troduction* to it was printed, but not published, and will form a number in the Appendix.

The anticipation of future profpects fuggested by the fervour of youthful imagination, is too common to all, but particularly to men of genius, to excite much furprise; and of them it has been generally and justly remarked, that what has been performed by them, bears little proportion to what was projected. In their progress through life, impediments occur to the execution of their plans, which the mind at firft eagerly overlooks; whilst time, imperceptibly advancing, deprives them of the power and even of the inclination to complete what has been defigned with fo much ardour. They find what experience daily proves, that the duties of life can only be properly performed, when they are the primary objects of our regard and attention.

The little difcourfe, to which Mr. Jones humourously alludes in his letter to Reviczki, was a letter in French, addressed to Monfieur Appendix, B.

Anquetil du Perron, and printed in 1771. The Frenchman had published, in three quarto volumes, an account of his travels in India, the life of Zoröafter, and fome supposed works of that philofopher. To this publication he prefixed a difcourfe, in which he treated the University of Oxford, and some of its learned members and friends of Mr. Jones, with ridicule and disrespect. From the perufal of his works, Mr. Jones was little disposed to agree with Monfieur du Perron, in the boasted importance of his communications; he was disgusted with his vanity and petulance, and particularly offended by his illiberal attack upon the University, which he respected, and upon the perfons whom he esteemed and admired. The letter which he addreffed to M. du Perron was anonymous; it was written with great force, and expreffes his indignation and contempt with a degree of afperity, which the judgment of maturer years would have disapproved. Profeffor Biorn Sthal, a Swedish Orientalist, says of it, that he had known many Frenchmen so far mif

taken in the writer, as to afcribe it to fome bel efprit of Paris. Such in their opinion was the brilliancy and correctnefs of its style. Dr. Hunt, the Laudian Profeffor of Arabic, at Oxford, who had been contemptuously mentioned by du Perron, addreffed the two following letters to Mr. Jones on this occafion:

DEAR SIR,

Ch. Church, Oct. 25, 1771.

I have now found the translation of all the remains of Zoröafter, mentioned in your laft, and think, upon an attentive perufal of it, that the account which Dr. Frafer has given of it is true.

I never told Perron, that I understood the ancient Perfic language; and I am authorized by Mr. Swinton, who was prefent all the time Perron was with me, to fay that he never heard me tell him fo. I might perhaps fay, that I knew the old Perfic character, as given by Dr. Hyde; but to a further knowledge of the language I never pretended, nor could I tell him the I did. But for a proof of the vacity of this fellow, I beg Sve to refer

you to page 461. of his preliminary difcourfe, where he says, that he made me a present of a fine Sanfkirrit, (or, as he calls it, Sanskrotan) alphabet, and that he promised Dr. Barton and Mr. Swinton, to fend them alphabets of the feveral Afiatic languages; whereas he neither made me the prefent, nor performed the promise to them. Mr. Swinton fays, he can furnish us with other inftances of this Frenchman's veracity, which he has promised to do in a few days. In the mean time, I am, &c.

THOMAS HUNT.

DEAR SIR,

Ch. Church, Nov. 28, 1771, I received the welcome prefent of your excellent pamphlet against Perron* in due time, and yesterday I was favoured with your kind letter; for both which I return you my hearty thanks. I fhould have thanked you for your pamphlet fooner, but have been out of town. I have read it over and over again, and think the whole nation, as well as * Works, vol. x. p. 461.

the University and its members, are much obliged to you for this able and fpirited defence. I acknowledge myself to be so in a particular manner, and fo does Mr. Swinton, who defires his compliments and thanks. But there is one thing which Mr. Swinton feems to doubt of, which is, whether there has been fuch a general deftruction of the writings of the ancient Perfians as you imagine there has been. For my own part, till some better proof can be given of the authenticity of those books, which have been produced as the genuine compositions of that ancient people, than what I have yet seen given, I am inclined to be of your opinion. At least, this I am fure of, that if the books, which Alexander, Omar, &c. deftroyed, were no better than those which have been públished, the world has had no great lofs; witness the infufferable jargon which you have given from their writings in the 38th and 41ft, &c. pages of your letter; to which, as this bulky performance of Perron* will be but in few

* Mons. Anquetil du Perron made a voyage to India, Life-V. I.