[30] The _Desátir_, or sacred writings of the ancient Persian prophets in the original tongue; with the ancient Persian version, and commentary of the fifth Sasan; published by Mulla Firuz Bin-i-Kaus. Bombay, 1818. Mulla Firuz is supposed to possess the only copy of the Desátir extant. He allowed sir John Malcolm to take a copy of it, which, by some accident, was lost by Doctor Leyden――(See Transact. of the Lit. Soc. of Bombay, pp. 342 and 349). [31] Mohsan Fani marks the time of his composing the Dabistan (vol. II. p. 50) to be the year of the Hejira 1055 (A. D. 1645). [32] See _Journal des Savans_, No. for January, 1821, p. 16. [33] Lucretius, book V., Transl. of Dr. Creech: “―― ―― putare aliquem tum nomina distribuisse Rebus, et inde homines didicisse vocabula prima Desipere est.” [34] Richardson’s Dictionary, preface, lxvii. [35] This man, who never told his true name, was from the age of fifteen to seventeen a private teacher――then passed for an Irishman――went to Rome as a pilgrim with a habit stolen from before an altar where it was lying as a votive offering of another pilgrim――wandered about in Germany, Brabant, Flanders――indolent, abject, shameless, covered with vermin and sores――entered the military service of Holland, which he left to become waiter in a coffee-house in Aix-la-Chapelle――enlisted in the troops of the elector of Cologne. He acted all these parts, with those above-mentioned, before he was baptised under the name of George, by a Scotch clergyman, and, having learned English, passed over to England to be protected by Compton, the lord-bishop of London. At the expense of the latter, he studied at Oxford――became a preceptor――chaplain of a regiment――fell back into indolence, and lived upon alms.――(See A New and General Dictionary, London, 1798, vol. XII; and _Vie de plusieurs Personnages célèbres des Temps anciens et modernes, par C. A. Walckenaer, membre de l’Institut, tome II._ 1830.) [36] This change took place in his thirty-second year――he learned Hebrew and became an honest man, esteemed by Samuel Johnson; he wrote eleven articles in a well-known work, the Universal History, and his own Life at the age of seventy-three years; the latter work was published after his death, which happened in his eighty-fourth year, in 1763. [37] See _Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits_, vol. IX. pp. 365-396. [38] I am here applying to the forger of a language what Lucretius, in continuation of his above quoted verses (p. xxx), urges against the belief that a single individual could ever have been the inventor of human speech. [39] By Norris, _Asiatic Journal_, vol. IX., November, 1820, p. 430. [40] _Journal des Savans_, February, 1821, pp. 69-70.