ht upon some antient_ _Amonian records, which
had been preserved in the innermost part of a temple, and known to very
few. Upon this discovery he applied himself with great diligence to make
himself master of the contents: and having, by divesting them of the fable
and allegory with which they were obscured, obtained his purpose, he
brought the whole to a conclusion_.

I should be glad to give the Reader a still farther insight into the system
which I am about to pursue. But such is the scope of my inquiries, and the
purport of my determinations, as may possibly create in him some prejudice
to my design; all which would be obviated were he to be carried, step by
step, to the general view, and be made partially acquainted, according as
the scene opened. What I have to exhibit is in great measure new; and I
shall be obliged to run counter to many received opinions, which length of
time, and general assent, have in a manner rendered sacred. What is truly
alarming, I shall be found to differ, not only from some few historians, as
is the case in common controversy, but in some degree from all; and this in
respect to many of the most essential points, upon which historical
precision has been thought to depend. My meaning is, that I must set aside
many supposed facts which have never been controverted; and dispute many
events which have not only been admitted as true, but have been looked up
to as certain aeras from whence other events were to be determined. All our
knowledge of Gentile history must either come through the hands of the
Grecians, or of the Romans, who copied from them. I shall therefore give a
full account of the Helladian Greeks, as well as of the Ioenim, or Ionians,
in Asia: also of the Dorians, Leleges, and Pelasgi. What may appear very
presumptuous, I shall deduce from their own histories many truths, with
which they were totally unacquainted, and give to them an original, which
they certainly did not know. They have bequeathed to us noble materials, of
which it is time to make a serious use. It was their misfortune not to know
the value of the data which they transmitted, nor the purport of their own
intelligence.

It will be one part of my labour to treat of the Phenicians, whose history
has been much mistaken: also of the Scythians, whose original has been
hitherto a secret. From such an elucidation many good consequences will, I
hope, ensue; as the Phenicians and Scythians have hitherto afforded the
usu