serts his right to censure my presumption. These pen or The success of Mr. Davis would indeed have been somewhat extraordinary, unless he had consulted the same editions, as well as the same places. I shall content myself with mentioning the editions which I have used, and with assuring him, that if he renews his search, he will not, or rather that he will, be disappointed. Mr. Gibbon's Editions. Mr. Davis's Editions. Optatus Milevitanus, by Du Fol. Antwerp, 1702. pin, fol. Paris, 1700. Dupin. Bibliothèque Ecclési- 8vo. Paris, 1687. astique, 4to. Paris, 1690. Cypriani Opera, Edit. Fell. fol. Most probably Oxon, 1682. Shaw's Travels, 4to. London, The folio Edition. 1757. HISTORY, IV. The nature of my subject had led me to JEWISH mention, not the real origin of the Jews, but their TACITUS first appearance to the eyes of other nations; and I cannot avoid transcribing the short passage in which I had introduced them. "The Jews, who under the Assyrian and Persian monarchies had languished for many ages the most despised por VOL. IV. Davis, p. 151–155. M M tion tion of their slaves, emerged from their obscurity under the successors of Alexander. And as they multiplied to a surprising degree in the east, and afterwards in the west, they soon excited the curiosity and wonder of other nations." This simple abridgment seems in its turn to have excited the wonder of Mr. Davis, whose surprise almost renders him eloquent. "What a strange assemblage," says he, "is here? It is like Milton's chaos, without bound, without dimension, where time and place are lost. In short, what does this display afford us, but a deal of boyish colouring to the prejudice of much good history?" If I rightly understand Mr. Davis's language, he censures, as a piece of confused declamation, the passage which he has produced from my History; and if I collect the angry criticisms which he has scattered over twenty pages of controversy, I think I can discover that there is hardly a period, or even a word, in this unfortunate passage, which has obtained the approbation of the Examiner. As nothing can escape his vigilance, he censures me for including the twelve tribes of Israel under the common appellation of JEWS,§ and for extending the name of ASSYRIANS to the subjects of the kings of Babylon and again censures me, because some facts which are affirmed or insinuated in my text, do not agree with the strict and proper limits which he has assigned to those national Gibbon, p. 537. || Id. p. 2. + Davis, p. 5. Id. p. 3. deno denominations. The name of Jews has indeed been established by the sceptre of the tribe of Judah, and, in the times which precede the captivity, it is used in the more general sense with some sort of impropriety; but surely I am not peculiarly charged with a fault which has been consecrated with the consent of twenty centuries, the practice of the best writers, ancient as well as modern, (see Josephus and Prideaux, even in the titles of their respective works,) and by the usage of modern languages, of the Latin, the Greek, and if I may credit Reland, of the Hebrew itself (see Palestin; L. i. c. 6). With regard to the other word, that of Assyrians, most assuredly I will not lose myself in the labyrinth of the Asiatic monarchies before the age of Cyrus; nor indeed is any more required for my justification, than to prove that Babylon was considered as the capital and royal seat of Assyria. If Mr. Davis were a man of learning, I might be morose enough to censure his ignorance of ancient geography, and to overwhelm him under a load of quotations, which might be collected and transcribed with very little trouble: but as I must suppose that he has received a classical education, I might have expected him to have read the first book of Herodotus, where that historian describes, in the clearest and most elegant terms, the situation and greatness of Babylon: Της δε Ασσυρίης τα μεν κου και αλλά πολίσματα μεγάλα πολλά, το δε ονομαστοτατον και ισχυρότατον και ενθα σφι, Νίνου αναστατου γενομένης, τα βασιλεια κατεστηκες, ην ΒαELA. (Clio.c. 178.) I may be surprised that he should M M 2 be be so little conversant with the Cyropædia of Xenophon, in the whole course of which the king of Babylon, the adversary of the Medes and Persians, is repeatedly mentioned by the style and title of THE ASSYRIAN, Ὁ δε Ασσύριος, ὁ Βαβυλωνα τε εχων και την aşını Acougiav. (L. ii. p. 102, 103, edit. Hutchinson.) But there remains something more: and Mr. Davis must apply the same reproaches of inaccuracy, if not ignorance, to the prophet Isaiah, who, in the name of Jehovah, announcing the downfall of Babylon and the deliverance of Israel, declares with an oath," And as I have purposed the thing shall stand: to crush the ASSYRIAN in my land, and to trample him on my mountains. Then shall his yoke depart from off them; and his burthen shall be removed from off their shoulders." (Isaiah, xiv. 24, 25. Lowth's new translation. See likewise the Bishop's note, p. 98.) Our old translation expresses, with less elegance, the same meaning; but I mention with pleasure the labours of a respectable prelate, who in this, as well as in a former work, has very happily united the most critical judgment, with the taste and spirit of poetry. The jealousy which Mr. Davis affects for the honour of the Jewish people will not suffer him to allow that they were slaves to the conquerors of the East and while he acknowledges that they were tributary and dependant, he seems desirous of introducing, or even inventing, some milder expression of the state of vassalage and subservience; from whence Tacitus assumed the words of despectissima pars servientium. Has Mr. Davis never heard of the distinction of civil and political slavery? Is he ignorant that even the natural and victorious subjects of an Asiatic despot have been deservedly marked with the opprobrious epithet of slaves by every writer acquainted with the name and advantage of freedom? Does he not know that, under such a government, the yoke is imposed with double weight on the necks of the vanquished, as the rigour of tyranny is aggravated by the abuse of conquest? From the first invasion of Judæa by the arms of the Assyrians, to the subversion of the Persian monarchy by Alexander, there elapsed a period of above four hundred years, which included about twelve ages or generations of the human race. As long as the Jews asserted their independence, they repeatedly suffered every calamity which the rage and insolence of a victorious enemy could inflict: the throne of David was overturned, the temple and city were reduced to ashes, and the whole land, a circumstance perhaps unparalleled in history, remained threeseore and ten years without inhabitants, and without cultivation. (2 Chronicles, xxxvi. 21.) According to an institution which has long prevailed in Asia, and particularly in the Turkish government, the most beautiful and ingenious youths were carefully educated in the palace, where superior merit sometimes introduced these fortunate slaves to the favour of the conqueror, and to the honours of the state. (See the book and example of Daniel.) The rest of the unhappy Jews experienced the hard |