THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 649
and philofophy, which fpread itfelf from this to enlighten other nations, we are now full of uncertainty, fearching in a defert for the place of its exigence ; inch is the miferable initability of all human excellence. Nothing but confufion has followed this inquiry, becaufe they who were engaged in it rather fubftituted vain fyftematical prejudices of their own, than fet themfelves to confider thofe lights which were immediately before them,
The Jefuits, and a French writer, who is a conftant cham- pion of their errors, have fixed the peninfula of Gojam to be the Meroe' of the ancients. M. le Grande (the compiler al- luded to) having in vain endeavoured to anfwer the objec- tions againft Gojam being Meroe, at laft declares, in a kind of literary paffion, that the ancients have fpoken fo differ- ently about Meroe, that Gojam is as likely to be the place as any other.
I have a proper efteem for the merit of M. le Grande, where he forms his conjectures from his own opinion, and I have alfo a due deference to that learned Order the Jefuits; it is to their labours, that learning in general, and geography in particular, has been more indebted than to thofe of any o- ther fet of men whatever. Yet ftill I can never believe, either that Gojam is Meroe, or that there is any difficulty in finding its true fituation, or that the ancients have written confufedly about it. On the contrary, I find it defcribed by its latitude, its diilance from places known, the produce of its foil, co- lour of its inhabitants, and feveral other circumnances which peculiarly belong to it, with greater accuracy and precifion than many other difputed fituations.
Vol. III. 4 N l SHA **
