Ossian Collection > Thoughts on the origin and descent of the Gael

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Pclasgians were the most eminent; they were a
powerful people, considerably advanced in the
knowledge of the useful arts of life, which, with
their language, they introduced into Greece and
Italy. As their progress was westward from
Asia Minor, they nmst have migrated from the
more eastern countries of Europe, prior to their
settlement in Greece and Italy. The Greek lan-
guage was not confined to the territories of
Greece, properly so called ; it extended over a
much wider range of country. We have incon-
trovertible evidence, as observed in another
place, that it Avas an Asiatic language, and was
not the language of the most ancient inhabitants
of Greece.
It has been computed by chronologers, that
Sicyon, which claimed to be the oldest city of
Greece, was founded two thousand and eighty-
nine years before the Christian era.* Argos,
which was the first city that acquired political
eminence, is said to have been founded two hun-
dred and thirty-three years after Sicyon; and the
reign of Minos in Crete was four hundred and
fifty years later than the founding of Argos.
Sir Isaac Newton conjectured, that Sicyon
and Argos were founded nearly about the same
time, one thousand and eighty years before the
reign of Minos, king of Crete. Cadmus, it is
said, built Thebes, and introduced letters into
" Blair's Chronol. Tables.