, and learned notes. It was the object of this little work to recommend to the Othman court the military discipline of the Christians, and to display the advantage of that artful disposition of their troops, by which the timorous and suspected men are put under a necessity of fighting, even against their will; a disposition, which Hannibal, and other great masters in the art of war, have followed with success, and which, if we believe Homer, was even as ancient as the siege of Troy: The horse and chariots to the front assign'd; POPE'S Iliad, iv, 342. The whole treatise is entertaining and instructive; and though it is very imperfect, and often erroneous where the Christians are mentioned, yet, it supplied me with many important lights, in my enquiry concerning the causes of the greatness and decline of the Turkish empire. These are the principal works in the languages of Europe, that have fallen into my hands, on the *Second Edit. p. 38. same same subject with the following Essay; and, though I have borrowed very freely from them all, yet by making this general acknowledgement of my obligations to them, I obviate, I think, any objection that can be made on that head, and cannot justly be reputed a plagiary, if to the passages taken from others, I add a series of remarks peculiar to myself. I very soon desisted from my search after the other books on the Turkish affairs, in the French and Italian languages; for, after having run over a great number of them, I found them to contain little more than the same facts, which are related more elegantly by the abovementioned authors, with the addition of some idle fables and impertinent projects. As to the Greek writers of the Byzantine history, who have given us an account of the Turks, it was the less necessary to examine them with attention, as Knolles seems to have reduced them to their quintessence; and indeed, the generality of those historians were more attentive to the harmony of their periods, and the beauty of their expressions, than either to the truth of the facts which they related, or to the solidity of the remarks deduced from them. They were no longer those excellent Greeks, whose - works remain to this age, as a perfect example of the noblest sentiments delivered in the purest style: they seemed to think, that fine writing consisted in a florid exuberance of words, and that, if they pleased the ear, they were sure to satisfy the heart: they even knowingly corrupted the Asiatic names, to |