The travels and adventures of Edward Brown ... Containing his observations on France and Italy: his voyage to the Levant; his account of the isle of Malta; his remarks in journies thro' the Lower and Upper Egypt; together with a brief description of the Abyssinian Empire / [John Campbell].
- John Campbell
- Date:
- 1739
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The travels and adventures of Edward Brown ... Containing his observations on France and Italy: his voyage to the Levant; his account of the isle of Malta; his remarks in journies thro' the Lower and Upper Egypt; together with a brief description of the Abyssinian Empire / [John Campbell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[ 3*5] tip therein to conquer the greateft Part of the then known World ; if the making artificial Seas and Rivers, turning Tandy Deferts into fruitful Fields, and erecting fine Cities where Nature had not afforded Materials for a Cottage: If, I fay, all thefe Things, and many more of as ftupendous a Nature, which, were it not to avoid Prolixity, I could eafily reckon up, do not prove the Authors of them to have poiTefTed folid and extenfive Wifdom j then I mull confefs my felf miftaken, and that my Partiality for the ancient Egyptians hath led me affray i I shall now fpeak of the Learning of the modern Egyptians, which is no other than that of the Arabs % and I fliall the rather do it* Firft, becaufe there is no Country in which it is better cultivated than it is in this: And fecondly, becaufe from the Accounts I have heard of this Sort of Learning in Europe, I am apt to think our Notions concerning it are not either fo juft or fo diftindl as they might be* That the Arabs, in the Days of Mohammed, were a very rude and indigent People, Is certainly true ; but that they had been always fo, or that at this very Time there were none amongft them that had theleaft Tindture of Literature, is what I think not altogether fo apparent as fome would make it. The Reafon of my Opinion is this: The Korany or Bible of the Mohamedans, is written not only in a fublime, but elegant Stile* and, as I obferved before, its Elegance is eneof the grand Arguments for the divine Infpiration of Mohammed. Thus they put it. Our Prophet, by his own Confeflion was an illiterate and fimple Man ; his Book, however, is written in a pure and flowing Language, adorned with all the Figures of Rhetorick, and fuperior C C tQ](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30505185_0405.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
