UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 

 
 VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARTS and SCIENCES.
 
 VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARTS and SCIENCES, 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 EARLIEST TIMES 
 
 TO THE AGE OF 
 
 ALEXANDER the GREAT. 
 
 BY THE REV. JAMES BANNISTER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. BELL, AT THE 3Brit:S)*l!ibt3rj, STRAND, 
 MDCCLXXX v.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 diffufion of knowledge mud be 
 ever agreeable to the liberal and 
 benevolent ; and in an age like this, 
 when a tafte for reading univerfally pre- 
 vails, an endeavour to recall the gene- 
 rality of readers from the perufal of 
 frivolous publications (which, under 
 the appellation of fentimental novels, 
 enfeeble the mind, and render it fuf- 
 ceptible of every evil impreflion) to 
 the contemplation of thofe works of real 
 genius, which, at the fame time, refine 
 
 the 
 
 430996
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 the tafte, ftrengthen the understanding, 
 and mend the heart, is an employment 
 highly commendable. For the honour of 
 our nation, it muft be confefled, that the 
 writings of or moft admired poets, hif- 
 torians, and orators of antiquity, have 
 been tranflated into the Englifh lan- 
 guage, by men who knew how to pre- 
 ferve not only the fenfe, but the fprit of 
 the great originals. Other writers, a- 
 nimated by the fame laudable ambition, 
 of communicating real knowledge, have 
 explored the depths of antiquity, and 
 explained the fecrets of Philofophy and 
 the Arts ; fubjeeh which have long en- 
 gaged the attention of the author of 
 the following differtations, who, though 
 confcious of the mediocrity of his 
 talents, ventures to prefent his work 
 to the public, encouraged by the 
 
 pleafing
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 pleating expe&ation that it may give 
 fome perfons, \vho have not enjoyed 
 the advantage of a claflical education, 
 general ideas of the progrefs of the 
 Arts and Sciences, and their connexion 
 with morals and government ; and ex- 
 cite others, whofe genius is more aftive, 
 to confult thofe fountains of true know- 
 ledge and found philofophy, the ancient 
 Greek and Roman writers. If either 
 of thefe ends is attained, the author will 
 think himfelf amply compenfated for 
 his trouble. It may not be improper 
 in this place to inform the reader, that 
 thefe diflertations were originally intend- 
 ed as part of a preliminary difcourfe to 
 a tranflation of Ariftotle's politics ; a 
 work the author was prevailed upon to 
 undertake about two years ago, but ha- 
 ving lately entered into a profeflion, the 
 
 duties
 
 Vi PREFACE. 
 
 duties of which muft neceffarily engage 
 a large portion of his time, he has for 
 the prefent laid afide all thoughts of 
 profecuting his tranflation. To thofe 
 who may object, that many Arts and 
 Sciences of the greatefl ufe and import- 
 ance, are either wholly omitted, or but 
 flightly touched upon, in the following 
 diflertations ; the author begs leave to 
 obferve, that if favoured with the ap- 
 probation of the public, it is his inten- 
 tion to publifh another volume, in 
 which he will endeavour to fupply every 
 omHIion and defect. Poetry was held 
 in fuch high efteem in Greece, that 
 many readers maybe furprifed that the 
 author has not written a dhTertation 
 on that fubjeft. His excufe is, that 
 in his preface to a tranflation of felecl 
 tragedies of Euripides, publiflied in the 
 
 3 >' ear
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 year 1780, he had faid fo much on 
 that fubjeft, that he thought he had 
 nearly exhaufled it. 
 
 Devizes, Jan. 12, 1785. 
 
 A VIEW
 
 A 
 
 VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ARTS and SCIENCES. 
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 T~\ENS and caves were the firft habitations of 
 -* * men ; but the inconvenience and unwhole- 
 fomenefs of thefe gloomy manfions muft have been 
 felt very early. Neither could the favage, depend- 
 ing on the fortune of the chace for his fubfiftence, 
 and confequently obliged to lead a wandering life, 
 be always certain of meeting with thefe retreats 
 againft the inclemency of the weather. The thick 
 fhade of the foreft might indeed ferve to fhelter 
 him from the fury of the ftorm, but muft certainly 
 prove inefficient to proteft him from the ill effects 
 of the mighty dews in warm, and the penetrating 
 powers of the froft in cold climates. 
 
 A Neceffity,
 
 2 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Keceffity, which is the parent of every human 
 invention, foon taught him to erecl an habitation 
 more fuitable to his wants. Houfes were built; 
 at firfl rude and imperfect, and compofed of the 
 coarfeft materials, which varied with tfte foil and 
 climate. In countries abounding with woods, 
 branches of trees were thrown together inartifi- 
 cially, and covered with leaves, formed the firft 
 dwellings ; fuch are the wigwams ufed by the more 
 lavage tribes of Indians in North-America at this 
 day. In warm climates (particularly in fome parts 
 of Afia) the firft houfes were compofed of cane, or 
 reed, which at the fame time that it fhaded them 
 from the fcorching heat of the fun, by admitting 
 the air, rendered their habitations pleafant and 
 healthy. Thefe houfes were fituated on the extre- 
 mity of the foreft, or on the banks of the river, 
 for the convenience of hunting or fifhing, the only 
 means of fubfiflence for man in the firft ftages cf 
 fociety. 
 
 Near the mouths of the Oronoqire and Orel Ian a 
 (where the country is frequently overflowed to a vait 
 extent) the inhabitants build their houfes on trees. 
 In countries where there is a fcarcity of wood, 
 houfes, or rather tents, have been formed of (kins 
 of beafts. Such I conceive to have been the firft 
 habitations of the Arabs, which by being fo eafily 
 portable, are admirably calculated for a country 
 
 where
 
 ARCHITECTURE. J 
 
 where the want of pafture and water obliges them 
 fo frequently to change the place of their abode. 
 
 As long as mankind fubfifted by hunting and 
 fifhing we mull not expect to find any improve- 
 ments made in Architeclure. The time of a favage, 
 like his companion, the wild beajl, whom he too 
 much refembles, unlefs employed in the labours of 
 the chace, or in taking his neceflary repaft, is 
 either devoted to fleep, or at leaft to that lupine 
 indolence which falls little fhort of a total inactivity 
 of body and mind. To procure food, and guard 
 againft an immediate inconvenience, are the fole 
 objects of his care ! Neither in the next ftage of 
 fbciety, when men, grown more civilized, leave the 
 barbarous trade of the hunter for the more peace- 
 ful occupation of the fhepherd, can we hope to fee 
 Architecture flourim. The fhepherd, for the con- 
 venience of pafture and water, is obliged to lead 
 a wandering life no lefs than the hunter. From 
 the account in Scripture of the Ifraelites during 
 the patriarchal flate, it appears that they lived in 
 tents ; the Tartars and wild Arabs know no other 
 habitation at this day, and affeft to fpeak with 
 contempt of our nobleft pieces of architecture as a 
 weak attempt to rival the beauties of nature : 
 " What, fay they, are your fineft columns, com- 
 " pared with the (lately growth of a tree ? or can 
 ." your moll finifhed temples ftrike the mind with 
 A 2 " that
 
 4' ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 " that religious awe which it feels on entering a 
 " fhady and fequeftered grove ? " 
 
 But when mankind, proceeding in their progrefs 
 towards civilization, apply themfelves to agricul- 
 ture, new wants arife, and new arts are invented 
 to fatisfy thofe wants. The cultivator of the foil 
 foon difcovers that its productions are more than 
 fufficient for the fuftenance of himfelf and family 
 he therefore difpofes of the fuperfluity, to procure 
 fome convenience, or to gratify fome vanity. From 
 hence proceeds the early divifion of mankind into 
 two claffes, the farmer and the artizan : the for- 
 mer receiving from the latter, in exchange for food, 
 the produce of his labour, which enables him to 
 enjoy, at firft the conveniencies, and afterwards 
 the luxuries of life. The hut, which gratified 
 every want of the hunter or fhepherd, is defpifed 
 by the farmer, as fmall and inconvenient. He 
 wifhes to ereft a houfe more commodious and ca- 
 pacious ; the artizan exhaufts all his ingenuity to 
 perfect: this great work but the advances in Ar- 
 chitecture are at firft flow, as many fubfervient 
 aits muft be invented before it can arrive to any 
 great height. Trunks of trees, probably, were 
 made ufe of to fupport the roof the walls were 
 formed of the branches covered with mud. This 
 led to new improvements; mankind fixed by the 
 introduction of agriculture to one fpot, thought of 
 
 ufing
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 5 
 
 ufing more durable materials in their buildings. 
 Nature feems to have pointed out ftone as the moft 
 obvious; particularly as we fee in many countries 
 a finking fimilitude between the projection of the 
 rocks and fome of our moft admired buildings ; 
 but, notwithftanding this, I am inclined to think 
 brick was made ufe of in building long before flone. 
 To dig flone from the quarry, afterwards to hew 
 it and prepare it for building, cannot be done 
 without the knowledge of many arts, and the inven- 
 tion of many ingenious inftrurnents. Brick, in fome 
 countries, particularly in Chaldea, was made with 
 the greateft eafe that Babylon was built with that 
 material is allowed on all hands in the moft ancient 
 hiftory extant we find the Ifraelites, not employed 
 in digging or hewing ftonc, but in making brick. 
 
 But without deciding pofitively on this queftion, 
 we may reafonably fuppofe, that the trunks of 
 trees, which formerly fupported the roof, were fuc- 
 ceeded by pillars of ftone or brick, and the walls 
 compofed of the fame durable materials : whea 
 I fpeak of pillars, I muft be underftood to mean 
 only the {haft the bafe and capital were not in- 
 vented till mankind had made great advances in 
 civilization. 
 
 Devotion, which is fo congenial to the human 
 foul, that it accompanies the favage in the foreft 
 
 (who
 
 O ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 (who never fails to offer up his vows to the good 
 being to give him fuccefs in the chace) is confi- 
 derably ftrengthened by the introduction of agricul- 
 ture. The affociation of men into villages, which. 
 is the immediate confequence, tends to foftcn and 
 humanize the heart ; befides, men who depend for 
 fnbfiftence on the annual production of their grain, 
 fee their hopes fometimes blafted by unfavourable 
 feafons ; at other times, by a happy fuccefiion of 
 ram and funfhine, they find their labours crowned 
 by an abundance which far exceeds their mofl fan- 
 guine expectations. This mull naturally awaken 
 in their breafts fentiments of gratitude and adoration, 
 mixed with a fear of offending that deity who alone 
 commands the feafons. On the taking in of the 
 harvefl, or the vintage, they offer to him the faireil 
 fheaves of corn and the firfl clufters of the vine, 
 pnd invite him to partake in the general joy. Not 
 content with this, they creel temples to his honour; 
 and filled with the idea of the glorious inhabitant, 
 exert the utmofl efforts of human art and induftry. 
 To confirm this aflertion, 1 have only to refer my 
 readers to the account given by the Spaniards of 
 the temple of the fun in Peru, as well as the mag- 
 nificent edifices devoted to the fervice of religion 
 in the ancient city of Mexico. 
 
 Strength and convenience were, for a long time, 
 the only objects cpnfidered by men in their dwel- 
 lings;
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 7 
 
 lings ; and the ornamental parts of Architecture 
 were probably rail ufed in their temples, and after- 
 wards transferred to the palaces of their lungs and 
 great men, who owing their elevation of rank to 
 their extraordinary virtues, were in fome degree 
 allied to the deity. 
 
 It appears evident, from what has been faid 
 above, that Architecture, properly fo called, owes 
 its rife to agriculture ; we mutt therefore trace its 
 progrefs among thofe nations which were the ear- 
 lieft civilized. 
 
 The Egyptians, not without reafon, lay claim to 
 this honour ; long before any profane hiHories reach, 
 even whilft Jacob and his family led a paftoral life, 
 we find that nation governed by a regular police ; 
 we fee a king inverted with all the external marks 
 of dignity, and cities crowded with inhabitants. - 
 Afterwards, when Jacob and his family, on the 
 invitation of Jofeph, fettled in Egypt, and their 
 descendants were multiplied to a great people the 
 king, who dreaded their power, to divert their 
 thoughts from any confpiracy againft his govern- 
 ment, employed them as mafons and brickmaker.s, 
 and feveral cities are faid to have been built by 
 their hands : from hence it appears that the Egyp- 
 tians, even at that early period, nuift have made 
 confiderable advances- in Architecture. If we con* 
 2 fult
 
 8 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 fuk profane hifloriaris, we fhall find them unani- 
 mous in extolling the extent of the city of Thebes, 
 and the beauty and magnificence of its public and 
 private buildings. Homer, in the exaggerated 
 flyle of poetry, fpeaks of twenty thoufand chariots 
 ifluing from its hundred gates. Diodorus Siculus 
 calls it the noblell city in the world ; admires its 
 ornamental works in gold, filver, and ivory ; its 
 colloflal flatues, and thofe immenfe obelifks, 
 formed of a fingle Hone, the remains of which 
 are yet beheld with admiration. The fame hifto- 
 rian defcribes the principal temple, which was to 
 be feen in his time, as of great extent; the walls 
 of wonderful thicknefs, and the decorations not 
 lefs admirable for their curious workmanfhip than 
 the richnefs of the materials ; but the gold, filver, 
 ivory, and precious flones, were pillaged by 
 Cambyfes in his invafion of that country, and 
 which afterwards ferved to adorn the palaces of 
 Perfepolis and Sufa ; but every thing I have hi- 
 therto mentioned falls infinitely /hurt of the tomb 
 of Ofymandes, of which our hiftorian has given 
 a long defcription. It was built of ftones varioufly 
 coloured, and divided into many large apartments ; 
 the greater part filled with colofTal flatues o.f men 
 and beads. In one part, the hi (lory of the exploits 
 of Ofymandes was engraved on the walls ; in ano- 
 ther part, was feen an infinite number of flatues 
 reprefenting an audience attentive to the clecifions 
 
 of
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 9 
 
 of a full fenate in the midft flood the judge, at 
 his feet was placed the volume containing the laws 
 of Egypt, and round his neck was fufpended, by a 
 firing, the image of Truth with her eyes {hut : for 
 a more particular account of this wonderful building 
 I muft refer the reader to Diodorus himfelf ; and 
 {hall only obferve, that after making every allow- 
 ance for the exaggeration of vanity, and even 
 poetic fiction, enough remains to gives us an ex- 
 alted idea of the art and induftry of the Egyptians. 
 Why mould I mention the pyramids, thofe eternal 
 monuments of the oftentation, vanity, and cruelty 
 of their kings, and the miferable fervitude of their 
 people, or enlarge on their immenfe obelifks formed 
 of a angle flone, cut out of a rock in Upper-Egypt, 
 and from thence conveyed down their canals in 
 boats built for the purpofe, and afterwards raifed 
 to their perpendicular pofition by the united efforts 
 of myriads, employed in one common work ? 
 
 The Greeks derived their knowledge of Archi- 
 tecture from Egypt. Cecrops and Danaus, with 
 their Egyptian colony, firft prevailed on them to 
 leave their wandering life, to fubmit to jufl and 
 equal laws, and to apply themfelves to agriculture 
 and the arts; but all that can be faid of the pro- 
 grefs made by that nation, in Architecture, till the 
 time of the Trojan war, amounts to little more than 
 conjecture. We are informed that they lived in 
 B cities,
 
 10 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 cities, and ere&ed temples for the worfhip of the 
 gods, and palaces for the residence of their princes 
 and great men. 
 
 ThefeujS, one. of their moft celebrated heroes, is 
 faid to have united the twelve cities of Attica under 
 one government, and to have adorned the city 
 of Athens with many noble buildings. For the ftate 
 of Architecture, during the Trojan war, we muft 
 confult Homer; who, in the fixth book of his Iliad, 
 gives us an account of the magnificent palace of 
 Pri^m, containing .apartments for his fifty fons and 
 daughters, built entirely of marble, and raifed-on 
 arches ; from which we may infer, that the Greeks 
 had already excelled their matters, the Egyptians, 
 in Architecture ; for it is remarkable, that that 
 nation never knew how to turn an arch, 
 
 We have in the fame author frequent defcrip- 
 tions of ornaments in gold, filver, brafs, and ivory ; 
 and the imitative genius of man had already dif- 
 played itfelf in fculpture, painting, and ftatuary. 
 Mention is likewife made of ilately columns, but 
 I can fee nothing like a diftin&ion of orders in 
 .building ; confequently the account given by 
 Vitruvius of the invention of the Ionic order, the 
 honour of which he attributes to Ion, the fon of 
 Xuthus, muft be rejected as fabulous, as well as 
 l the
 
 11 
 
 *:he Doric order, which he affirms to have been 
 invented by Dorus, a prince of Achaia. 
 
 The misfortunes of the princes engaged in the 
 fiege of Troy, have proved a copious fubjecl: for the 
 epic and tragic mufe. We fee Ulyfles wandering 
 for ten years through various climes, and driven 
 on favage and inhofpitable coafts Agamemnon 
 murdered by his wife Idorrieneus and Diomede 
 forced from their native foil, and obliged to feek 
 fhelter in a foreign country; during this ftate of 
 anarchy, confufion, and civil war, it is impoflible 
 that the arts could flourifh : but when the ftorm. 
 fubfided, and Oreftes was firmly eftablifhed on the 
 throne of Argos, Mycenae, and Sparta ; during 
 his long and happy reign, and that of his imme- 
 diate fucceffor, Architecture, with the other arts, 
 revived. 
 
 At length the Heraclidze, eighty years after the 
 deftruftion of Troy, return into PeloponnefuS' a 
 Jong and cruel war fuccecds the Pelopidas are van- 
 quifhed, and the He-raclidae eftablifh themfelves in 
 their ancient pofTeflions; during this dreadful con- 
 teft, learning, arts, and civility, feemed to breathe 
 their laft. The old inhabitants, unable to bear 
 the tyranny of their new mafters, emigrated in 
 vaft numbers, and eftablifhing themfelves on the 
 coaft of Afia-Minor, built the cities of Smyrna, 
 B 2 HalicarnalTus,
 
 It ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 Halicarnaflus, and Ephefus; here they had full 
 leifure to cultivate the Arts and Sciences, which 
 they did with fuch fuccefs, that they boafl the ho- 
 nour of giving birth to Homer, the father of poetry, 
 and Herodotus, the father of hiftory. They lite- 
 wife reduced Architecture to rules, and invented 
 the Doric and Ionic orders. The proportions are 
 taken from the human body, and as the height of 
 a man is fix times the length of the foot, the height 
 of the pillar was, at firft, equal to fix times its 
 diameter ; it was afterwards extended to feven 
 times. This pillar was adorned with a capital, 
 plain, and fimple, and denoted ftrength and foli- 
 dity; from the inventors, who were of Doric origin, 
 it derived its name. The Ionic pillar (invented 
 by the lonians of Afia-Minor fome time afterwards) 
 reprefents a virgin in the bloom of youth its pro- 
 portions are more delicate, its capital is more or- 
 namented than the Doric, and its height is equal 
 to eight diameters. The characterises of this 
 order are, chaftity, neatnefs, and elegance, and 
 from the inventors it received its name. Thefe 
 improvements were foon conveyed from Afia- 
 Minor to Greece. That country, already taught 
 to exprefs her ideas of ftrength and elegance in her 
 buildings, wanted onlyjufl notions of the magni- 
 ficent to render her knowledge of the art complete : 
 this was happily accomplifhed by the invention of 
 the Corinthian order ; which, from the height of 
 
 the
 
 ARCHITECTURE. JJ 
 
 the pillar, confifting of nine times its diameter, 
 and the richnefs and variety of its ornaments, 
 correfponded to every idea we could form of 
 greatnefs. 
 
 We may reafonably fuppofe that the Greeks, 
 poflefled of thefe happy difcoveries, and aided by 
 their natural genius, gave to Architecture its lalt 
 improvement ; nor {hall we find ourfelves difap- 
 pointed in our expectations. From the defcent of 
 Xerxes to the death of Alexander the Great, we 
 fee the elegant arts cultivated to that high degree 
 as to leave fucceeding ages only the humble tafk of 
 imitating what they could never equal. 
 
 Athens, which was burnt by the army of Xerxes, 
 rofe from its afhes with new fplendour. The po- 
 litical talents of Themiftocles, the juflice and 
 integrity of Ariftides, the humanity of Cymon, the 
 confummate prudence and admirable forefight of 
 Pericles, which fucceflively held the reins of go. 
 vernmcnt, all tended to one point (viz.) that of 
 making their country glorious and their people 
 happy. Enriched by the fpoils of their vanquifhed 
 enemies, and yet more by their extenfive commerce, 
 liberality, tafte, and induflry were univerfally 
 -dirTufed. Cymon, by his refined, elegant, and ge- 
 nerous ftyle of living, contributed no Icfs to adorn 
 the city by works of art than to improve the manners 
 
 of
 
 f ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 of its inhabitants. Pericles', by the number attcf 
 magnificence of his public buildings, acquired the 
 glorious appellation of fecond fourider of Athens; 
 the fame grandeur and elevation of thought, chaf- 
 tifed by the fevereft judgment, which animated his 
 orations, appeared in his ftatues and temples. 
 
 In the temple of Jupiter Olympius we fee form 
 and colour given to the fublime conceptions of 
 Homer in the ftatue of Jupiter, the work of the 
 immortal Phidias. The foundations of this temple 
 are faid to have been laid by Pififtratus, but I ima- 
 gine all that was built of it before the expedition 
 of Xerxes, muft have perifhed in the great confla- 
 gration which confumed the city but the Athe- 
 nians foon began to rebuild it, and adorned by the 
 fucceflive labours and ingenuity of many genera- 
 tions, when finifhed, it exhibited an obje6l more 
 glorious than any which Egypt or Babylon had ever 
 feen in the days of their greateft profperity and 
 fplendour in magnitude nearly equal to fome of 
 their mod celebrated edifices ; in chaftity of defign, 
 in juftnefs of proportion, and in every thing that 
 con dilutes true beauty, far fuperior. To defcribe 
 the numerous porticos, temples, aquedu6ts, and 1 the 
 other monuments of ingenuity and tafle, with 
 which this city abounded, does not fall in with the 
 defign of my work ; but the theatre is too extraor- 
 dinary not to merit a particular account. It was 
 
 built
 
 ARCHITECTURE. 15 
 
 built of ceftly marble, and fo large, tbat it was ca- 
 pable of holding thirty thoufand fpeftators ; circular 
 on one fide, and fquare on the other ; round the 
 whole were ranges of porticos, according to the 
 number of ftories, raifed one above the other. 
 This building was open at the top ; the reafon of 
 which I conceive to be this : as the plays were acled 
 in the day-time, the light of the fun might in fome 
 meafure be necefiary for the aftors ; befides, it gave 
 an air of probability to the drama, and made the 
 reprefentation appear like a real aclion, which was 
 a principal object with all their tragedians. But 
 nothing in the Greek theatre Ibrikes us with that 
 aflonilhment, as the echea, or brazen veifels, as 
 Vitruvius calls them, which were placed under the 
 feats of the fpeflators, and difpofed by -the moii 
 exaft geometric and harmonic proportion, in fuclt 
 a manner as to reverberate the voice of the aclor, 
 and render the articulation more clear and harmo- 
 nious ; and fuch was the excellence of this contri- 
 vance, that a perfon placed in the furtheft part of 
 the theatre could hear diflinctly every fyllableof the 
 .play. How this was accomplifhed is not eafy to 
 j conceive certain I am, that it could not be effect- 
 ed without a more per feel knowledge, not only 
 of Architecture, but of various branches of the 
 mathematics, than we at prefent poffefs ; for few 
 of the advocates for the moderns will, I believe, 
 jhave the vanity to allert, that any perfon of this 
 
 age
 
 5 ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 age can communicate found, clearly and diftin&Iy, 
 by an invention of that nature, through the fmaller 
 and lefs crouded theatres of London and Paris. 
 
 Let us now confider the comparative merits of 
 the Egyptian and Grecian Architecture. On view- 
 ing the former, we are ftruck with that idea of 
 grandeur which rifes from the magnitude of the 
 objecl, and cannot help expreffing our admiration 
 and aftonifhment, when we confider the vaft dif- 
 proportion between the building and the builder! 
 when we refleft on the limited powers of man, 
 and behold the efFecls of united and continued 
 labour. Their coloflal flatues, and the laborious 
 and minute ornaments, with which they over- 
 charged their buildings, muft likewife excite in us 
 an admiration of their induftry. But they were 
 ftrangers to that beauty which proceeds from cor- 
 reclnefs of defign, and a graceful and harmonious 
 difpofition of parts. They were likewife ignorant 
 of what we confider as fome of the firft principles 
 of Architecture. I have already obferved, that 
 they knew not how to turn an arch, neither were 
 they happy in the difpofition of their lights. Pillars, 
 it is true, are to be feen in their buildings, but fo 
 much out of all proportion, that inftead of a beauty, 
 they may be confidered as a defeft the ornaments 
 of the capital are laboured, lifelefs, and uniform. 
 Egypt, though the parent of almoft every art, yet 
 
 never
 
 ARCHITECTURE. \J 
 
 never carried one. to its higheft (late of poffible 
 perfection. The fire of genius was extinguimed 
 by the rigid laws, and ftricl: ceconomy, of their 
 government ; but in Greece the powers of the hu- 
 man mind had full liberty to expand themfelves, 
 and to that happy climate we owe that combination 
 of judgment and feeling which conflitutes true 
 tafte. This reigns in all their works of art, and 
 whether we contemplate a building or a fiatue, we 
 are flruck with an idea of beauty, the effect of a 
 juft imitation of nature, or a conformity between 
 the object before us, and the defign of the artiil ; 
 if, defcending to particulars, we examine a fingle 
 column, we mail find it perfect in all its parts; 
 and that the length of the lhaft, and the ornaments 
 of its capital, are fo formed as to convey ideas of 
 ilrength, elegance, or grandeur, the characterises 
 of the three orders, and which include every modi- 
 fication of either utility or beauty. 
 
 ^From what has been faid, I think I may venture 
 to affirm, that Architecture in Greece, during the 
 time of Alexander the Great, had reached the 
 higheft perfection of which it is capable. That 
 the Greeks were far fuperior, in that art, to the 
 Egyptians, Babylonians, and all the nations of an- 
 tiquity ; and that the excellence of the moderns 
 confifts in a happy imitation of thofe models of per- 
 fection which are left us by that polite and enlight- 
 ened people. 
 
 C ASTRO-
 
 [ '8 1 
 
 ASTRONOMY. 
 
 T F we carry back our views to the remoteft anfi- 
 -* quity, and contemplate man in the earlieft 
 flages of fociety ; we (hall find him ftruck with the 
 appearance of the heavenly bodies. The regular 
 fucceflion of day and night gives him the firft idea 
 of the divifion of time, and the fun and moon will 
 be the firft objects of his attention. The fplendour 
 of the former moving in an unclouded fky the 
 more fober majefty of the latter, accompanied by 
 an innumerable hoft of ftars, muft fill him with 
 aftonifhment and admiration ; but when he difco- 
 vers their benign influence on the fruits of the 
 earth, on animals, and on man, or that the fun (to 
 ufe the fublime expreflion of the Peruvians) is the 
 foul of the univerfe, which animates every part, he 
 will be naturally led to regard that glorious lumi- 
 nary with fentiments of gratitude and adoration. 
 The moon, as next in dignity, will likewife be 
 confidered as an object of worfhip. 
 
 Thus we find that all nations, however they dif- 
 fer in language, climate, and manners, have agreed 
 in ranking the fun and moon among their firft 
 deities, till a more abftrafted philofophy taught 
 
 th^m
 
 ASTRONOMY. 19 
 
 them to confider thefe luminaries, fo wonderful in 
 their powers and beneficial in their influence, only 
 as the emanation of that Divine Mind which ex- 
 ifted from all eternity. 
 
 The different phafes of the moon mufl very early 
 have engaged the attention of mankind ; and it 
 could not be long before they difcovered that fhe 
 run through all her changes and completed one 
 revolution in twenty-nine days and a half. This 
 formed the fecond divifion of time; and whilft 
 men led a wandering life, fubfifting on the fponta- 
 neous fruits of the earth, or by hunting and riming, 
 no other divifion was necefTary. Thus the inhabi- 
 tants of the interior parts of Africa, and many 
 nations of favages in North and South America, at 
 this day, have no other method of reckoning time 
 but by moons. But when men applied themfelves 
 to Agriculture, it was neceffary for them to extend 
 their views further, to mark the feafons and alcer- 
 tain the proper time for fowing and reaping their 
 grain ; this could not be done accurately without 
 fixing the term of a revolution of the fun ; a work 
 of no fmall difficulty, and far beyond the powers 
 of the human mind juft emerging from a ftate of 
 barbarifm. But they obferved, that after twelve 
 revolutions of the rnoon, they faw a return of the 
 fame feafons, and from thence concluded that 
 one folar, was equal to twelve lunar revolutions ; 
 C 2 the
 
 20 ASTRONOMY'. 
 
 the firft year muft therefore confift of three hundred 
 and fifty-four days, that is, eleven days, fix hours, 
 and forty-nine minutes lefs than the true folar year. 
 The defect of this reckoning muft very foon have 
 been felt, as in feventeen years the courfe of the 
 feafons would be inverted. To remedy this, 
 they made the months confift of thirty days, twelve 
 of which formed a year of three hundred and fixty 
 days, from whence came the divifion of the ecliptic 
 into three hundred and fixty degrees. This luni- 
 folar year was in ufe among the Aflyrians, Baby- 
 lonians, Ifraelites, and all the civilized nations of 
 Afia ; it was likewife adopted by the Greeks and 
 Latins, and even by the Egyptians till the reign of 
 Ammon, which fir Ifaac Newton places one thou- 
 fand and thirty-four years before the Chriftian sera. 
 The Egyptians, fays Diodorus Siculus, reckon 
 their days, not by the courfe of the moon, but by 
 the courfe of the fun ; their year confifls of twelve 
 months of thirty days, to which they add five days 
 and fix hours, which completes the folar revolution. 
 They ufe no intercalation, like the Greeks ; and 
 as their calendar is more correcl, their calculations 
 of folar and lunar eclipfes are more to be depended 
 on than thofe of any other nation. 
 
 In memory of this moft wonderful difcovery, 
 the fame author relates, that in the tomb of Ofy- 
 mandes they placed a golden circle, one cubit in 
 
 thicknefs
 
 ASTRONOMY. 21 
 
 thicknefs and three hundred and fixty-five in com- 
 pafs. This circle was divided into three hundred 
 and fixty-five equal parts, which correfponded to 
 the days of the year, on which the heliacal rifings 
 and fettings of the ftars were marked. This circle, 
 together with other valuable monuments of Egyp- 
 tian learning and ingenuity, was deftroyed by 
 Cambyfes in his cruel invafion of that country. 
 From the teftimony of this, as well as every other 
 ancient writer, it appears that the Egyptians ap- 
 plied themfelves very early to the ftudy of Aftro- 
 nomy, and were celebrated for their fuperior know- 
 ledge in that fcience above all nations. 
 
 The ferenity of their fky, feldom obfcured by 
 clouds, enabled them to contemplate the heavenly 
 bodies in all their glory. The fertility of their foil, 
 which afforded fubfiftence without much labour, 
 induced a confiderable part of the fociety to devote 
 themfelves to a life of ftudy and contemplation ; 
 and above all, the periodical overflowing of the 
 Nile rendered them particularly attentive in marking 
 the feafons for this annual inundation covered all 
 the low lands of Egypt, and obliged the inhabitants 
 to build their towns and villages .on eminences, and 
 fecure them againft the rifmg waters by large and 
 deep ditches ; a work of incredible labour. Not to 
 mention thofe famous canals, which, breaking the 
 force of the torrent, conveyed the waters through 
 
 a thoufand
 
 22 ASTRONOMY, 
 
 a thoufand different channels, and diffufed fertility 
 over the whole country. Thus did the induftry and 
 ingenuity of the Egyptians convert into a bleffing, 
 what feemed intended by nature as a curfe. Dio- 
 dorus Siculus relates, that in the reign of their 
 ancient kings, high towers were creeled, on which 
 perfons were placed to mark accurately from day 
 to day the augmentation and diminution of the 
 river. Thefe annual obfervations were preferved 
 with great care : from a due attention to which 
 the Egyptians houfed their cattle, retired from the 
 country into the towns, and forefeeing the inun- 
 dation, expected it with great tranquillity. 
 
 The Greeks derived their knowledge of Aftrono- 
 my, as of almoft every other fcience, from Egypt. 
 Their year confifted, as I before obferved, of 
 three hundred and fixty days, which, though more 
 perfect than the lunar year of three hundred and 
 fifty-four days, yet as it was five .days, fix hours, 
 and forty-nine minutes fhort of the true folar year, 
 muft be confidered as very defective, as in the 
 cburfe of a little more than thirty-four years, by 
 this reckoning, the order of the feafons muft be 
 inverted. To remedy this inconvenience, they 
 correcled their months and years by the revolution 
 of the fun and moon, omitting a day or two in a 
 month as often as they found the month exceed 
 the revolution of the moon ; and adding a montl} 
 
 to
 
 ASTRONOMY. 23 
 
 to the year as often as they found the twelve lunar 
 months too fhort for the return of the four feafons. 
 To the twelve lunar months the Greeks added an 
 intercalary month every other year, which they 
 called Dieteris; and finding the year too long, in 
 the courfe of eight years, by a month, they omitted 
 every eighth year an intercalary month, which they 
 called Oftaeteris. This method of intercalation is 
 faid to have been introduced by* Cadmus, who 
 brought it from Phoenicia ; but during the times of 
 the Perfian empire, the Greek aftronomers changed 
 their manner of intercalating the three months in 
 the Oftsteris. From their ignorance of the true 
 folar revolution, the calendar of the Greeks muft 
 be fubjecl: to continual variation. The firft month 
 of their luni-folar year muft begin fometimes be- 
 fore and fometimes after the vernal equinox, by 
 reafon of the intercalary month ; and the ancient 
 aftronomers were divided in opinion about fixing 
 the equinoctial point. The difficulty was increafed 
 by the preceffion of the equinoxes, of which they 
 were ignorant. Meton and Euftemon reformed 
 the Greek calendar in the year before Chrift 432, 
 by their famous lunar cycle of nineteen years. To 
 nineteen lunar years they added feven intercalary 
 months ; this cycle, though it does not correfpond 
 exaftly with nineteen folar revolutions, yet is freer 
 from error than any that was formed before. The 
 Chaldeans, who were much additted to the ftudv 
 
 or
 
 24 ASTRONOMY. 
 
 of Aftronomy (and who were the inventors o* 
 judicial Aftrology) in the year 884 before Chrift, 
 adopted the Egyptian year of three hundred and 
 fixty-five days, and commenced at that period their 
 famous aera of Nabonaflar. 
 
 It is probable that the Egyptians difcoverecl the 
 true length of the foiar year by meafuring the me- 
 ridional fhadow of the fun ; they ufed at firft natural 
 gnomons, fuch as mountains and trees, which fug- 
 gefted the idea of artificial, and we have reafon to 
 imagine, that their famous obelifks were erected 
 for aftronomical purpofes, and not merely for an 
 oflcntatious difplay of the wealth of their kings. 
 
 From the imperfect ftate of the Greek calendar, 
 many refpectable writers have imagined that the 
 Greeks, captivated by the charms of eloquence, 
 poetry, and thofe elegant arts which are the chil- 
 dren of fancy, paid little attention to Aftronomy ; 
 but fir Ifaac Newton, whofe authority on this fubje6t 
 ought to have great weight, affirms that Chiron 
 formed a fphere for the princes who engaged 
 in the Argonautic expedition, and fixed the equi- 
 noctial and folftitial points. The names of the 
 conflellations infcribed on this fphere, as the fajme 
 admirable philofopher obferves, relate to the Argo- 
 nauts and their cotcmporaries, and to perfons one 
 or two generations older. It at firft appears difficult 
 3 to
 
 ASTRONOMY. 25 
 
 to conceive that the Greeks, at fo early a period, 
 ihould have made fuch great advances in Aftrono- 
 my ; but we ought to confider that the multitude 
 of ftars which are fcattered over the face of heaven, 
 engaged the attention of mankind almoft as early 
 as the fun and moon, firft from curiofity ; after- 
 wards their utility was difcovered, though partially, 
 by the moft favage nations, who in travelling 
 through their deferts have no other guide but the 
 ilars to direft them. This necefTarily induced them 
 to fix their attention to thofe ftars, which from their 
 fplendour, and above all, their pofition in the hea- 
 vens, were beft calculated for that purpofe. Thus 
 the Iriquois, before the arrival of the Europeans, 
 were acquainted with the polar (tar, and the con- 
 ftellation of the Great-Bear. The Greenlanders 
 know the polar ftar, the great and leffer bear. Sea- 
 dogs make a confiderable part of their fubfiftence. 
 Thofe amphibious animals are not to be caught 
 except at night ; the appearance of the ftars, there- 
 fore, is a fignal for the Greenlanders to hunt the 
 fea-dogs, and the name they give the Urfa Minor 
 is expreflive of the aftion of hunting. The inhabi- 
 tants of North-America are not ignorant of the 
 Pleiades, Hyadaes, and Orion, and, according to 
 Condamine, they call the galaxy, or milky-way, 
 the road of fouls. It appears extraordinary that 
 they mould diftinguifh their conftellations in the 
 earlteft times by the names of men and animals, 
 D and
 
 S.6 ASTRONOMY. 
 
 and that in fome inftances the names (hould corre- 
 fpond with thofe adopted by the Greeks : thus the 
 conftellation of the Great-Bear, is called hy the fame 
 name in North-America, as in Europe ; not from 
 any fimilitude of the conftellation to that animal, 
 but becaufe a bear is the moft remarkable animal 
 which inhabits the Northern regions. In Egypt 
 and Chaldea, the fame conftellation is defigned by 
 the fymbol of the Chariot, to which it bears fome 
 refemblance. The inhabitants of thofe countries 
 had not, when the fphere was formed, extended 
 their voyages fo far, as to difcover that the bear 
 is a native of the North. The Chaldeans, Ara- 
 bians, Perfians, and Greeks, have reprefented Orion 
 by the emblem of a giant ; this conformity is attri- 
 buted to the large fpace that conftellation occupies 
 in the heavens. 
 
 From what has been faid, it is evident, that the 
 aftronomical knowledge of thofe people we term 
 barbarous and uncivilized, is greater than our pride 
 is ready to allow. Accuftomed from our infancy to 
 attend to eftablifhed forms, and early taught to think 
 by rule, we feldom contemplate objefts but through 
 the medium of learning, and .cannot eafily form a 
 conception of the bold operations of the human 
 mind, left to itfelf, and perufing with an unpreju- 
 diced eye the great volume of nature. The Phoeni- 
 cians have the honour of being the firft people 
 
 who
 
 ASTRONOMY. 27 
 
 who applied the knowledge of the rftars to the pur- 
 pofes of navigation, and reduced commerce to a 
 fcience. They fcnt colonies to Africa and Spain, com- 
 manded the whole trade of the Mediterranean-Sea, 
 and extended -their voyages even to Britain, as early, 
 or probably earlier than any profane hiftories reach. 
 That it was impofirble to complete the long voyages 
 of the Phoenicians, without a knowledge of the con- 
 flellations, and accurate obfervations on the rifing 
 and fetting of the ilars, no perfon will be fo hardy as 
 to deny. 
 
 It is well known that Cadmus and <his colony of 
 Phoenicians introduced letters, mufic, poetry, the fa- 
 brication of metals, and practical Aftronomy, into 
 Greece, above one hundred years before the Ar- 
 gonautic expedition. That the Greeks received 
 from them a knowledge of thofe oonftellations 
 which Chiron is faid to have infcribed in his fphere, 
 is very probable ; not that I pretend to affirm, that 
 the conftellations were caHed by the fame name in 
 Phoenicia as in Greece. Chiron, to gratify the va- 
 nity of his countrymen, immortalized their heroes 
 by giving their names to many of the conftellations : 
 but the arrangement of the ftars, I mould fuppofe, 
 though reprefented by different fymbols, was nearly 
 the fame in both countries. But without infifting 
 too much on thefe arguments, it is not eafy to con- 
 ,ceiv.e how the Argonauts could perform their long 
 D 2 and
 
 28 ASTRONOMY. 
 
 and dangerous voyage to Colchis, at the extremity 
 of the Euxine-Sea, without a knowledge of the 
 greater part of the conftellations faid to have been 
 marked on the fphere of Chiron. In the fame 
 fphere, we are told, that the equinoftial and folftitial 
 points were fixed ; but this could not be done with 
 any great accuracy, as the Greeks were at that time 
 unacquainted with the preceflion of the equinoxes. 
 From the Argonautic expedition, to the time of 
 Thales the Milefian, we have no account of the 
 Greek Aftronomy. That great philofopher wrote 
 a book on the tropics and equinoxes, and predicted 
 an eclipfe of the fun, as appears by the teftimony of 
 Herodotus. To give a particular account of the 
 tenets of Thales, and his fucceflbrs of the Ionic 
 Ichool, in this place, would be improper. Let it 
 iuffice to obferve, that almoft every philofopher 
 adopted a favourite fyftem, which he conceived 
 himfelf bound in honour to defend. Thus thofe ta- 
 lents which ought to have been employed in the 
 calm inveftigation of truth, ferved only to perpetuate 
 difputes, and involve the cleareft perceptions of the 
 human mind in doubt and uncertainty. Amid this 
 confufion of fyflems, Socrates appeared in the 
 world ; poflefled of a genius comprehenfive and 
 fublime, a judgment acute and penetrating, and 
 a temper modeft and amiable, attentive only to 
 the caufe of truth and virtue, this great man rejected 
 all the fyftems of natural philofophy which prevailed
 
 ASTRONOMY. 29 
 
 in his time, as idle and unfatisfaftory, and devoted 
 himfelf entirely to the ftudy and praftice of moral 
 
 philofophy ; his difciple Plato, though he retained 
 
 the doftrines and important truths inculcated by 
 his great mafter, yet did not reject the aid of na- 
 tural philofophy : from a contemplation of the hea- 
 venly bodies, he drew a parallel between the regu- 
 larity of their motions, and the beauty and harmony 
 of virtue ; and endeavoured, by raifing the thoughts 
 of his followers above the objefts of fenfe, to in- 
 fpire them with juft notions of the Deity, and to a- 
 nimate them to the practice of thofe virtues which 
 exalt and dignify human nature. 
 
 Pythagoras, who flouriflied in Italy about the fix- 
 tieth olympiad, is reported to have given a true ac- 
 count of the planetary motions, and to have formed 
 that fyftem of the univerfe, which was afterwards 
 revived by Copernicus in the fifteenth century. 
 This fyftem is not fuppofed to have been the in- 
 vention of Pythagoras, but tranfplanted by that phi- 
 lofopher from Egypt to Italy ; for it is agreed that 
 he fpent twenty-two years in the Eaft, and that no- 
 thing might retard him in his purfuit of knowledge, 
 he fcrupled not to fubmit to the cuftoms moft pe- 
 culiar to thofe nations. But his aftronomical dif- 
 coveries did not meet, with the fuccefs they de- 
 ferved. Ariftotle rejected his fyftem : but it appears 
 that that philofopher had but a confufed notion of 
 
 the
 
 go AiTRON'OMY. 
 
 the doftrines of Pythagoras ; for the warmeft admi- 
 rers of Ariftotle muft confefs, that his penetrating 
 genius, which enabled him to perform wonders in 
 his ethics, logic, phyfics, and metaphyfics, has failed 
 him in his aflronomical inquiries ; not that I deny 
 but even in that Science his reafonings are acute 
 and fubtle, but many of his conclufions are over- 
 turned by modern difcoveries. 
 
 From what has been faid.it appears that the Greeks, 
 in the time of Alexander the Great, were inferior to 
 their matters the Egyptians in Aftronomy ; it is 
 impoflible to affirm with certainty, whether they 
 were equal to the Chaldeans and Phoenicians in that 
 fcience, but I fhould rather judge them to be infe- 
 rior. For the honour of the moderns it muft be ac- 
 knowledged, that the ancients at no period ever 
 equalled the laft and the prefent age in aftronomical 
 knowledge. We are indebted for this fuperiority 
 in fome meafure to the difcovery of the mariner's 
 compafs, which has enabled us to extend our navi- 
 gation to the moft remote countries ; to the many 
 ingenious inftruments we pollcfs, which were un- 
 known to the ancients ; and above all, to our op- 
 tical glafles, which extending the bounds of hu- 
 man vifion, have opened to our view an infinite 
 number of new worlds, in the contemplation of 
 which the moft enlarged mind is loft in aftonifh- 
 ment and admiration. 
 
 LANGUAGE.
 
 3 
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 ROUSSEAU fuppofes that men lived many ages 
 without the ufe of language. It will be need- 
 lefs to expofe the abfurdity of this opinion, and a 
 mere wafle of words to give a ferious anfwer to a 
 wild vifionaiy, whofe writings are no lefs contra- 
 di&ory to common fenfe, than fubverfive of every 
 principle of morality and religion. But it muft be 
 confefTed that the firft efforts towards language are 
 very feeble, and confifl of little more than inarticu- 
 late cries, expreflive of aftonifhment, fear, terror, 
 and fome of the ftrongeft emotions of the human 
 foul. Thefe cries are few in number, and inade- 
 quate to the neceflities of mankind, even in their 
 moft favage ftate. They muft therefore have learnt, 
 in the earlieft times, to vary and enlarge thefe 
 founds by articulation ; for which the organs of 
 man are wonderfully adapted. From lengthened 
 lounds thus divided, which is the peculiar province 
 of articulation, the firft language was formed; but we 
 muft not expect to find in it any thing like the 
 parts of fpeech : not only the verb, but even the 
 noun is wanting in the moft barba/ous languages. 
 The reafon I conceive to be this : it is impoffible to 
 
 give
 
 32 LANGUAGE. 
 
 give a name to an object without a diftinft idea. 
 All ideas are formed by abftraftion and combina- 
 tion ; operations of the mind to which an unculti- 
 vated favage is a ftranger, for external obje&s ftrike 
 his fenfes, not in their fimple, but in their mixed 
 and compounded ftate, and may be confidered as a 
 combination of qualities united in one fubftance. 
 To feparate the qualities from the fubjeft, and to 
 diftinguiih thofe which are peculiar to it, as an in- 
 dividual, from thofe which are general to it, as a 
 fpecies, requires much thought and reflection ; yet 
 without this no regular language can be formed. 
 
 In the Huron language we fee a fentence fre- 
 quently expreffed by a fingle word, and the aHon, 
 agent, and fubjecl, ftrangely mixed together. Ex- 
 cept in a very few inftances, they have no terrfl'for a 
 fubilance unconnected with its qualities., Confe- 
 quently the words in this language exprefs not 
 only every object, and every aHon, but all their va- 
 rious relations as fo many feparate individuals ; and 
 it has been obferved, that whatever analogy their 
 words may have in fignification, they have none in 
 found. This is fo remarkable, that to exprefs the 
 addition of a negation, or even a change of perfons, 
 they make ufe of a word entirely new. From whence 
 can this imperfection in the art of fpeech arife, but 
 from the confufed impreffions made on the mind 
 of man by external objects which he has never 
 
 arranged
 
 LANGUAGE. g3 
 
 ranged under diftinft and general heads, or fepa- 
 rated from thofe circumflances which attended 
 them when they firfi flruck his fenfes? If I may 
 tie allowed to carry hack my views to thofe remote 
 limes where human reafon affords but a fcanty light, 
 and too often re'figns her place tohypothefis and con- 
 jecture, I mould imagine that die firft impreffions a 
 folitary favage n>uft feel, would be thofe of aftonifli- 
 ment and tenor. Thefe would gradually diminifij 
 as he became more familiarized to thofe objecls which 
 at firft from their novelty appeared terrible; h-e 
 would then endeavour to provide for the nece-ffities 
 of nature, and like other gregarious animals, aflb- 
 ciate with his own fprcics ; an union of fexes would 
 .take place, and political bodies would be formed on 
 the principle of mutual defence. In this progref- 
 five (late towards what may be called the firft rudi- 
 .jnents of iocicty, the faculties of favagcs rnufl gra- 
 dually unfold thernfelves. I have already obferved, 
 that in the Huron language we frequently fee the ac- 
 tion, agent, and fubjecl, ftrangely mixed together, 
 and cxpreffed by a /ingle word. This I fuppofc to 
 have prevailed univerfally in "the firft formation of 
 that Language ; but at prefcnt, in fomc cafes, we fee 
 the fubjecl: feparated from the aclion : this mews 
 that they have at lead made fome improvement. In 
 the Caribbee language they have gone yet further; 
 and in thofe objects with which they are moft con- 
 verfant, fuch as mountains, rivers, trees, &c. have 
 E lepa-
 
 g4 LANGUAGE. 
 
 feparated the fubftance from the quality, and have 
 even diftinguiQied them by a general name. As 
 they grow more civilized, the number of thefe 
 general terms muft increafe, and regular nouns will 
 be formed. They will next afpire to greater im- 
 provements, and, by feparating the aftion from the 
 agent, form that moft artificial part of fpeech the 
 verb, and this they have in fome inftances already 
 done ; but the variations of time and perfon in their 
 verbs, and the relations in their nouns, are marked 
 by tones, of which in all the barbarous languages 
 they have a great variety. This gives a kind of 
 chaunting cadence to their Language, from which 
 ^jrcumftance fome modern philofophers have fup- 
 pofed that the firft founds of man were imitative of 
 the notes of birds. Derivation, compofition, and 
 inflexion, by which alone the moods and tenfes in 
 verbs, and the cafes in nouns are formed, muft be 
 confidered as one of the refinements of Language, 
 and the work of more enlightened ages. 
 
 To fum up what I have faid in as few words as 
 poflible ; the progreHlon of Language I conceive to 
 be nearly as follows : 
 
 Firft. Inarticulate founds. 
 
 Secondly. Confufed perceptions mixed and ex- 
 prefled by a fingle word. 
 
 Thirdly. Subftances abftracled from their qualities, 
 \vhich form nouns. 
 
 Fourthly.
 
 LANGUAGE. 3j 
 
 Fourthly. The aflions feparated from the agents, 
 \vhich form verbs. 
 
 Fifthly. Derivation and compofuion. 
 
 Abflraft nouns> derived from adjectives, fuch as 
 flight, whitenefs, temperance ; and thofe more arti- 
 ficial fubflances, fuch as motion, colour, virtue, &c. 
 are not to be met with in any of the barbarous 
 languages. The favages are unacquainted with 
 fyntax, for they have no prepofitions or con- 
 junctions. In their difcourfe, as we may obferve in 
 children, when they firft learn to fpeak, they ufe 
 words unconnected with one another. To make 
 themfelves underftood, it is therefore neceffary that 
 they mould aflume a variety of tones and geftures. 
 This is fo obfervable in all the North-American 
 tribes, that they have been called by fome of our 
 countrymen a nation of orators. Words of an 
 immeafurable length are likewife peculiar to the 
 barbarous languages, of which Condamine has given 
 a famous example in the word Poetazzarorincouroac, 
 which fignifies three. This peculiarity, I conceive, 
 took its rife from their cuftom of exprefling feveral 
 ideas by one word. Though fome philofophers 
 fuppofe it to be nothing but the remains of their 
 original inarticulate cries. The Language of the 
 favages is energetic, becaufe their ideas are copied 
 immediately from nature ; it is concife, becaufe 
 they have more ideas than terms, and from the fame 
 E 2 caufe
 
 g6 LANGUAGE. 
 
 caufe it is figurative. A favage finding himfeif at a* 
 lofs how to exprefs an abftraft idea, has recourfe to 
 material images, and fixes on one that bears fome 
 analogy to the conception formed in his mind, by 
 means of which he explains his meaning, and thus 
 makes ufe of the metaphor. This beautiful figure, 
 which is the foul of rhetoric and poetry, fprung firft 
 from the poverty of rhat Language which it was after- 
 wards deftined to beautify ami adorn. As clothes, to- 
 nfe the words of TuHy, were firft worn from neeeffity, 
 afterwards for ornament. The hyperbole is a figure 
 in rhetoric the favages are very fond of. This is 
 the effect of that aftomftrrrrent on beholding a new 
 ebjecl which is the concomitant of ignorance. 
 Many of our countrymen who have lived among the 
 favages, ftrirck with their frequent or rather conftant 
 ufe of rhetorical figure?, have afcribed to them a 
 great warmth and vigour of imagination, and fup- 
 pofed, that their Language, of all others, was the 
 heft fitted for poetry. To deny that it abounds 
 with many bold- and animated expreflions, would be 
 >mjuft ; ami on fome occafions we meet with an 
 afftonifhing elevation of thought : but if it is the 
 chief objeft of poetry to lay open the inward paf- 
 fions and affe&ions of mankind, and to form the 
 mind to virtue by example ; we muft certainly feek 
 for that divine fcience among people more civilized. 
 Not to mention that the obfcurity and want of pre-
 
 LANGUAGE. 37 
 
 tifion fo obfervable in their Language, renders it 
 unfit even for defcription. 
 
 From what has been faid, it appears that the 
 Language of a favage is in a progreffive ftate, but 
 the improvements muft be very flow, owing to the? 
 limited fphere in which he moves. But let us fup- 
 pofe a Magno Capac to arife in the defert, endowed' 
 with fuperior talents, and animated by the godlike 
 ambition of making his fellow-creatures happy. The 
 wandering tribes, inftrufted by him in agriculture 
 and the arts, will leave the forcfts, and form fixed 
 habitations in villages and towns : they will ex- 
 change a precarious for a certain fubfiftence : that 
 quick tranfition from fupine indolence, to the mof? 
 fatiguing labour, which marks the life of a favage, 
 will be fuccecded by regular indiiftry ; the domeftic 
 relations will be more accurately afcertained ; the 
 warm and focial affeHons, by frequent converfe. 
 enlarged and improved; the finer feelings awaken- 
 ed, and thofe fublime virtues excited, which form 
 the patriot and hero. From this happy change, 
 new objects muft arife every day ; the fphere of 
 man's ideas will be enlarged, and the improvements 
 in Language proportionably rapid. From their mul- 
 tiplicity, it will foon be found impoffible to invent 
 a new word for every new idea; this will lead men 
 to arrange them under general heads. From indi- 
 viduals they will afcend to the fpccies, from the 
 
 fpecies 
 
 430996
 
 g8 LANGUAGE. 
 
 fpecies to the genus. This gives rife to derivation 
 and compofition, which by preferving that analogy 
 between words, which is to be found in their cor- 
 refpondent ideas, not only render Language more 
 accurate and precife, but facilitate the progrefs of 
 the human mind in fcience. We find this exem- 
 plified in the Greek language, which is of all others 
 the moft derivative ; where almoft every fubftance 
 contains a definition, when refolved into its elemen- 
 tary parts. Reafoning yet more abftra&edly, they will 
 difcover that every thing in nature, has either a fe- 
 parate and independent exiftence, or elfe it exifts 
 only as the energy or affection of fomething elfe; the 
 former of thefe maybe termed a fubftance, the other 
 an attribute ; and under thefe two clafles all our ideas 
 may be arranged. Attributes are fubdivided into thofe 
 which have the power of affertion, which conftitute 
 what we call verbs, and thofe which (imply denote 
 quantities and qualities, which are termed adjectives ; 
 fubftances are exprefled by nouns. Befides thefe 
 terms, there are others in the refinement of Language, 
 fignificant only by relation; fuch are articles and 
 conjunctions; the other parts of fpeech, fuch as 
 pronouns, adverbs, &c. I conceive are included with- 
 in fome of the fpecies above mentioned. Let us now 
 fuppofe a Language formed, regular and copious, 
 abounding in words not only proper for the ordinary 
 occurrences of life, but exprefiive of the operations 
 of the mind. We will fuppofe confiderable advances 
 
 to
 
 LANGUAGE 59 
 
 to have been made in morality and legiflation ; th^ 
 bafis of which are abftraft ideas : yet this Language, 
 \vhich is only a modification of found, is limited by 
 fpace and duration; fomething is yet wanting to 
 render it complete; the happy art of communicating 
 our thoughts at a diftance, and giving a vifible 
 form to our ideas. An art fo necefTary to man as a 
 focial, and yet more as a political animal ! The mod 
 natural and obvious method of recording concep- 
 tions, fcems to be painting the images of things ; of 
 which we have a memorable example on the arrival 
 of the Spaniards in the kingdom of Mexico. The 
 natives, ftruck with the fingularity of their appear- 
 ance, difpatched to their king Montezuma, a large 
 cloth covered with an infinite number of figures, 
 reprefenting the Spaniards and their mips. Even 
 the North-American favages have a method of per- 
 petuating a viftory, by engraving on a tree the con- 
 tending parties, diflinguifhed by the badges of their 
 tribes; and the number of flain are marked by figures 
 of men without heads. The inconvenience attend- 
 ing this mode of communication, mufl have been 
 very foon felt. To give a feparate form to every 
 individual, muft have been an endlefs labour, and 
 the bulk of their volumes confequently immenfe. 
 This induced the more ingenious to contrive a me- 
 thod of abridging their characters, and gave rife to 
 hieroglyphics, an improvement of all others the moft 
 celebrated, and in which the Egyptians particularly 
 3 excelled,
 
 ^3 LANGUAGE. 
 
 x*elled. The firft and moft fimple method of a^ 
 bridgment, was to make the principal circumftance 
 in an aciion ftand for the whole : thus they would de^ 
 fcribe a battle, by painting two hands, one holding 
 a Oiield, the other a bow; a tumult, or popular infur- 
 reftion, by an armed man calling arrows; a fiege.by a 
 fcaling ladder, ccc. This from its fimplicityis fuppofed 
 to be the earlieft, and is known by the name of the 
 Curiologic Hieroglyphic. The fecond and more ar^ 
 tificial contraction, was to fubflitute the inftrument 
 of the thing, either real or metaphorical, for the 
 thing itfelf. Thus an eye eminently placed, was 
 intended to fignify God's omnifcience; an eye and 
 fceptre, a monarch; a (hip and pilot, the Governor 
 of the univerfe and this is called the Tropical Hie- 
 roglyphic. The third refinement in this curious 
 art, was to make one thing reprefent another, where 
 any quaint refemblance or analogy in the reprefen- 
 tative could be collected from their obfervations of 
 nature, or their traditional fuperilition- and this 
 was their Symbolic Hieroglyphic, and may be termed 
 the art of painting by metaphor. To give fome 
 inftances of this meihod of writing: The univerfe 
 was defigned by a ferpent in a circle, whofe variega- 
 ted fpots fignified the flars; in this cafe there is an 
 analogy, though remote. A widow, who never ad- 
 mits a fecond mate, was reprefented by a black 
 pigeon : this is a juft. and lively image of conftancy 
 and grief. But when they defcribed the fun rifing, 
 by the two eyes of a crocodile, the refemblance 
 
 appears
 
 LANGUAGE. 4! 
 
 appears to me purely fanciful. A king, ftern and 
 inexorable, is juflly figured by an eagle. A client, 
 flying for relief to his patron, and finding none, is 
 well exprefled by a fparrow and an owl. A wife, 
 who hates her hufband; or children, who injure 
 their mother, by a viper. A man, initiated into the 
 myfteries, and under an obligation of fecrecy, by 
 a grafshopper, becaufe that animal was thought to 
 have no mouth. ' Such are the three forms of hiero- 
 glyphics fo famous among the Egyptians. But 
 without fuffering ourfelves to be involved in the 
 intricacies of learning, let us endeavour to trace the 
 progrefs of the human mind in its fucceflive im- 
 provements in this moft wonderful art. The Curio- 
 logic Hieroglyphic, is nothing more than an abridg- 
 ment of the cuftom adopted by all nations, of 
 painting the images of things, and can only exprefs 
 thofe ideas which are derived from objects of fight 
 all thofe which depend on found, as well as abftraft 
 ideas of every fort, are excluded. The Tropical 
 Hieroglyphic takes in a wider fphere, and expreffes 
 fome abftraft ideas by metaphorical images, as is 
 the cuftom in the infancy of Language. The Sym- 
 bolic goes yet further, and records by analogy, at- 
 tributes, and moral modes. The great objection 
 againft the Symbolic Hieroglyphic, is the ftudied 
 obfcurity in which it is involved. This I conceive 
 not to have been natural to it at its firft inftitution, 
 but introduced by the priefls afterwards, to throw 
 F a veil
 
 4 LANGUAGE, 
 
 a veil of myftery over their religion and laws. 
 When men firft applied to this art of pifture-writing, 
 they muft have found themfelves very much per- 
 plexed to defcribe the qualities of the perfon they 
 painted. The method they fixed on I conceive to be 
 this : they obferved in animals certain ftriking and 
 characleriftic qualities; fuch as fiercenefs in a tiger; 
 fidelity in a dog; conftancy in a dove; ingratitude 
 in a viper, &c. To apply thefe or any other qua- 
 lities to particular perfons, they added to the human 
 figure already painted, the images of thofe animals 
 whofe qualities bore the greateft affinity to the cha- 
 racters they intended to defcribe. Afterwards, by con- 
 traction, the animal which was at firft defigned only to 
 exprefs the attribute, was made ufe of to exprefs both 
 the attribute and fubftance. This was the cafe in the 
 Symbolic Hieroglyphic, where in the inftance above 
 mentioned we fee a difconlblate widow reprefented by 
 a black pigeon ; a ftern and inexorable prince, by an 
 eagle; and fometimes the moral modes, impudence, 
 uncleannefs, and deftruftion, were exprefled by a fly, 
 a wild goat, and a moufe. Animals were introduced 
 at firft only to exprefs their more obvious and ftriking 
 qualities; but the Egyptians, who applied themfelves 
 very early to the ftudy of natural hiftory, befides 
 thefe, difcovered other fecondary and hidden quali- 
 ties in animals, and, from the vanity of fcience, 
 made ufe of the fame image to exprefs the former as 
 the latter ; and it is not uncommon to fee oppofite 
 
 qualities
 
 LANGUAGE. 43 
 
 qualities represented by the fame animal. This has 
 involved the fcience of ancient hieroglyphic in. almoft 
 impenetrable obfcurify; and to render it yet more 
 difficult, many of the qualities of their animals are 
 imaginary. We have already feen fubftances and their 
 attributes, and even abftraft nounSjexpreffed by hiero- 
 glyphics; but then they are disjointed and indepen- 
 dent, and can never make parts of a continued dif- 
 courfe, without terms of connexion and relation. To 
 fupply this defecl, they invented arbitrary marks, 
 \vhich were atfirft ufedas connectives and relatives; 
 afterwards they were employed to exprefs mental 
 conceptions, and even qualities. The Chinefe went 
 further, and rejecling the images, retained only the 
 abitrary mark. This forms their famous character; 
 and as every di{lin6t idea muft have its peculiar 
 mark, the number is prodigious. The characters of 
 Cochin, Tongking, and Japan, fays Du Halde, are 
 the fame with thofe of China, and exprefs the fame 
 ideas; although the languages are very different, 
 and the people can fcarcely make themfelves under- 
 ftood by one another in fpeaking, yet their books 
 and letters are intelligible to all. This appeal's in- 
 credible to thofe who have never extended their 
 views beyond alphabetic writing; but the reafon is 
 obvious : the Chinefe characters are reprefentatives 
 of things, alphabetic writing of words; the former 
 in their nature are fixed and unchangeable, the latter 
 fleeting and capricious. The cyphers in arithmetic, 
 F a which
 
 44 LANGUAGE. 
 
 which have the fame fignification, notwithstanding 
 the diverfity of language in every country in Europe, 
 will convey no bad idea of the nature .of the Chinefe 
 characters. The ufe of arbitrary marks to exprefs 
 abftraft ideas, has been no lefs generally adopted, 
 than the ufe of images to exprefs things. The Mex- 
 icans, we are informed, were not unacquainted 
 with them ; and the Qtiippo's or knotted cords of 
 the Peruvians, are of univerfal notoriety. Thus have 
 we traced hieroglyphic writing from its moft fimple 
 ftate of exprefling ideas by reprefentation, to the 
 more refined one of analogy; till at length we fee it 
 abforbed by marks of arbitrary inftitution, which 
 feem to hold a middle fpace between hieroglyphic 
 and alphabetic writing. The invention of the alpha- 
 bet is fo extremely artificial and ingenious, that Plato 
 and Tully conceived it to be a difcovery far beyond 
 the powers of the human underftanding, and fuppo- 
 fed it to be a gift derived immediately from the gods. 
 This certainly is an argument in favour of its anti- 
 quity. The Egyptians lay claim to this, as well as 
 to almoft every other ufeful difcovery, and afcribe 
 the honour of it to Thoth. All that is related of 
 this Thoth is involved in myftery and fable; but 
 fuch is the vaft diftance between marks of arbitrary 
 inftitution reprefenting things, and characters rcpre- 
 fenting founds, refolvable into a literal alphabet as 
 their elementary parts, that I conceive a difcovery 
 of this fort to be too great for the limited under- 
 2 {landing
 
 LANGUAGE. 45 
 
 {landing of man, unlefs aflifted by fome prior in- 
 vention; let us endeavour to mark out the pro- 
 greflive fteps which led to this difcovery: I fuppofe 
 a man of fublime and comprehenfive genius, ftruck 
 with the obfcurity which was infeparable from the 
 hieroglyphic mode of writing by analogy, and the 
 endlefs labour of inventing a multitude of arbitrary 
 marks to reprefent things, from repeated obfervations 
 might be led to conclude, that by fubflituting marks 
 for founds inftead of things, the communication of 
 our thoughts might be rendered more clear and 
 eafy; that however difficult this undertaking might 
 appear, yet as the articulate founds uttered by man, 
 though infinitely varied, are by no means numerous, 
 it was far from impracticable to reduce them within 
 certain limits, and arrange them under certain 
 divifions. This gave rife to arbitrary marks, deno- 
 ting fimple founds, which I (hall call the Syllabic 
 Alphabet. This invention muft have been a won- 
 derful effort of the human underflanding, and open- 
 ed the way to a difcovery yet more extraordinary; 
 the art of refolving thofe fimple founds into vowels 
 and confonants, as their elementary parts. At firfl 
 the literal alphabet muft, from its imperfect ftate, 
 have retained fome veftiges of the fyllabic; this I 
 conceive to have been the cafe of the greater part 
 of the Oriental Languages, before the ufe of vov.el 
 points. We have no account of the name of the 
 inventor of this moft ufeful art, who fo well de- 
 
 ferved
 
 46 LANGUAGE. 
 
 ferved immortality, but what is contained in the 
 fabulous relations of the Egyptians, and biftory is 
 altogether filent as to the time of the invention. 
 Some writers fuppofe the alphabet to be a gift of 
 God beftowed on the Ifraelites, and by them com- 
 municated to the Egyptians ; but the firft mention 
 we find of writing, is in Exodus, when Mofes re- 
 ceived the decalogue written on two tables of ftone, 
 by the finger of God. Had the Ifraelites at that 
 time been ignorant of alphabetic writing, they could 
 not have understood their laws without a revelation 
 from heaven, to explain the characters in which they 
 were written. Yet the facred hiftorian fays nothing 
 of this revelation; and it is the height of abfurdity 
 to fuppofe that he would have been filent on a 
 fubjel of fo great importance. We may therefore 
 conclude, that the Ifraelites were acquainted with 
 alphabetic writing before their departure from 
 Egypt; and the invention muft have been prior to 
 their defcent, or during their abode there. Scripture 
 will not juftify the fuppofition, that the patriarchs knew 
 any thing of the alphabet, or indeed of any other 
 kind of writing; as we find communication carried 
 on by meffengers, who delivered every thing by word 
 of mouth. I believe few people fuppofe that the 
 Egyptians had invented the alphabet before the ar- 
 rival of the Ifraelites. It muft therefore have 
 been difcovered during the time of the abode of 
 that people in Egypt; and allowing it to be of human 
 
 invention,
 
 LANGUAGE. 47 
 
 invention, the honour is juftly due to the Egyptians ; 
 for it cannot be fuppofed that the Ifraelites, whilft 
 labouring under the moft cruel opprefiions and in- 
 fults, and occupied in continual labour, could fo far 
 abftraft the mind, as to invent an art, which of all 
 others, required the moft refined and metaphyfical 
 reafomng. 
 
 Upon the whole we may conclude, that Mofes 
 brought the alphabet from Egypt; but what im- 
 provements it received from his hands afterwards, 
 I pretend not to affirm. It appears extraordinary 
 that the Egyptians, after the invention of the al- 
 phabet, mould yet retain the ufe of their hierogly- 
 phics; but many reafons may be afiigned for their 
 conduct: Firft, their prejudice in favour of their an- 
 cient cuftoms; the artifice of their priefts, whowifhed 
 to throw a veil of myftery over the moft fublime 
 truths of morality and religion, to attract by that means 
 the veneration of mankind; to conceal the fecrets 
 of their religion and laws from the eyes of foreigners, 
 and to prevent the wicked and prophane from par- 
 ticipating in their religious rites. This will account 
 for the ftudied obfcurity which univerfally prevails 
 in the latter hieroglyphics, fo different from the 
 fimplicity of the earlier; as it was the object of one 
 to fecrete, the other to divulge. The Ifraelites 
 were forbidden by the fecond commandment, to 
 make ufe of hieroglyphics ; the object of that 
 
 prohibition.
 
 48 LANGUAGE. 
 
 prohibition, was to preferve God's chofen people 
 free from idolatry, to which the ufe of hieroglyphics 
 had a fatal tendency; for when refined and obfcured 
 by the myflic learning of their priefts, and em- 
 ployed as the only vehicle for the explanation of 
 moral and religious truth, it infenfibly gave rife to 
 thofe various forms of brute worfhip, to which the 
 Egyptians were fo fuperftitioufly addifted. So 
 ftrilly did the Ifraelites adhere to this law, that they 
 marked their conftellations in the heavens, not by 
 the fymbols of men and animals, as was the cuftom 
 of every other nation, but by alphabetic characters. 
 
 Thus have I endeavoured to explain in as clear 
 and concife a manner as I am able, the dark and 
 perplexed fcience of hieroglyphics; if in any part 
 I feem obfcure, or the reafons I urge appear unfatis- 
 faftory, I muft refer my reader to the late Dr. 
 Warburton ; who in the fourth book of his divint 
 legation of Mo/es, has treated this difficult fubjecl; 
 with that depth of learning and ftrength of judgment 
 for which he was fo juftly celebrated. 
 
 The immediate confequence of the ufe of alpha- 
 betic writing, muft be the diffufion of knowledge. 
 This the Egyptian priefts were fully convinced of, 
 and therefore retained their hieroglyphics to keep 
 the people in ignorance; but among nations, whofe 
 fentiments were more liberal and generous, we find 
 
 this
 
 LANGUAGE. 4-9 
 
 this moil ufeful art applied to the noble purpofe of 
 extending the influence of morality and religion. 
 But in their firft compofitions, we muft expect to fee 
 them retain fomething of their ancient cuftom of 
 hieroglyphic writing by analogy. This gave rife 
 to fable, the mod ancient fpecies of writing, adopt- 
 ed by all nations, and allowed to be the beft vehicle-- 
 for conveying moral and political truths. The iim- 
 ple fable was fucceeded by allegory, which is a more 
 refined mode of communication. But when the 
 imagination was warmed by the contemplation of 
 the attributes of the Deity, his moral government 
 of the univerfe, or by any fublime object: in the 
 natural world, and the underftanding laboured for 
 ^xpreflion, it is reafonable to believe they would 
 copy in their writings, thofe hieroglyphic images 
 by which they formerly communicated fimilar con- 
 ceptions. This is remarkably exemplified in the 
 prophetic writings m the Old Teftament ; where we 
 fee the fubverfion of cities and empires, fignified by 
 the falling of the ftars, and the eclipfes of the fun 
 and moon. It is well known that the cceleftial bo- 
 dies were ufed by the Egyptians as hieroglyphic 
 images, to reprefent kings, princes, and rulers. 
 So many inftances of this fort occur in reading the 
 prophets, that fome of our mod learned divines have 
 emphatically ftyled them fpeaking Hieroglyphics. 
 This, next to the intrinfic greatnefs of the fubjer, 
 may be afiigned as a principal caufe of that boldnefs 
 G and
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 and fublimity of imagery in which they mufl be 
 acknowledged to excel all other writers. 
 
 From Egypt the Phoenicians received the alpha- 
 betic character, and had the honour of communi- 
 cating that mofl ufeful difcovery to the Greeks. 
 Cadmus is faid to have brought with him fixteen of 
 the twenty- four letters which formed their alphabet; 
 nor was this gift loft upon the Greeks: the fame 
 fuperiority of genius appeared in their language as 
 in their works of art. If we examine its ftrength, 
 copioufnefs, regularity, and harmony, we (hall find 
 it equally excellent in every part. This will beft 
 appear by taking a fhort view of their writers, and 
 we will begin with the poets, who are the firft in 
 order of time. 
 
 We find in Homer all that can ftrike the imagi- 
 nation, awaken the paffions, or inform the judg- 
 ment : like a fuperior being he furveysall nature in 
 one comprehenfive view penetrates into the deep- 
 efl; receffes of the human heart, and marks the in- 
 finite variety under which it appears. Not lefs bold 
 in his expreffions, than fublime in his fentiments, 
 when he defcribes the majefty of a god, or the hor- 
 rors of .a battle: but, when he paints the calm and 
 fequeftered fcenes, and the amiable virtues of pri- 
 vate life, fimplicity and eafe, elegance and fweet- 
 nefs, appear in every line. In the choice and dif- 
 
 pofition
 
 LANGUAGE. 1 
 
 pofition of his words; in the juftnefs of his meta- 
 phors ; and in the arrangement of the various parts 
 of his work. I fay in thefe, as well as in every 
 other excellence, he yet remains and probably will 
 ever remain unequalled. The ftyle of Hefiod is 
 fuited to his fubjeft, which is rural and didaftic; he 
 never rifes to the fublime, or amufes his reader with 
 the luxuriance of poetic defcription ; but he merits 
 a large portion of praife, for the juftnefs of his pre- 
 cepts, the fimplicity of his di&ion, the harmony 
 of his periods, and the regularity of his compo- 
 fition. 
 
 In the lyric poems of Alcaeus, we fee a boldnefs 
 and vigour of thought, and a ftrength and brevity 
 of expreflion. 
 
 In Sappho, who well deferved the name of the 
 tenth mufe, we behold a delicacy of fentiment, and 
 an elegance of ftyle well fitted to defcribe the 
 tender paflions, and the finer feelings of the human 
 foul. 
 
 In Pindar, every thing is great and magnificent ; 
 we are flruck with the elevation of his thoughts, the 
 fplendour of his words, the boldnefs of his figures, 
 and that copious and rapid dream of eloquence 
 which carries all before it. 
 
 G 2 yEfchvlus>,
 
 tp. LANGUAGE. 
 
 ./Efchylus, the renowned father'of tragic poetry, is: 
 warm, energetic, and fublime ; never fo great as 
 when he defcribes fcenes of horror, and paints the 
 fad efiefts of wild and ungoverned paflions. 
 
 \Ve admire the calm dignity of Sophocles, well 
 {killed to touch the human foul, and call forth all 
 the virtuous and tender affections. 
 
 The tear ftarts from the eye whilft we perufe the 
 pathetic ftrains of Euripedes. In all things admi- 
 rable; but, particularly excellent in exciting the 
 pa (lion of pity. 
 
 IT we turn our eyes from their poets to their hif- 
 torians ; we (hall fee in Herodotus, grace, elegance,, 
 and harmony ; a flowing and copious eloquence, an 
 artful arrangement of periods, and a lucid order in 
 the difpofition of his facls. 
 
 Thucydides, is folemri, grave, and pathetic ; 
 firmly attached to the facred caufe of truth and vir- 
 tue, he is lefs attentive to the cadence of his periods 
 than to the dignity of his fubjecl, which he en- 
 nobles by the native elevation of his mind. In his 
 fentiments fublime, in his diftion figurative and 
 poetical. Here the ftatefman may find the befl 
 maxims of political wifdorn ; the orator the noblefi 
 examples of warm and perfuafive eloquence, and 
 2 the
 
 LANGUAGE, 53 
 
 the patriot the moft animating motives to excite him 
 to prefer the public good to every private and felfifli 
 confideration. 
 
 Simplicity, perfpicuity, and unaffected fweetnefs, 
 characterize the flyle of Xenophon. The ancients 
 faid, that the goddefs of perfuafion had feated 
 herfelf on his lips : fparing in the ufe of figures 
 and other rhetorical ornaments, he builds his 
 reputation on the juilnefs of his fentiments, and his 
 warm and ardent love for religion and virtue. 
 Formed by the inftruclions of the immortal Socrates, 
 and endowed by nature with the happieft difpo- 
 fhions, as a foldier, hiftorian, and philofopher.'he 
 was equally admirable ; and may boaft the honour 
 of delivering the doftrines of his great matter, more 
 pure than any of his other difciplcs. 
 
 Who will difpute the palm of oratory with 
 Greece, whilft they boaft a Demoflhenes ? In him 
 we behold fuch wonderful powers of argument; 
 fuch ftrong and nervous expreffions; and on proper 
 occafions fuch bold and animated addreffes to the 
 paflions, that the reader refts fatisfied ; convinced 
 that in him there is nothing either deficient or re- 
 dundant. This great man employed his fuperior 
 talents in a glorious attempt to relume the ex- 
 piring virtue of his country, and for fome time fuf* 
 pended her fall.
 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 s, who holds the fecond rank, is more figu- 
 rative and diffufe; inferior to Demofthenes in the 
 vioourand itrength of his genius, inftead of inform- 
 ing the underflanding, or moving the paflions, he 
 too frequently plays with the imagination. 
 
 Plato, the prince of moral philofophers, holds a 
 diftinguifhed place among orators ; and I believe I 
 Ihould not go too far, to affirm, that the funeral 
 oration of Menexenus, is the nobleft profe compo- 
 Ction that ever flowed from an uninfpired pen. 
 
 It may not be amifs to obferve in this place, that 
 fuch is the excellence of the Greek Language, that 
 it is equally adapted to every fubjeft treated of by 
 the authors I have juft now mentioned ; and we 
 may venture to affert, that in poetry, hiftory, and 
 eloquence of every kind, the Greeks in the age of 
 Alexander the Great, were infinitely our fupcriors. 
 
 HEATHEN
 
 L 55 3 
 
 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 AND 
 
 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 IH A V E obferved in a former differtation, that 
 the fun and moon from their fplendour and ap- 
 parent utility, were the firfl objecls of adoration 
 among mankind ; for the fame caufe, the ftars were 
 afterwards regarded as gods ; and the elements, the 
 air, fire, water, and earth, were not only worfhipped 
 by the Egyptians, Grecians, and the more enlight- 
 ened nations of antiquity, by various names ex- 
 preffive of their various qualities, but are now 
 adored by the uncivilized tribes of North-America. 
 The ordinary operations of nature, in violent gulls 
 of wind, in heavy rams, and above all in thunder- 
 ftorms, mud fill the mind of a favage with tenor. 
 Unable to account philofophically for thefe appear- 
 ances, he is led by fuperftition, the offspring of 
 ignorance and fear, to fuppofe a deity refiding in 
 every ftorm : this gives rife to the belief of an in- 
 ferior kind of gods or genii ; by whom the various 
 phenomena in the elements are produced. Under 
 
 thefe
 
 *;6 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 thefe three heads, viz. Star, Elementary, and Me- 
 terological Worfhip, may be included the religion 
 of mankind in their moft uncultivated ftate ; whilft 
 fubfifting on the fpontaneous fruits of the earth, or 
 hunting, or filhing. I am not ignorant, that it is 
 the opinion of many refpeflable writers, that the 
 appearance of nature, in which the power, wifdom, 
 and goodnefs of God are exprefled in fuch flrong 
 characters, muft lead man in his moil favage ftate to 
 the knowledge of one God, the Creator and Father 
 ef all things ; but this is to fuppofe in a favage not 
 only the capacity for, but tire habit of reflection ; 
 than which nothing can be more contrary to his 
 chara61er. Mortifying as it is to our pride, it muft be 
 confefled that many nations have been difcovered, 
 who have fcarcely had the leaft trace of an abftraft 
 idea. Is it not, therefore, more natural, that a 
 favage fhould fuppofe the univerfe to be governed 
 by objects of fenfe, whofe power and influence he 
 daily felt ; than to feek for a remote caufe difcover- 
 able only by long and abftral: reafoning. That the 
 firft man had the knowledge of one God is un- 
 deniable, but that knowledge was the confequence 
 of a revelation : that the belief of the unity of 
 the Deity, was always preferved in one family, 
 which afterwards became a great nation, is a truth, 
 confirmed by the concurrent teHnnony of f acred 
 and prophane hiftorians: but the hiftory of this 
 people is .one continued miracle, and their frequent 
 
 lapfes
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 7 
 
 lapfes into idolatry are a melancholy teftimony of 
 the pronenefs of human nature to Polytheifm. 
 Whenever I fpeak of man in his firft Hate, or as 
 it is called by fome modern philofophers, the ftate 
 of nature, I muft defire the reader not to fuppofe 
 that I refer to the creation, when man came out of 
 his Maker's hand, pfrftff; but to that period of 
 barbarifm and darknefs, which overfpread the great- 
 eft part of the world after the difperfion of man- 
 kind at the tower of Babel. The monuments of 
 the art and induftry of the antediluvian world, pe- 
 rifhed in the general flood ; and the traces of know- 
 ledge in agriculture and the moft neceffary arts 
 which had been preferved by Noah, and his defcen- 
 dants, were foon after the above-mentioned difper- 
 fion, loft among the greater part of mankind : this, 
 extraordinary as it may appear, is eafily accounted 
 for ; as they were ignorant of every kind of writing, 
 they had no means of recording their ideas, or of 
 extending their knowledge beyond the term of their 
 natural life. The feeble light of tradition muft 
 have been foon extinguifhed by their long migra- 
 tions, in which vaft numbers muft have perimed by 
 their frequent wars, before they obtained a fettle- 
 ment; and above all, by the difficulty of procuring 
 fubGftence, which muft have been fo great as to 
 occupy every thought, and fix the attention of man 
 folely on his immediate prefervation. 
 
 JI In
 
 ,5$ HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 In the next ftage of fociety, as the life of a (hep- 
 herd affords more leifure than that of a hunter, fa 
 it is more favourable for the exertion of the mental 
 powers. Converfant day and night with the moft 
 fublime objefcls in nature, a man may be led from 
 an obfervation of the regularity of the motions of 
 the heavenly bodies, the confequent uniform courfe 
 of the feafons, and that harmonious concert by 
 which every part of the creation is held together, 
 as it were in a golden chain, to fuppofe that all 
 this could not be effected but by the unerring hand 
 of Infinite Wifdom : from whence he forms an idea 
 of one God, Father and Lord of the univerfe. 
 Thus we find Job, who was doubtlefs an Arabian 
 and who led a pafloral life, profefs his belief of the 
 unity of the Deity in oppofition to fiar and ele- 
 mentary worfliip ; but by that oppofition it ap- 
 pears, that the generality of his countrymen were 
 funk in Polytheifm. It is faid by Dr. Hyde, that 
 the Perfians, from the earlieft times, worshipped 
 one god under the fymbol of Fire ; favoured by 
 nature with a mild climate arid a fertile foil, their 
 country feems to have been peculiarly adapted to a 
 paftoral life ; and as I have obferved before, con- 
 templative minds in fuch a country, and in fuch a 
 ftate of fociety, might arrive at the knowledge of 
 the true God : but this knowledge could only pre- 
 vail among men of improved understandings. The 
 bulk of the nation, I conceive, were plunged as 
 
 deep
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 39 
 
 deep in flar and elementary worfhip as their 
 neighbours. Certain it is, no people ever adored the 
 fun with greater devotion, or were more fuperfti- 
 tioufly addicled to divination from the ftars. Genii 
 and daemons likewife made a favourite part of their 
 religion. It muft be confefTed that they regarded 
 with abhorrence every fpecies of image worfhip, 
 which has led many perfons to think more favour- 
 ably of their religion than it deferves. But during 
 the two firft ftages of fociety already defcribed, the 
 objefts of worfhip are not eafily reprefented by any 
 artificial images ; and the imitative arts had, as yet, 
 made but very little progrefs among mankind. Ta- 
 citus, in his admirable treatife on the manners of the 
 ancient Germans, informs us, that they held it im- 
 pious to endeavour to confine their gods within 
 walls, or to reprefent them by images framed in the 
 likenefs of the human form ; and we are likewife 
 told by Varro, that for the firft hundred and 
 feventy years after Romulus, there was no flatus to 
 be found in Rome. 
 
 Image worfliip took it's rife from the cuflom adopt- 
 ed by moft nations of adoring dead men ; but, as 
 thefe men were at firft legiflators, who by good and 
 wife laws had led mankind to defert the foreft and 
 the plain, to tafte the fvveets of well-ordered fociety ; 
 cr thofe other benefaftors of their fellow- creatures, 
 who by the invention of new arts had contributed to 
 H 2 render
 
 60 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 render life more comfortable and happy, image 
 wormip could never take place till after focieties 
 were regularly formed, governments eftabliflied, and 
 the arts cultivated, at leaft, to a certain degree. 
 We mufl therefore trace its origin from Egypt, that 
 celebrated nurfe of the arts, and parent of fupei fti- 
 tion. Many circumftances contributed to unite the 
 Egyptians under a regular form of government at 
 a very early period : their country deflitute of 
 wood, as it affords no (heller for beafts of chace, 
 could not long be a fit habitation for the hunter; 
 the fhepherd indeed might be tempted by the fer- 
 tility of the foil, to feed his flocks in their rich 
 paftures, but then the periodical overflowings of 
 the Nile would deftroy all his hopes, and that part 
 of his flock which efcaped the general definition, 
 he muft neceflarily lead into the higher lands, and 
 patiently wait till the waters abated. 
 
 To ereft buildings for houfing the cattle, to provide 
 fubfiftence for them during the annual inundation, 
 to cut canals to break the force of the torrents, to 
 raife higher banks to prevent its overflowing their 
 towns and villages; all thefe things could not be 
 done, but by the united labours of mankind under 
 the direction of an eflablifhed government ; yet 
 without thefe precautions Egypt could not be ren- 
 dered even habitable. But in this country, as ne- 
 ceflity awakened the induftry of man, fo the wonder- 
 ful
 
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 6t 
 
 ful fertility of the foil, impregnated by the rich 
 waters of the Nile, made him ample amends for his 
 labour. We muft not therefore be furprifed, that, 
 impelled by fuch powerful motives, the Egyptians 
 mould be the firft people not only to form themfelves 
 into a regular fociety, but to adorn that fociety by 
 laws, religion, and arts. They made it their boaft 
 (as we learn from Herodotus) that they were the 
 firft people who built temples, raifed altars, and 
 creeled ftatues to their gods : that the fun and moon 
 were the firft objefts of their worfhip appears from 
 Diodorus Siculus, who fays, that they worshipped 
 the former under the name of Ofiris, which figni- 
 fies many-eyed, by which they meant to exprefs the 
 all-pervading power of that glorious luminary ; the 
 latter they termed Ifis, and reprefented her with 
 horns, in allufion to the crefcent figure (he afTumes 
 whilft her ftation is in the quadratures. Thefe two 
 deities they faid governed the world and prefided 
 over the feafons, on whofe regular and unalterable 
 return depended the beauty and harmony of the 
 univerfe ; they went yet further, and afcribed to 
 their divine influence the generation, notonjy of 
 plants but animals. The elements were not deified; 
 and the Egyptians fuppofed that the gods frequently 
 appeared among men, veiling their divinity under a 
 human and fometimes even a brute form : this 
 opinion, which firft took its rife in Egypt and was 
 afterwards communicated to Greece, may be confi^
 
 62 HEATHEN* MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 dered as the fource of thofe beautiful fables which 
 corrupted the fimplicity of religion, by dreffing 
 her in the robes of fancy; from hence too is 
 derived the Mythology of the ancients, a term, 
 which, in its moft extenfive fenfe, fignifies teaching 
 by fable; but in its more limited and particular 
 meaning, is confined to thofe fabulous relations 
 under which the Egyptians and Greeks veiled their 
 moft folemn rites of religion, and the moft important 
 truths in Natural and Moral Philofophy : betides the 
 deities already mentioned, which by way of dif- 
 tin&ion are termed celeftial, the Egyptians had 
 other gods of an inferior nature, which they called 
 terreftrial ; thefe were of mortal birth, benefactors 
 to mankind, who, as legiflators, heroes, and inven- 
 tors of ufeful arts, were beloved and reverenced 
 whilft living, for their fuperior talents and tranfcen- 
 dant virtire, and as they were fuppofed to have been 
 animated by more than an ordinary portion of divi- 
 nity ; after their deceafe they were ranked in the 
 number of their gods. Fear, according to fome 
 celebrated writers, is the parent of devotion ; but in 
 the worfhip of deified heroes, however it may be 
 miftaken in its objeft, it certainly flows from a 
 nobler principle that of gratitude. The Egyptians 
 gave to their firft heroes and legiflators, the 
 names of their ccleflial gods ; and we find Ofiris and 
 Ifis, celebrated as inventors of laws, agriculture, 
 and the ufeful arts : Hermes, or Mercury, another 
 
 of
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 63 
 
 of their great men, is faid to have reduced their 
 language to rules, to have enlarged it by the intro- 
 duction of new words, and above all to have in- 
 vented hieroglyphic writing. The Egyptians, who 
 from the earliefl times were fond of conveying their 
 knowl$ege in myfterious language, perfonified not 
 only matter, fpirit, and their various attributes, but 
 even mental qualities. This confiderably enlarged 
 the number of their deities, and when involved in 
 the obfcurity of allegory and adorned by the ficlion 
 of poetry, prefents to our view a fyftem confufed 
 and irregular ; for it is not eafy to difcover in fome 
 places, where the allegory ends and the hiflory 
 begins : not to mention that men of the greateft 
 learning, and even fobereft underflanding, have 
 been led aftray by a fancied fnnilitude of terms, and 
 wandered through the mazes of error, without any 
 guide, but uncertain etymology, to direct them. 
 
 Befides the divinities already mentioned, which 
 have prevailed in part among all the nations of the 
 world, God's chofen people excepted, the Egyptians 
 bad others that were peculiar to themfelves. Such 
 were the facred animals and plants, to which tem- 
 ples were erefted and divine honours paid. To a 
 reflecting mind it mufl afford matter of aflonifh.- 
 ment, to behold the moil enlightened nation of 
 antiquity, fo celebrated for the vvifdom of its laws 
 and regularity of its government, fall down and 
 2 adore
 
 64 HEATHEN MYTrfOLOGY 
 
 adore the inferior parts of the creation. The learn- 
 ed have taken no fmall pains to account for this 
 apparent inconfiftency of conduh fome fuppofe 
 that the beafts of the greatcft utility to mankind 
 were felefted for worfhip, and inftance the ox Apis, 
 which was regarded with particular reverence for 
 the fervice that animal was of in agriculture : but 
 thefe gentlemen ought to confider, that not only 
 ufeful, but noxious animals were adored ; of this 
 we have an example in the crocodile. Befides, as 
 the utility of tame animals is not partial, but uni- 
 Verfal ; why mould brute worfhip be confined to 
 Egypt, and never prevail in any other part of the 
 world ? fince the fame caufe muft every where pro- 
 duce the fame effecl:. Others attribute it to their 
 doftrine of the tranfmigration of fouls ; but it may 
 well be difputed, whether brute worfhip was not 
 prior to that doclrine : I am rather inclined to 
 think it was ; Cnce the Ifraelites, whofe attachment 
 to the Egyptian fuperftitions was fo ftrong, that the 
 miraculous difplay of the power and majefly of the 
 Deity, accompanied with a long ceremonial law, 
 could not prevent their frequent relapfes into 
 idolatry : yet we find no account of their once en- 
 tertaining an idea of the tranfmigration of fouls, 
 neither is there any pofitive law againfl it ; thofe in 
 my opinion are more judicious, who afcribe brute 
 worfhip to hieroglyphic writing. The Egyptians 
 leprefented not only human qualities, but divine 
 
 attributes
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 65 
 
 attributes, by figures of animals and plants: the 
 analogy was always remote, and difguifed by fome 
 fabulous relation, or allegoric myftery. The vul- 
 gar, immerfed in objefts of fenfe, from -theix ina- 
 bility to penetrate the thick clouds, in which often- 
 tatious fcience had involved the throne of truth, 
 miftook the fymbol for the Deity, and firft adored 
 the picture or image of the animal, afterwards the 
 animal itfelf. This will account for the rife of 
 brute worfhip among the Egyptians ; this will like- 
 wife account for its never extending beyond the 
 limits of that country: for although hieroglyphic 
 writing by reprefentation, and even by analogy, has 
 prevailed in every part of the world, yet no where 
 was it carried to that degree of refinement, no 
 where involved in fuch ftudied obfcurity, or dif- 
 guifed by fuch remote and diftant allufions, as 
 among the Egyptians* 
 
 The Greeks derived their religion from Egypt, 
 If we confult the Orphic Hymns, or Hefiod's 
 Theogony, we mall find long genealogies of ele- 
 mentary gods, and defcriptions of their operations 
 in the formation of the world out of chaos ; adorn- 
 ed by the lively colouring of Grecian fancy. Dr. 
 Burnet, in his ingenious though fanciful theory of 
 the earth, obferves, that the Grecian account of 
 the creation, though it bears the appearance of a 
 .poetic fition, is founded on found philofophy, and 
 I very
 
 66 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 very nearly refembles the account given by Mofes. 
 This is not furprifing, when we confider that the 
 opinions of mankind on thofe operations of nature 
 which are the objefts of fenfe, mud be nearly the 
 fame ; to which I may add, that Mofes, as well as 
 the Greeks, w-as indebted to Egypt for his learning, 
 and the philofophy of both was probably derived 
 from the fame fource. The fymbol of the mun- 
 dane egg (afcribed to Orpheus) ; in a word, the 
 whole of the firft: religion which prevailed in Greece, 
 was purely elementary, and muft be confidered as of 
 Egyptian original. 
 
 Tully obferves, that the ancient theologifts reckon 
 three Jupiters ; of whom, the firft and fecond were 
 born in Arcadia, and had for their fathers, yEther, 
 and Caslus; the third was a native of Crete, and 
 the fon of Saturn. If we confider, that by Caslus 
 is underftood, the Heaven, by ^Ether, the Air, and 
 by Saturn, Time; it is not difficult to explain the 
 genealogy of this elementary deity : by the incuba- 
 tion of the heaven, or celeftial fire on yEther, and 
 by the agency of Saturn or Time, is produced that 
 vivid principle which the ancients fuppofed to be 
 diffufed through all nature ; and by whofe divine 
 influence all things animate or inanimate were gene- 
 rated. As allegory and fable can afTume a thoufand 
 forms, fo we have various accounts of the birth of 
 Jupiter: the moft received, is, that he was the 
 
 youngeft
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 6/ 
 
 youn-geft fon of Saturn, or Time, by Rhea; that 
 his cruel parent had fwallowed up all his former 
 progeny ; that is, that time had covered them with 
 the veil of oblivion ; that Jupiter, when he was 
 grown to man's eftate, warred with the Titans, 
 or jarring elements of Chaos, after many conflicts 
 fubdued them, fixed hirnfelf on the throne of his 
 anceftors, eftablifhed peace and harmony, and dif- 
 pofed and governed every thing in the world by the 
 fixed and unalterable dictates of Divine Wifdom : 
 this allegory is too plain to require an explanation. 
 In the fame manner they reprefent Juno, or the 
 Air, as the fifter and the wife of Jupiter ; born of 
 the fame parents, Saturn and Rhea : as by Jupiter 
 is underftood the aclive or creative, fo by Juno is 
 underflood the recipient, or productive principle. 
 A perfon muft be no lefs ignorant of philofophy, 
 than dead to the charms of poetry, who is not flruck 
 with the beauty of this fable. 
 
 By preferving this idea of Jupiter and Juno, we 
 fhall not be offended at their frequent contefts, but 
 reft fatisfied, that from the convulfion of jarring 
 elements the vigour qf nature is reftored, and the 
 order and harmony of the univerfe preferved ; 
 Juno will then appear in her proper department, as 
 he patronefs of marriage : even the various tranf- 
 formations of her fpoufe, will ceafe to fhock us 
 when we regard him as the principle of life and 
 I 2 generation,
 
 6f HEATHEN MYTHOLQGT 
 
 generation, and reflect on the various means the 
 God of nature makes ufe of, to accomplifli his 
 ends. 
 
 The daflicaf reader may perufe the metamor- 
 phofes of Ovid with no lefs profit than pleafure; 
 when he confiders that, that wonderful book is not 
 only adorned with all the luxuriance of poetic de- 
 fcription, but contains, under the veil of fable, the 
 principles of natural philofophy and religion which 
 prevailed in the ancient world. Before I leave the 
 regions of allegory, I muft trefpafs fo far on the 
 reader's patience, as to take fome notice of the 
 ftory of Prometheus. We are informed that this 
 extraordinary perfonage finding mankind rude, bar- 
 barous, and perim-ing far want of the neceflaries of 
 life ; in- companion to their diftrefs, contrived to 
 afcend to heaven ; and lighting his torch at the 
 chariot-wheel of the fun, conveyed the celeltial 
 fire to earth, and made a prefent of it to man. A 
 change of affairs immediately took place : metals 
 were difcovered and worked, in confequence of the 
 invention of fire ; took were formed ; houfes were 
 built ; and land cultivated : the return of the feafons 
 afcertained by agronomical obfervations ; ideas 
 communicated by vifible marks ; in fhort, every 
 invention by which the neceflities of man might be 
 fupplied, or his nature adorned, is afcribed to the 
 tranfcendent wifdom and benevolence of Prome- 
 2 theus.
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. ftf 
 
 theus. We are afterwards told that Jupiter incenfed 
 againft him for the compaffion he had (hewn to 
 man, fixed him by chains to mount Caucafus, where 
 Vultures for ever preyed on his liver. This appears, 
 at firfl fight, to be a cruel return for fuch unexam- 
 pled goodnefs; but let us examine the fable more 
 clofely ; by Prometheus is meant Forefight j he wa* 
 the fon of Japetus and Themis (Defire and Deiliny); 
 he brought down fire from heaven ; i. e. he dif- 
 covered fire, and applied it to ufeful purpofes ; he 
 civilized mankind, fnpplied their wants, and in- 
 vented every art and fcience : all this is the effeft 
 of forefight. He is tormented by Vultures which 
 perpetually gnaw his liver : what are thofe vultures 
 but thofe corroding thoughts which for ever diftraft 
 the anxious and reflecting mind ? Can any allegory 
 be more juft and beautiful ? It is forefight which 
 principally diftinguifhes the member of civil fociety- 
 from the uncultivated favage. As the latter too 
 often degenerates into a carelefs inattention to fu- 
 turity, even to a neglect of providing common ne- 
 ceflaries ; fo the former too frequently a fla-ve to 
 ambition and avarice, vainly endeavours to give a 
 perpetuity to what is in its nature fleeting and incon- 
 ftant, and renders his life miferable by indulging 
 anxious and unnecefTary cares. 
 
 The Greeks, after the example of their mafters the 
 Egyptians, foon learnt to deify their heroes. Many 
 of the exploits attributed to Jupiter, like thofe af- 
 
 cr.bed
 
 JO HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 cribed to Ofiris, fuch as the civilization of mankind, 
 the eftablifhment of laws, and the invention of arts, 
 feem better fuited to the character of an enlightened 
 mortal, than an elementary deity; and probably 
 that name was bellowed, by way of diftin&ion, on 
 the firft legiilators in Greece. This will reconcile 
 the various and difcordant accounts of their My- 
 thologifts ; who reprefent Jupiter as a native of 
 Baeotia, Arcadia, and Crete. 
 
 Bacchus, his reputed fon, was held in the highefl 
 veneration for the important discoveries he commu- 
 nicated to mankind : he firft inftrufted them in the 
 culture of the vine, eftablimed good laws, and 
 extended his voyages through the greateft part of the 
 known world ; actuated by the laudable ambition 
 of imparting the fweets of fociety to the moft dif- 
 tant nations. 
 
 Ceres, who, according to Sir Ifaac Newton, was 
 a native of Sicily, arriving in Attica, taught the 
 Greeks to fow corn ; for which benefaction me was 
 deified after her death. The nine minftrels who ac- 
 companied the Egyptian Ofiris in his expedition, 
 were confidered by the Greeks as the inventors of 
 mufic and poetry, and honoured by them as deities 
 under the name of the nine mufes. As in the early 
 flages of fociety, mufic and poetry were the only 
 vehicles of knowledge, they were faid to prefide 
 
 over
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 71 
 
 over every art and fcience, and have names afligned 
 them expreffive of their different characters. Her- 
 cules, for his ftrength and courage, which were al- 
 ways generoufly exerted for the good of his fellow- 
 creatures, received divine honours after his death. 
 ^Efculapius, the inventor of medicine, was no lefs 
 reverenced. To give a particular account of all 
 the heroes the fuperftitious admiration of the Greeks 
 deified, would far exceed the limits of this difler- 
 tation ; let it then fuffice to obferve, that fuch was 
 the paflion of that people for hero worfhip, that 
 they paid divine honours to every man after his de- 
 ceafe, who was endowed with fuperior talents, or 
 who gave extraordinary difplays of wifdom, valour, 
 and juftice. But a due attention to the Mythology 
 of Greece, will tend to reconcile the two opinions 
 which have fo long divided the learned world ref- 
 pecling the nature of their deities : fome holding 
 them to be purely elementary, others regarding them 
 all, without diftiftion, as deified heroes. 
 
 In the firft ftages of fociety, the deities of Greece, 
 like thofe of every other nation under the fame 
 circumftances, were purely elementary ; and as fuch 
 are defcribed by Orpheus and Hefiod, their earlieft 
 Mythologifts. But afterwards, when fociety was im- 
 proved by the introduction of laws, and the inven- 
 tion of arts, thofe perfons who had been enabled to 
 form a juft idea of the advantages of civil fociety, 
 
 by
 
 7 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 by comparing it with the barbarous ftate from which 
 they had juft emerged, thought they could never 
 Sufficiently honour thofe extraordinary men, to 
 whom they were indebted for fuch fignal bleflings : 
 legiflators, who by their wifdom formed ; heroes, 
 who by their courage fupported ; and the inventors 
 of ufeful arts, who by their ingenuity adorned fo- 
 ciety, were enrolled among their gods. The fame 
 principle of gratitude which firft taught them to 
 adore the fun as the fountain of light, and the 
 fource of life, made them regard with no lefs 
 reverence the inventors of laws and the difpenfers 
 of juftice; and in the latter worfhip the former 
 was at length abforbed. For man in the refinement 
 of fociety, as he is lefs converfant with nature, fo 
 is he lefs attentive to her operations ; confequently 
 he will be lefs addi&ed to elementary worfhip : to 
 which I may add, that philofophy, by afligning caufes 
 for thofe appearances of nature, which to an unin- 
 formed mind are moft terrible and potentous, 
 muft difTolve the charm which had fo long amufed 
 the fancy. Befides the worfhip paid in general to 
 their deified heroes, the Egyptians and Greeks 
 eftablifhed myfteries, which were every year cele- 
 brated with great folemnity : the moft remarkable in 
 Greece, were the Eleufinian, inftituted by Eu- 
 molpus in honour of Ceres, not long after her 
 <ieceafe. In thefe myfteries, the initiated were in- 
 ilrucled in thofe truths, which, from their nature and 
 
 importance,
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 73 
 
 importance, were mod likely to form the mind to 
 the praftice of virtue. The immortality of the foul, 
 and the ftate of future rewards and punifhments, 
 were not only ftrongly inculcated by words, but figured 
 by a (hadowy reprefentation of the poets Tartarus 
 and Elizium. Perfons of immoral characters were 
 excluded from a participation in thofe facred rites. 
 Nothing on the part of the priefts was omitted to fill 
 the mind of the initiated with religious awe, and pre- 
 pare it for the reception of thofe important fecrets 
 which were gradually unfolded to them. To ftrike 
 the greater horror, they were conduced into a dark 
 room, ftrange and myfterious voices were heard ; at 
 length light began to dawn, which juft enabled them 
 to difcern the fcenical reprefentation above alluded 
 to. To prevent a profanation of thefe myfteries, 
 all the initiated bound themfelves by a folemn oath, 
 never to reveal what they had feen or heard. By 
 every thing that is known at this diftance of time 
 on a fubjecl in its own nature fo obfcure, it appears, 
 that of all the expedients which the moft enlightened 
 of the Heathen world have ever fixed upon for 
 teaching their fellow-creatures the duty they owed 
 to God, to their country, and to themfelves, this, 
 as it was the moft extraordinary, proved the moft. 
 effectual. Here the initiated beheld torments in- 
 flicted on tyrants who enflaved, or traitors who be- 
 trayed their country; on men who by their power 
 fet at defiance, or by their artifice evaded the fword 
 K of
 
 74 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 of juftice. Here perfidy and ingratitude, envy and 
 avarice, though not cognizable by human laws, met 
 with their juft reward. Such were the Eleufinian 
 myfteries, at their firft institution ; but as their cele- 
 bration was accompanied with games, mufic, feaft- 
 ing, and dancing, the vulgar, as it frequently hap- 
 pens in their expreflions of joy, exceeded the bounds 
 of temperance. This gave rife to many diforders, 
 which infected and dishonoured their religion. To 
 remedy this inconvenience, they eftabliflied other 
 myfteries, which were termed the greater. None 
 were admitted to thefe laft but thofe who by their 
 wifdom, birth, and virtue, were judged worthy of 
 being intrufted with a fecret of the greateft impor- 
 tance, which indeed ftruck at the root of their reli^ 
 jrion and government. This fecret is faid to be 
 nothing lefs than the unity of the Deity. The ini- 
 tiated after paffing through the former myfteries, 
 were informed, that all which they had before feen, 
 related to perfons who had been long fince dead, 
 and were only deified in compliance with the pre- 
 judices of the vulgar. That true religion confifted 
 in the knowledge and worfhip of one God, Creator 
 and Father of all things. A late writer, whofe 
 learning was equalled only by his genius, in his 
 Criticifm on the fixth book of Virgil, has favoured 
 the world with a full account of thefe myileries, 
 of which I have here given only an imperfect {ketch. 
 
 For
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 75 
 
 For a long time the myfteries were preferred in 
 their original purity ; and -when (according to the 
 nature of all things human] they became depraved 
 and corrupted, even in their worft ftate, they were 
 not without a beneficial influence on the morals of 
 the people ; many by initiation were then reclaimed 
 from a vicious courfe of life. 
 
 But it muft be confefled for the honour of Pa- 
 ganifm, that the more enlightened Heathens amid 
 their multiplicity of deities, acknowledged one fu- 
 preme God alone, felf-exiftent, the Creator and 
 Father of all things ; and this was not only the opi- 
 nion of Socrates, Plato, and thofe philofophers who 
 flourifhed when the Arts and Sciences were highly 
 cultivated, and the refinements of life carried to the 
 higheft degree of poflible perfection, but appears to 
 have been ftrongly inculcated by Orpheus, Hefiod, 
 and Homer, their earlieft Mythologies. Zeus or 
 Jupiter is ftyled by Orpheus, The Original and 
 King of all things. " There is one Power, and one 
 " God, and one great Ruler over all," fays that 
 great poet. Hefiod likewife terms Jupiter, " The 
 " Father and the King of the gods." And Homer 
 calls him, " The moft powerful of all, the firftand 
 " chiefeft of the gods, and the Father of gods and 
 " men." The attribute of Omnipotence contained in 
 thefe expreffions, is in its nature incommunicable; and 
 confequently applicable only to one Supreme Being 
 K 2 eternal
 
 76 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 eternal and felf-exifient: confequently, the inferior 
 deities adored by the Pagans, were not regarded by 
 them as independent principles of nature, but as 
 created beings, in power and excellence fuperior to 
 man, who derived their birth from one common 
 fource, and were the children of one common 
 Father. Thefe fubordinate cceleftial gods, as I have 
 obferved before, were the works of nature, the 
 moral qualities, and the divine attributes, perfonified ; 
 and may be confidered as the minifters of the will, 
 or the manifeftation of the goodnefs, wifdom, and 
 power of one Supreme God. This Polytheifm, 
 which together with the unity of the Deity, was 
 derived from Egypt, proceeded at firil from an in- 
 adequate conception of his attributes. This is well 
 explained by the beautiful allegory of Ofiris cut in 
 pieces by Typhqn : " Ifis, fays Plutarch, is a Greek 
 " word which fignifies knowledge, and Typhon is 
 " the enemy to this goddefs, who being puffed up 
 " by ignorance and error, doth diftraft the holy 
 " doclrine of the fimple deity, which Ifis collects 
 " together again and makes up into one, and thus 
 " delivers it to thofe who are initiated into her facred 
 " myfteries in order to deification." By this it ap- 
 pears, that the meaning of the Egyptian fable is, that 
 the idea of the unity of the Deity was obfcured by 
 the weaknefs of mankind, who, unable to compre- 
 hend Infinite Perfection, dimonoured him by their 
 partial and imperfel notions of his nature, which 
 
 yet
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 77 
 
 yet true wifdom, that is, Ifis, unites together and, 
 from many inadequate conceptions, forms ajuft and 
 true idea of his being and attributes. What con- 
 fiderably increafed the number of the Pagan deities, 
 was the old philofophic principle, that God is in all 
 things, or that the Divine Nature pervades the whole 
 creation. This, like mod of the Grecian doclrines, 
 was derived from Egypt, where Neith, or Athena, 
 is thus defcribed, I am all that was, is, and fhall be, 
 and my veil no mortal fhall uncover. This do&rine 
 (which fignifies nothing more than the omniprefence 
 or fuperintendarice of the Deity) imperfeclly un- 
 derflood, led them to fill every grove, mountain, 
 and river, with an innumerable fwarm of local 01 
 tutelar deities. This humour was much encouraged 
 by their poets, who by animating every even the 
 minutefl parts of nature, gave a.warmth and vigour 
 to their poems, which the moderns muft never ex- 
 peel to equal. 
 
 Varro, the moft learned of all the Romans, di- 
 flinguiflies three kinds of theology; the firft, my- 
 thical, or fabulous ; the iecond, philosophical, 
 or natural ; the third, civil, or popular. In the 
 former part of this differtation, I have princi- 
 pally enlarged on the firft and third, and it may 
 not be improper in this place to fay fomething 
 of the fecond, or philofohical, which Varro 
 conceived to be far above the capacity of vulgar 
 
 citizens;
 
 78 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 citizens ; for he affirms, that there are many truths 
 in religion which ought to be concealed from the 
 vulgar ; and that there are fome things which, 
 though falfe, it was expedient for them to believe. 
 
 If we examine the opinions of Pythagoras, So- 
 crates, Plato, Ariftotle, and the moft celebrated 
 philofophers of antiquity, on this moft important 
 fubjeft, we fhall find, that they acknowledged one 
 God, all-perfe6r., and felf-exiilent, together with 
 many other inferior and created gods ; that however 
 they might differ as to the number or quality of 
 thefe fubordinate deities, they agreed in fuppofing 
 them to be intellectual beings fuperior to men, pre- 
 fiding over different parts of the univerfe ; who, as 
 minifters of the Supreme God, were entitled to ho- 
 nour and worfhip : and whether they confidered 
 them as animated fubftances, or as abftra6t qualities, 
 they adored them as emanations of that divine mind, 
 which is alone eternal and uncreated. 
 
 But what may feem extraordinary to thofe who 
 have been accuftomed to look down with contempt 
 on the wifdom of the Pagan world ; we find 
 that the enlightened ancients, befides the unity of 
 the Deity, believed a trinity of divine hypoitafes. 
 Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato, were the great 
 fupporters of this opinion in Greece : as they were 
 indebted to Egypt for the beft part of their philo- 
 
 fophy,
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 79 
 
 fophy, it is probable that this myfterious doclrine 
 Was derived from that great ftorehoufe of ancient 
 learning. Many of our graveft and moft learned 
 divines, fuppofe it to have been communicated to 
 the Egyptians by the Ifraelites ; an opinion I pre- 
 fume not to conteft. Certain it is that this doftrine 
 is very ancient, and it is not eafy to conceive by 
 what means human reafon could arrive at the know- 
 ledge of fo great a myflery, without a divine re- 
 velation. The learned Dr. Cudworth has made it 
 appear, that the three Platonic hypaflafes ri^aS^, *<<;, 
 xu.i 4>vxp, which fignify infinite goodnefs, infinite 
 wifdom, and infinite active power and love ; not as 
 mere qualities or accidents, but as fubftantial things, 
 all concurring to make up one &^ov or Divinity ; 
 approaches very nearly to the Chriftian doclrine of 
 the Trinity, fidt, to ufe the words of this great 
 man, in not making a mere trinity of names and 
 words, or of logical notions, or inadequate concep- 
 tions of one and the fame thing ; but a trinity of 
 hypoftafes, or fubftances, or perforis; fecondly, in 
 making none of their three hypoftafes to be creatures, 
 but all eternal, neceffarily exiflent, and imiverfal, 
 omnipotent, and creators of the whole world ; laflly, 
 in fuppofing thefe three divine hvpoilafes, however 
 fometimes Paganically called three gods, to be ef- 
 fentially one divinity. Thus far the Chriftian and 
 Platonic Trinities agree, and I muft beg leave to 
 decline the tafk of pointing out the particulars in 
 
 winch
 
 go HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 \vhich they differ ; as it would neceflarily lead me 
 into a long train of abftrufe and metaphyfical reafon- 
 ing, which would be attended with little pleafure 
 or profit to the reader. Let us rather exprefs our 
 admiration of the divine providence of God, that 
 this myfterious doclrine of the Trinity fhould find 
 fuch eafy admittance in the Pagan world, and pre- 
 pare the way for the reception of Chriftianity. It 
 may likewife check the pride of thofe fuperficial 
 reafoners, who, becaufe they cannot comprehend 
 the aflonifhing depth and height of the knowledge 
 and wifdom of God, prefume to cenfure the doftrine 
 of the Trinity as contradictory to our reafon, when 
 they find it received by the wifeft and beft philo- 
 fophers among the Pagans before the time of Chrif- 
 tianity. I mufl requeft the reader to take notice. 
 that what I have faid of the Platonic Trinity is ap- 
 plicable only to it as it was delivered by Plato in 
 its original purity ; that it was much altered by his 
 difciples I readily admit, and the latter Platonifts fo 
 far degenerated from their matter, as to make this 
 fublime doftrine, which feems fo well calculated to 
 convey clear and juft conceptions of the Deity, the 
 fource of ftrange fables, and impious inquiries ; 
 where the perception of truth was obfcured by the 
 ambiguity of language, and human reafon itfelf loit 
 in the mazes of fophiflical argumentation. I fhould 
 think myfelf unjuft if I did not in this place ac- 
 knowledge my obligations to Dr. Cudworth's 
 q Intellectual
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 8l 
 
 Intellectual Syftem, from which excellent book I 
 have extracted many paflfages in this diflertation. 
 
 If we obferve the conduct of thofe legiflators who 
 are moft renowned in hiftory, we fhall find them 
 uniform in their attempts to enforce their laws by 
 the fanftion of religion. We mall find fome (like 
 Magno Capac and his fifter Caya Mama) proclaim 
 themfelves children of God, and revealers of his 
 will; others like Lycurgus and Numa, deliver their 
 laws as the oracles of Heaven. True religion is 
 emphatically ftyled by the judicious Hooker, the root 
 of all true virtue, and the ftay of all well-ordered 
 common-wealths. And even in falfe religion there 
 are fome true principles difcoverable by the light of 
 nature, which, however .clouded by fuperftition and 
 idolatry, are not without their defired effe6l in 
 checking the irregular paflions of men. To the in- 
 fluence of thefe true principles muft be afcribed 
 that integrity of manners, that virtuous feverity, 
 that unfhaken fortitude, arid that generous love of 
 mankind which fhone forth even in the midft of 
 the darknefs which ovei fpread the Heathen world. 
 
 Philofophy, as it is connected with religion, de- 
 ferves to be next confidered. The firft philofophers 
 who travelled from Greece and Italy to Egypt, 
 foem to have devoted their time chiefly to the ftudy 
 of Geometry, Agronomy, and Arithmetic ; and it 
 L muft
 
 82 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 muft be confefled that Thales, Pythagoras, and their 
 immediate fucceflbrs, made an aftoniming progrefs 
 in thofe fciences ; not that they were unacquainted 
 with the Theology of Egypt ; it is well known that 
 the latter derived from thence his favourite opinion 
 of the tranfmigration of fouls ; he likewife inculcated 
 fome moral precepts, but thefe were expreffed in a 
 myftical jargon, unintelligible to all except his dif- 
 ciples. The air of folemnity with which he delivered 
 his doclrines, the obfcurity in which they were 
 veiled, and the fecrecy which he enjoined to his 
 followers, are to me arguments not fo much of the 
 importance of the truths he revealed, as of the clan- 
 ger of difclofing them to vulgar ears. 
 
 At the time this great philofopher flourifhed, 
 Italy and Greece were full of fmall governments, 
 or rather tyrannies ; in Avhich the ufurped power of 
 the chief magiftrate was principally employed to 
 opprefs his fubjets. 
 
 At fuch a time Moral Philofophy, as it afcertains 
 the. relative and focial duties, is the true bafis of 
 good laws ; and above all, as it aflerts the dignity 
 of human nature, muft be grating to the ears of 
 tyrants, and confequently dangerous to its profei- 
 fors. Yet Pythagoras had the ability to overcome 
 every obftacle, and to reform the government of 
 Crotona, leading the inhabitants from luxury and 
 
 Hbertinifm,
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 83 
 
 libertinifm, to fobriety, virtue, and the enjoyment 
 of equal laws. Succeeding philofophers, encouraged 
 by his example, applied themfelves to politics, and 
 by a clofe attention to the regularity, the political 
 ceconomy, the wife laws and ftricl morals which at 
 that time characlerifed the Egyptian government, 
 they feem to have acquired a juft notion of the im- 
 portance of fubordination and order, and to be fully 
 fenfible of the advantages a fociety receives from 
 the united labours of every individual employed in 
 one common caufe. At the fame time they ob 
 ferved, that the Egyptians, by carrying their love of 
 order and regularity too far, checked the exertions 
 of genius, and debafed the dignity of human nature, 
 by converting man into a mere machine ; that from 
 a blind attachment to ancient cuftoms, they never 
 fuffered a law, however abfurd, to be abrogated, al- 
 though the occafion for which it was firft enafted 
 had ceafed for many ages. Thefe confiderations 
 convinced them that their laws, though in appear- 
 ance fpecious, were dictated by a real fpirit of ty- 
 ranny. The Phoenicians were at that time an en- 
 lightened and commercial people ; and their form 
 of government, which was republican, I conceive 
 to have been moft agreeable to the difpofition of the 
 Greeks, in whom a love of liberty was always a 
 predominant paffion. From a mixture of the Phoe- 
 nician and Egyptian polity, accompanied with fome 
 local inftitutions, .the republics of Greece were 
 L 2 formed :
 
 84 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 formed : from the latter they borrowed the principle 
 and fpirit of their laws, from the former the diftri- 
 bution of the legiflative and executive powers. 
 
 That quick and vivid genius for which the Greeks 
 in all ages have been fo celebrated, was refined, not 
 checked, by their political inftitutions ; and that 
 love of order, and attachment to ancient cuftoms, 
 which in the Egyptian was a cold and lifelefs prin- 
 ciple, in the Greek was fucceeded by a warm and 
 generous patriotifm. Thofe paflions which foften 
 without enfeebling the mind ; the ties of children, 
 kindred, and friends ; accompanied with a grateful 
 love of that country, and thofe laws to whofe pro- 
 teftion they were indebted for fo many fignal blef- 
 fings j all thefe, ennobled by a native elevation of 
 thought, and an enthufiaftic defire of glory, unite to 
 form this principle, the nobleft of any which can 
 fire the human breaft. Moral Philofophy and Le- 
 giflation were at firfl joined in the characters of Ly. 
 curgus and Solon : Socrates feparated them ; he 
 occafionally exerted himfelf both in the council and 
 in the field, to maintain the liberties of his country ; 
 yet he confined himfelf chiefly to the iludy of 
 Moral Philofophy, and never attempted any mate- 
 rial reform in the flate. The doclrines inculcated 
 by this great philofopher, if we conCder their pu- 
 rity and importance, are fo admirable, that we may 
 venture to affirm, that he was acquainted with 
 
 almoft
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 85 
 
 aimolt every moral truth difcoverable by the mere 
 light of nature. His difciple Plato followed hi$ 
 fleps, but joined to the philofophy of his great raa- 
 fter, the Pythagorean attachment to Aftronomy and 
 Figures. He refined on the doftrine of the Me- 
 tempfychofis, and taught that the fouls of vicious 
 men, after their feparation from the body, were 
 tormented with thofe paflions which they had im- 
 properly indulged whilft living in union with it. 
 He ftrongly inculcates the doftrine of future re- 
 wards and punifhments ; and, in a word, his wri- 
 tings, contain an inexhauftible fund of good fenfe 
 and morality, adorned in fome parts with fable and 
 allegory, and in other parts refined by acute and 
 abftracl reafoning. It is to be lamented that he fo 
 frequently indulged this latter talent ; for in his 
 metaphyfical inquiries into the effence of the 
 Deity, he fometimes lofes fight of his moral attri- 
 butes. Xenophon, a difciple of Socrates, delivered 
 his philofophy with more fimplicity, and adhered 
 with greater ftriclnefs to the doftrines of his mailer. 
 Euripides, though a tragic poet, deferves a diflin- 
 guifhed place as a moral philofopher. He gives us 
 a true pifture of human nature ; and no writer ap- 
 pears to have pofleffed a more fincere and unfeigned 
 love of virtue, or to have defined the relative and 
 focial duties with greater accuracy. 
 
 In
 
 86 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 In Ariftotle's Ethics we fee that acutenefs and 
 penetration, that fublime and comprehenfive reach 
 of thought} which enabled him to purfue Nature 
 through all her deep recefles. The juftnefs of his 
 definitions, and his nice difcriminations of the con- 
 fines of virtue and vice, ftrike even the Chriftian 
 reader with admiration (I fpeak in general terms, 
 for in fome parts he is doubtlefs exceptionable). 
 In a word, we may venture to pronounce, that the 
 Greeks in the time of Alexander the Great, far ex- 
 ceeded the Egyptians their mafters, or indeed any 
 nation of antiquity, in the knowledge of moral 
 truth ; but this knowledge though the beft that the 
 mere light of nature could afford, falls infinitely 
 Jhort of what is revealed to us in the Gofpel. Of 
 fome dolrines of the greateft importance, fuch as 
 the fall and redemption of mankind, they were con- 
 feffedly ignorant. Their belief of the ftate of future 
 rewards end punifhments was clouded by the fabFes 
 of their poets and the dreams of their philofophers, 
 and feems to have been inculcated rather as a po- 
 litical, than a religious truth ; that many of their 
 mofl celebrated philofophers difbelieved it, is unde- 
 niable. The method adopted byalmoft all of them, 
 of delivering two oppofue dofti ines, the one cal- 
 culated for the understanding of the vulgar, and the 
 other defigned only for thofe whofe mental powers 
 had been improved by reflection and ftudy, fills 
 their writings with fl range contradictions ; and at 
 3 this-
 
 AXD MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 87 
 
 this diftance of time we are frequently at a lofs to 
 difcover what their real opinions were on the mofl 
 important fubjefts. They are likewifejuftly charge- 
 able with making the peace and happinefs of fociety 
 the ultimate end of all their philofophy ; and we 
 fee them often facrifice morality to politics, truth 
 fo utility. That truth is infeparably connected with 
 real utility, and morality with found politics, cannot 
 be denied ; but to a being of fuch limited faculties 
 as man, whofe knowledge, even in what relates to 
 his own happinefs, is imperfect and fuperficial, cafes 
 mu ft frequently occur, in which his duty and ap- 
 parent intereft muft be at variance, if from an en- 
 larged way of thinking and a native elevation of 
 mind, he is led to facrifice private confiderations 
 to the good of the fociety to which he belongs. 
 Yet when the miftaken intereft of his country calls 
 upon him to violate any of the moral duties, I fee 
 no principle to reftrain him, as his views are bound- 
 ed by what he fuppofes to be the general good. 
 This will account for the lawlefs ambition, the in- 
 juftice, and even the cruelty of fome of the greateft 
 names in antiquity, who have been at the fame time 
 defervedly admired for their humility, moderation, 
 juftice, and benevolence. They werefenfible whilft 
 acting like private men and citizens, that a ftri& 
 regard to morals was abfolutely neceffary for the 
 exiftence and well-being of fociety : but when 
 dazzled by the fplendour of conqueft, or bewildered
 
 88 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 in the dark and intricate mazes of policy, as they 
 loft fight of the utility of virtue, fo they too often 
 difregarded her difbtes. It is remarkable that the 
 ancient philofophers, evenwhilft they taught the moft 
 fublime truths, fo far from exprefling any averfion 
 to the fuperftition and idolatry of the national re- 
 ligion, encouraged, both by precept and example, an 
 external conformity to its moft abfurd ceremonies. 
 But this apparent inconfiftency may be afcribed to 
 the fame principle, viz. a blind attachment to the 
 laws and conftitution of their country : they faw 
 the national religion fo clofely interwoven with the 
 flate, that a reform of the one could not be at- 
 tempted without threatening the entire fubverfion of 
 the other ; to which I may add, that the civil ma- 
 giftrate who generally prefided at their religious 
 ceremonies, never failed to punifh any innovation 
 with the greateft feverity ; he permitted the philo- 
 fophert to teach what doclrines they pleafed in the 
 fchools, becaufe he regarded their opinions in ge- 
 neral as innocent and amufing fpeculations ; but if 
 any of them were fuppofed to have the moft remote 
 tendency to leflen the reverence dife to the national 
 religion, the propagator of fuch opinions was con- 
 fidered as a criminal, and punifhable by the laws. 
 The prince of philofophers, Socrates himfelf, is a 
 melancholy example of the truth of this affertion. 
 The charge of Atheifm, which was brought againft 
 him, was too abfurd to gain credit even with the 
 
 vulgar ;
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 89 
 
 vulgar; his great crime feems to have been fome 
 oblique reflections on the national religion, and the 
 general bent of his doftrines to eftablifli truth, whofe 
 near approach error and fuperftition could not 
 bear. 
 
 It is, I believe, univerfally allowed, that the 
 ecclefiaftical power, as feparate from, and indepen- 
 dent on, the civil, was unknown till the eftablifhment 
 of Chriftianity. It appears from the teftimony of 
 Homer, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, 
 and Plato, that among the enlightened nations of 
 antiquity, the moft folemn rites of religion were 
 performed bythofewho held the higheft civil offices. 
 Thus religion was always under the immediate ia- 
 fpeftion of the chief magiftrate, who converted it 
 into a mere creature of the ftate. Some of the 
 modern Deifts are very fond of extolling the liberal 
 and tolerating fpirit of the ancient Greeks, on the 
 fubjecT: of religion: what feems to have given rife to 
 this opinion, is that intercommunity of worlhip which 
 prevailed among all the Heathen nations; but this 
 may be accounted for on other principles. The 
 objefts of adoration among mankind, as I have ob- 
 ferved before, were either the works of nature, 
 which I term elementary, or dead men deifyed, 
 which I call hero worfhip. In the firfl cafe there 
 could be but little diverfity of fentiment ; as the 
 ebjecls of adoration were like wife the objecls of 
 M fenfe ;
 
 90 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 fenfe ; in the latter cafe, the deities were local, and 
 tutelar, and could not fuflfer in their dignity, by a 
 communication with the gods of other nations, fince, 
 by univerfal confent, every deity was allowed a 
 fuperiorityin his own country: but what principally 
 weighed with them, was the confideration that this 
 admiffion of ilrange gods, rather tended to confirm 
 than leflen the authority of the national religion; 
 fince it acknowledged the principle of it to be true. 
 But when a people appeared, who adored one God, 
 to the exclufion of every other deity, they were re- 
 garded by the Heathen world with horror and detefta- 
 tion. This was the cafe of the Jews, whofe hiftory 
 contains a lamentable detail of the oppreflions and 
 perfecutions they fuffered on account of their reli- 
 gion. Tacitus, a grave and impartial hiltorian, 
 and who, on other occafions, appears to be a man 
 of confummate wifdom and virtue, pafles over the 
 horrid cruelties of Antiochus Epiphanes, without a 
 (ingle cenfure. The fliort account he gives of the 
 Jewifh nation is full of calumny and childifh fable; 
 neither does he appear to be better informed in 
 what he fays of the Chnflians; he exprefles indeed 
 a cool difapprobation of the cruel perfecution of 
 Nero; but that noble and virtuous indignation a- 
 gainft tyranny and vice, which fo often breaks forth 
 in the boldeft energy of expreflion in other parts of 
 bis hiflory, feems on this occafion to defert him. 
 What mull \ve think of the prejudices of the vulgar, 
 i when
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. pt 
 
 when a mind like that of Tacitus, enlarged by learn- 
 ing and experience, ennobled by virtue, and refined 
 by humanity, (hould be thus miferably perverted: 
 but if any perfon can yet doubt of the intolerant 
 fpirit of Paganifm, let him read with an unpreju- 
 diced eye the perfecutions of the primitive Chrif- 
 tians. I am fenfible that a modern hiftorian, whofe 
 enmity to Chriftianity is the more dangerous, be- 
 caufe it is concealed, has endeavoured to throw a 
 veil over the horrors of this difgraceful part of the 
 Roman hiftory; but he has been fo frequently de- 
 tefted in mifreprefenting well-known fa6h, that his 
 love for truth may be well fufpefted. 
 
 The ancient Philofophers are likewife juftly re- 
 proached with a narrow felfifhnefs of temper; filled 
 with vaft ideas of their own fuperiority, they feem to 
 confider the generality of mankind as beneath their 
 notice, and unworthy the participation of thofe fu 
 blime doftrines which they communicated to their 
 difciples. How different this from the benevolent 
 fpirit of the Gofpel, which to all mankind, without 
 diftin6lion of perfons, offers the terms of life and 
 falvation! To conclude; the Moral Philofophy of the 
 Greeks, though wonderful, if we confider it as the 
 difcovery of mere human reafon, yet is as much in- 
 ferior to the doftrines of the Chriftian religion, as 
 the human is inferior to the divine nature. Two 
 opinions have been adopted, which I hold to be 
 M a equally
 
 92 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 equally dangerous : one, that the Greek Philofophy 
 is fufficient of itfelf to effect the falvadon of man- 
 kind. To this I anfwer, that there are many truths 
 not difcoverable by human reafon, in which every 
 man is deeply interefted; fuch, to give only one 
 inftance, is pardon for fins on a fincere repentance; 
 this truth without divine revelation could never have 
 been known, yet without this who can hope for 
 falvation! The Greek Philofophy might indeed af- 
 certain the relative and focial duties with fome 
 accuracy; but muft fail in its attempt to. fhew the 
 relation in which man ftood as a creature to God 
 his Creator; befides it wanted divine authority to 
 enforce it. On the other hand, thofe perfons are 
 no lefs injudicious, who, becaufe they fee fome 
 moral duties more accurately defined in the Gofpel, 
 than in the books of Philofophers, and others en- 
 forced, of which the Philofophers were ignorant, 
 condemn without examination all their moral wri- 
 tings, as contradictory to the genius and fpirit 
 of our religion; when a moment's reflection muft 
 teach them that without altering our nature, our 
 Saviour could not poflibly have taught a morality 
 wholly different from what had already been received 
 in the world; that he confiderably improved it is ad- 
 mitted; we will likewife add, that he enlarged our 
 fphere of action, that he inculcated a virtue more 
 fublime, a benevolence more extenfive, and a piety 
 more rational and fervent; and, above all, that he 
 
 enforced
 
 AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 93 
 
 enforced his dolrines by a certain afTurance of eter- 
 nal happinefs to the good, and everlafting torments 
 to the wicked. 
 
 Let us then thankfully adore that God who has 
 imparted to us fuch iignal bleflings; and as we excel 
 the Heathens in light and knowledge, fo let us en- 
 deavour to excel them in piety and virtue, and not 
 by depending on the mere light of nature as an in- 
 fallible guide fall into what is called modern Deifm, 
 but more properly deferves the name of irreligion ; or 
 by wholly neglecting her aid, run into the oppofite 
 extreme of fanaticifm, fince both frequently termi- 
 nate in Atheifm. 
 
 Wifdom is imparted to mankind by God in dif- 
 ferent ways; fome truths are difcoverable by the light 
 of nature, others by revelation. There is in the 
 world (to ufe the words of the incomparable Hooker) 
 no kind of knowledge whereby any truth is feen, 
 but we juftly account it precious, yea, that principal 
 truth, in comparifon whereof all other knowledge is 
 vile, may receive from it fome kind of light. Whe- 
 ther it be that Egyptian or Chaldean wifdom mathe- 
 matical, wherewith Mofes and Daniel were furnimed ; 
 or that natural, moral, and civil wifdom, wherewith 
 Solomon excelled all men; or that rational and ora- 
 torial wifdom of the Grecians, which the apoftle 
 St. Paul brought from Tarfus, or that Judaical which 
 
 he
 
 94 HEATHEN MYTHOLOGY, &C. 
 
 he learnt fitting at the feet of Gamaliel : to detract 
 from the dignity whereof, were to injure God him- 
 felf, who being that Light which none can approach 
 to, hath fent out thefe lights whereof we are capable, 
 even as fo many fparkles refembling the bright Foun- 
 tain from which they rife. 
 
 NATURAL
 
 E 95 J 
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 GOD, who is the Fountain of light and know- 
 ledge, has communicated to various parts of 
 the creation, certain portions of his wifdom. From 
 thefe rays of divinity, vifible in the properties of 
 minerals and plants, the qualities of animals, and 
 above all in ihe intellectual powers of man, collected 
 and arranged by human ingenuity, every art and 
 fcience is formed; from hence too might be traced 
 the diftin&iori between fenfe and knowledge; the 
 former of which is employed on individuals, the 
 latter on generals. In the early ftages of fociety, 
 before men have learned the art of reducing their 
 ideas under general heads, we find their knowledge 
 was very limited, although their fenfe is frequently 
 acute and penetrating; but when their minds are 
 improved by an intercourfe with Grangers, or en- 
 lightened by the fuperior talents of one of thofe 
 benefaclors to mankind, fent by God to reclaim 
 the world from barbarifm, we {hall fee them unite 
 in a more regular and well ordered fociety; and as 
 the means of fubfiflence are much eaficr, they win 
 confequently have more time to devote to the culti- 
 vation
 
 96 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 vatlon of their underftan dings : this will lead to 
 the invention of arts and fciences. But when man 
 firil contemplates the works of the creation, his 
 underftanding will be confounded by the magnitude 
 of fome objects, and diftrafted by the multitude of 
 others. To overcome thefe difficulties, required 
 the utmoft exertions of human genius, and was at 
 length happily effected by the invention of geometry 
 and arithmetic. The former of thefe fciences, is 
 unqueftionably of Egyptian origin, and owed its 
 rife to the neceflity the Egyptians lay under, of 
 accurately meafuring their lands, which were annu- 
 ally overflowed by the inundation of the Nile. 
 Thefe lands were divided into enclofures of various- 
 figures and dimenfrons, as the accidental partition 
 of property directed. Some were circular, others 
 triangular, fquare, polygonal, &c. To facilitate 
 labour, as well as to indulge that curiofity and love 
 of knowledge, which is natural to the human mind, 
 the ingenuity of man was employed, in confidering 
 the various properties of thefe figures, and he was 
 aftonifhed at the difcoveries he made, which were 
 even greater than his vanity could at firft fight imagine. 
 He found himfelf able not only to meafure rocks, 
 mountains, and the moil flupendous objects on the 
 furface of the earth, but even the whole habitable 
 world itfeif ; nor could this fatisfy his daring ambi- 
 tion, he adventured boldly through that illimitable 
 fpace, in which the heavenly bodies* move, marked 
 
 their
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 97 
 
 their diftanccs, afcertained their motions, and fore- 
 told the vifible effefts of their oppofitions and con- 
 junctions. Thus far he was fuccefsful; but when 
 l-,e pretended to explain their fecret influence on 
 fubl unary bodies, and by that means to prognofticate 
 future events, he fell into wild imaginations and 
 childifh fuperftitions; and if the ftrength of the 
 human underftanding appears in its aftronomical 
 difcoveries, its weaknefs is in nothing more mani- 
 feft, than its aflrological dreams. Arithmetic, though 
 probably of Egyptian invention, was chiefly cultiva- 
 ted by the Phenicians. This proceeded from their 
 early addicting themfelves to trade. Situated at the 
 extremity of the Mediterranean-Sea, they might 
 juftly be termed a centre of union for the European 
 and Afiatic commerce. Mount Libanus afforded 
 them excellent materials for building their (hips ; 
 poffefTed of a limited territory, and encompafled by 
 warlike nations, only a fmall part of their people 
 could be employed in agriculture. They therefore 
 very prudently applied themfelves to naval affairs, 
 and depending on trade for fupport, foon rofe to a 
 degree of wealth and grandeur which aftonifhed the 
 world. Ezekiel, in the magnificent ftyle of the 
 prophetic writings, terms the merchants of Tyre, 
 princes. This brave people appeared with redoubled 
 fplendour after the deflruclion of their city by Ne- 
 buchadnezzar; even furvived the dreadful cruelties 
 of Alexander the Great, and were not finally 
 N deftroved
 
 98 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 deflroyed till invaded by the Saracens, during the 
 reigns of their caliphs: this laft overthrow they 
 never recovered. Then, and not till then, were 
 the prophecies of Ezekiel relating to that city, ful- 
 filled in the utmofl exteut. 
 
 Among a people, who for fo many ages directed 
 the commerce ot the world, it is impoflible but 
 arithmetic in all its various branches muft be per- 
 fectly underftood. And the powers of numbers were 
 foon found to be no lefs ufeful to mankind, than 
 geometry; not only in the ordinary tranfaftions of 
 life, but in the inveftigation of fublimeand fpecula- 
 tive truths. For as there is fcarcely any magnitude 
 or diftancc, but what may be comprehended by 
 geometry, fo there is fcarcely any multitude however 
 great, which is beyond the reach of arithmetic. 
 Juftly therefore did the ancients term geometry and 
 arithmetic, the wings by which men fly to heaven. 
 Let us for a moment confider geometry as un- 
 folding itfelf in mechanics, navigation, optics, geo- 
 graphy, and aflronomy. Let us trace arithmetic 
 from its mod fimple form of an addition fum, to 
 the extraction of the fquare and cube root; afcend- 
 ing ftill higher, let us contemplate the intricate 
 theorems of algebra, or enter on the vaft field of 
 fluxions, and then confefs, that to geometry and 
 arithmetic we are indebted for thofe arts, which 
 contribute to the comfort and ornament of life, and 
 
 thofe
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 99 
 
 thofe fciences, which by enlarging our views, make 
 us feel the wonderful powers of the human foul, and 
 gives us more juft and adequate ideas of the perfec- 
 tions of the Deity. Mankind having acquired 
 an imperfect knowledge of thefe fciences, applied 
 themfelves with ardour to the difcovery of fpcculative 
 and practical truths; and it is reafonable to fuppofe, 
 that fome men of a ferious turn of thought, and 
 fuperior reach of underftanding, would devote their 
 lives wholly to ftudy and contemplation. Such were 
 the Egyptian priefts, fo celebrated by all antiquity 
 for the vaft extent of their knowledge, which we are 
 told, comprehended the liberal fciences, hierogly- 
 phics, geography, aftronomy, natural philofophy, the 
 difcipline of virtues and laws, the nature of the gods, 
 the mode of worfhip by facrifices, and the whole fci- 
 ence of medicine. I have already taken notice in mv 
 former difTertations of their {kill in aftronomy and 
 hieroglyphics, enlarged on their theology, and (lightly 
 touched on their morality and politics. I fhall there- 
 fore confine myfelf at prefent to their Natural Philo- 
 fophy. That they were fkilful in medicine, is generally 
 affirmed by the ancients, and the rife and progrefs 
 of that art in Egypt has been well explained by the 
 learned Warburton. Every prodigy and irregularity 
 in nature, as we are informed by Strabo, was ob- 
 ferved by the priefts of that nation, and carefully 
 clepofited in their facred records; and Herodotus 
 tells us, that they had more obfervations of that fort, 
 N 2 ' than
 
 JOO NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 than any other nation, which they not only diligently 
 preferved, but frequently compared together, and 
 from a fimilitude of prodigies, gathered a fimilitude 
 of events. From this we may infer, that they had 
 made fome advances in Natural Philofophy; certain 
 it is, that not only the poets and legiflators oi 
 Greece, but their ablefi: philosophers acquired the 
 chief of their knowledge and wifdom in Egypt; 
 From Egypt, Natural Philofophy found its way to 
 Phenicia, and was communicated by that people in 
 their long voyages, to every part of the known 
 world. Unfortunately we have no writings of the 
 Phenicians extant, except a fragment of Sanchoni- 
 athon preferved by Eufebius, which has oceafioned 
 much difpute in the learned world. But the great 
 glory of Phenicia, according to Dr. Cudworth, was 
 Mofchus, or Mochus, the inventor of the Ato- 
 mical Philofophy. This great man defined matter 
 to be extended bulk, and attributed nothing to it, 
 but what is included in the nature and idea of it, 
 viz. more or lefs magnitude, diviftbility into parts, 
 figure, and pofition, together with motion and reft; 
 but fo that no body can move of itfelf, but is always 
 moved by fomething elfe. That there are no quali- 
 ties really exifting in the bodies without, but what 
 are the refult or aggregates of thofe fimple elements, 
 and the difpofitions of the infenfible parts cf bodies, 
 in refpecl of figure, fite, and motion; that the other 
 imaginary qualities of bodies, fuch as colour, tafte, 
 
 and
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1C1 
 
 and fmell, are not really exifting in the bodies, but 
 may be confidered as fancies, paftions, arid fenfa- 
 tions, occafioned by the imprelfions made on our 
 fenfes by external objecls. This matter was regard- 
 ed by Mofchus, as the fubftancc from which all 
 bodies were formed, and from the properties afcri- 
 bed to it by the above cited definition, he thought 
 himfelf able to account for the appearances and 
 changes in the inanimate parts of the creation; but 
 when he confidered the nature of the fenfitive foul 
 of animals, and the intellectual foul of man, he 
 found that no poffible difpofition of matter, could 
 communicate to it a power of Loco Motion; or any 
 imaginable combination of its properties, infpire it 
 with any thing like thought or defign. This led 
 him to a difcovery of another principle, diftinft 
 from matter, which the ancient philofophers termed 
 mind, or intellect. This opened a vaft field for the 
 human underftanding to range in, till rifing by de- 
 grees from the contemplation of natural objecls, to 
 the moral government of the univerfe, it formed to 
 itfelf juft conceptions of the Deity. This Atomical 
 Philofophy was introduced into Greece by Demo- 
 critus, but his knowledge of it was imperfect and 
 partial; he rejected the immaterial or aftive, and 
 adopted only the material or paflive principle. 
 From his inability to account for the formation and 
 government of the univerfe, he found himfelf ob- 
 liged to refer every thing to chance; neither was 
 
 he
 
 IO2 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 he happier in his attempts to explain the operations 
 of the human mind. This Philofophy, which was 
 afterwards improved by Epicurus, and adorned by the 
 brilliant fancy of Lucretius, abounds with ftrange 
 abfurdities, and has a fatal tendency to Atheifm. 
 Nothing could ever have recommended it to the 
 world, had it not unhappily encouraged thofe vici- 
 ous inclinations, which too frequently gain the af- 
 cendant in minds diflipated by trifles, and foftened 
 by luxury. Plato is thought by many to err in the 
 other extreme, and frequently to adopt the imma- 
 terial, to the exclufion of the material principle. 
 But acknowledging this to be the cafe, it is the 
 error of a great genius; nor ought we to wonder, 
 that the human faculties, like the organs of fenfe, 
 mould be dazzled by an excefs of light. 
 
 Thales, who was the founder of the Ionic fchool, 
 and who firft introduced the fludy of Natural Phi- 
 lofophy into Greece, was born at Miletus in the 
 thirty-firft Olympiad. Apuleius, fpeaking of this 
 extraordinary man, exprefles himfelf nearly in the 
 following manner: Of the feven wife men fo re- 
 nowned in Greece, the firft rank is due to Thales; 
 for he among the Greeks, is efteemed the firft 
 inventor of geometry, the moft fagacious inquirer 
 into the nature of things, and the moft fkilful ob- 
 ferver of the ftars; by fmall lines he difcovered the 
 raoft hidden truths, the revolutions of times, the 
 
 blowing
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 103 
 
 blowing of the winds, the meatus or fmall paflages 
 of the ftars, the miraculous founds of thunder, the 
 oblique courfes of the flars, the annual returns or 
 folftices of the fun, the fucceflive increafe and de- 
 creafe of the moon, and the obftacles which caufe 
 an eclipfe. From this account, it is clear that the 
 Philofophy of Thales was chiefly occupied in the 
 contemplation of things fenfible and natural; and 
 it is well obferved by Gale, that the Natural Philo- 
 fophy of Thales, was no other than a natural hiftory 
 of the origin of the univerfe, or in other terms, of 
 the creation of the world, which it is imagined he 
 received from Sanchoniathon and Mofchus. For 
 when Philofophy began firfl to take place in Greece, 
 the grand queftion was touching the firft matter in 
 the univerfe. For that the world had a beginning, 
 was not queftioned till the time of Ariftotle. Thales 
 affirmed water to be the beginning of all things, and 
 that God out of water framed all things. This v$uf t 
 or water of Thales, is confidered by the learned, as 
 the fame with the chaos of Sanchoniathon, and from 
 the converfion of the fpirit with the chaos, there 
 refulted ^ur or iXrc, which is termed matter, i. e. 
 mud, flime, or watery mixture, which indeed was 
 but the effeft, or grofler part of that water, which 
 Thales makes to be the material principle of all natural 
 bodies. Thus we fee (to ufe the words of the ad- 
 mirable Stillingfleet) how Thales, with the Phe- 
 liicians, from whom he was derived, and other 
 3 philofophers,
 
 104 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 philofophers, concur with Mofes, not only in the 
 production of the world, but in the manner of it, 
 wherein is exprelfed a fluid matter, which was the 
 material principle. The Spirit of God moved on 
 the face of the waters. The other philofophic 
 opinions of Thales were, firft, That there was 
 one world, and that made by God the Spirit, out 
 of the aforefaid water; and that this world, being 
 God's workmanfhip, was exceeding beautiful, good, 
 and perfect. Secondly, That this beauty and per- 
 fection confifted in the admirable difpofition and 
 harmony of its parts; in this he was followed by 
 Pythagoras, who for this reafon termed the world 
 Hay/***. Thirdly, Thales affirmed the world to be 
 animated ; an opinion which Plato confiderably im- 
 proved, by fuppofing the world to be vivified by 
 the Spirit or Providence of God. Fourthly, That 
 night was older than the day. I fhall not at prefent 
 enlarge on the difcoveries Thales made in aflrono- 
 my, having already faid fufficient on that fubjecl, 
 in a former diflertation. Thales was fucceeded 
 in his fchool by Anaximander, his kinfraan and dif- 
 ciple ; he differed in fome opinions from his mailer, 
 particularly in aflerting that infinity is the principle 
 of all things. What he meant by this infinity is 
 thus explained by Plutarch: Anaximander the Mi- 
 lefian affirms infinite to be the firil principle, and 
 that all things are generated out of it, and cor- 
 rupted again into it, and therefore that infinite 
 
 worlds
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 105 
 
 worlds are thus generated and corrupted ; and he 
 gives the reafon why it is infinite, that fo there 
 might be never any fail of generations: but in this 
 he is miftaken, that afiigning only a material caufe, 
 lie takes away the aftive principle of things, for 
 Anaximander's infinite is nothing elfe but matter; 
 but matter can produce nothing, unlefs there be 
 alfo an aftive caufe. From this it appears that the 
 Philofophy of Anaximander had an atheiftical ten- 
 dency. Not that he was fo bold as to deny the 
 exiftence of the gods ; for we learn from Cicero, 
 that Anaximander's opinion was, that the gods 
 were native, rifing and vanifhing again in long 
 periods of time, and that thefe gods were innumer- 
 able worlds : but how can we conceive that to be a 
 god which is not eternal ? From hence it is evi- 
 dent, that although Anaximander retained the names 
 of gods, yet he denied the exiftence of a Deity. 
 Arid making infinite matter to be his firft principle, 
 he fuppofed firft the elements of earth, water, air, 
 and fire ; next the bodies of the fun, moon, and 
 ftars ; then the bodies and fouls of men, and other 
 animals; and, laftly, innumerable or infinite worlds, 
 as fo many fecondary and native gods to have been 
 generated. Anaximander is faid to have made con- 
 fiderable improvements in geometry, to have pub- 
 lifhed geographical tables, and to have been the firft 
 of all the Greeks who found out the obliquity of 
 the zodiac. The fucceflbr of Anaximander was 
 O Anaximenes,
 
 1OS NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Anaximenes, who held that air was the principle of 
 the univerfe, of which all things were engendered, 
 and into which they are all ultimately refolvable. 
 That our fouls, by which we live, are air; fo fpirit 
 and air contain in being all the world ; for fpirit 
 and air, are two names, (ignifying one thing. Thus 
 we fee that Anaximenes, although he differed from 
 his mailer Anaximander, in making the firft matter 
 to be air, yet agreed with him unhappily, in aflign- 
 ing only a material caufe in the univerfe, and 
 adopting the paffive, to the exclufion of the a&ive 
 principle. Anaximenes was fucceeded by Anaxa- 
 goras the Clazomenian, who was born in the firft 
 year of the feventieth Olympiad. This great man 
 tranflated the fchool from Afia to Athens, and had 
 the fingular felicity of numbering among his fcho- 
 lars, the immortal names of Pericles, Euripides, 
 and Socrates; impelled by an uncommon elevation 
 of thought, he reje&ed the fyftems of his immediate 
 predeceflbrs in the Ionic fchool, as confufed, unfa- 
 tisfaftory, and impious; and maintained, that befides 
 the material, there was an immaterial principle, 
 which was God. This God, as we learn from 
 Lan&antius, he termed an infinine and felf-moving 
 mind; and Cicero informs us, that he held this di- 
 vine infinite mind, not enclofed in any body, to be 
 the efficient caufe of all things. He denied that 
 there were a multitude of unmade minds, coexifling 
 from eternity, and confequently acknowledged one 
 
 God,
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1O? 
 
 God, ruling over all. But it muft be confefled, 
 that although Anaxagoras affirmed that the world 
 had a beginning, yet he feems to admit the eternity 
 oF matter, and fuppcfed that God formed the world 
 by his power, wifdom, and goodnefs, from materials 
 already exiting, and that he rather modified and 
 regulated, than created. This miftake originated in 
 extending too far that old philofophical axiom, which 
 ought to be received with great limitations, viz* 
 That nothing is made out of nothing. Were I to 
 relate all the improvements Anaxagoras made in 
 Natural Philofophy, my reader would probably think 
 me tedious ; I (hall therefore only obferve, that 
 although his aftronomical obfervations, finceour late 
 difcoveries in that fcience, may appear ill founded, 
 yet they argue a wonderful reach of thought, and an 
 uncommon force of genius. He gives on the whole 
 a rational account of winds, thunder, earthquakes, 
 and other phenomena in nature; and well obferves, 
 that the rainbow is caufed by the refraction of the 
 fun's light finking on a thick and watery cloud. 
 Having thus gone through the Ionic fchool, from its 
 firft founder Thales, to Anaxagoras, who was contem- 
 porary with Socrates, I fhall proceed to confider the 
 opinions of the Italic fchool, which was founded by 
 Pythagoras, in that part of Italy, which from the fre- 
 quency of Greek colonies, was called Magna Grecia. 
 This great philofopher,according to the moft received 
 account, was born at Sidon in Phenicia, but educated 
 O2 at
 
 IO8 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 at Samos ; it is generally allowed, that he flourifhed 
 about the fixtieth Olympiad. All the writers of his 
 life agree, that to the advantages of birth, perfon, 
 andaddrefs, he joined a genius vaft and fublime, and 
 afpirit bold, daring, and unwearied in the fearch of 
 truth. Thefe happy difpofitions he did not fail to 
 improve by ftudy and travel. Thus Apuleius. But 
 the more general opinion is, that he (Pythagoras) 
 of his own accord fought after the Egyptian fciences, 
 and learned of the Egyptian priefts, the incredible 
 efficacy of their ceremonies, the wonderful changes 
 of numbers, and the moil exaft rules of geometry; 
 but his mind not being fatisfied with thefe fciences, 
 he went to the Chaldeans, and from them to the 
 Brachmans and Gymnofophifls : the Chaldeans taught 
 aftronomy, the flated courfes of the wandering flars, 
 and their influence on the human conftitution. 
 Moreover Pythagoras embraced for his mailer, Phe- 
 recydes, a native of the ifle of Syrus, who firlt 
 rejecting the (hackles of verfe, boldly wrote Philofo- 
 phy in profe; it is likewife affirmed, that he fludied 
 Natural Philofophy under Anaxiinander the Milefian, 
 that he followed Epimenides of Crete, c. From 
 the Egyptians and Chaldeans he is faid to have 
 learned the true folar fyftem; and from his mafter 
 Pherecydes Syrus, to have derived his notion of 
 the immortality of the foul. His doclrine of the 
 metempfychofis, his ideas of the Deity, and above 
 all his {kill in politics and legiflation, I have already 
 2 taken
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 109 
 
 taken notice of in a former differtation. Let us then 
 confine ourfelves at prefent chiefly to his Phyfics, or 
 Natural Philofophy, properly fo called. To this 
 ftudy, Pythagoras conceived the mathematics to be 
 preparatory, and began with teaching his fcholars 
 arithmetic. This part of the mathematics he learned 
 from the Phenicians, and finding it of wonderful 
 ufe in his philosophical inquiries, he feems to have 
 contracted for it a fuperflitious regard, and to have 
 afcribed to it flrange and myftenous powers: he like - 
 wife made his fcholars apply themfelves diligently to 
 geometry. Pading over the numberlefs improvements 
 he made in that fcience, I (hall take notice only of 
 the two famous theorems which are allowed to be of 
 his invention, viz. That every triangle is equal to two 
 right angles, and that the fquare ot the hypoteneufe 
 of every right angled triangle, is equal to the fquare 
 of the other two fides. Thele two proportions may 
 be confidered as the bafis of trigonometry, the ex- 
 tenfive ufe of which in practical, as well as fpecula- 
 tive mathematics, is fo well known, that to enlarge 
 upon it will be needlefs. Let me only obferve to 
 thofe, who have never applied themfeives to fludies 
 of this fort, that the whole art of navigation is dedu- 
 ced from thefe propofitions of Pythagoras ; and that we 
 are indebted to the labours and ingenuity of a phiio- 
 fopher who has been dead upwards of two thoufand 
 years, for the facility with which \\t viik foreign climes, 
 and confequently for the extenfion oi our commerce. 
 
 Such
 
 IIO NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Such are the advantages derived to mankind from 
 true fcience. Natural Philofophy, or Phyfics, may 
 be divided into the contemplative and aftive. Py- 
 thagoras's knowledge of the former, confifted chiefly 
 in the hiftory of the creation, in which he does not 
 differ materially from his great matter Thales. The 
 fyftems of both are conformable to the Mofaic ac- 
 count. Pythagoras held fire to be the principle of all 
 things; which is thus explained by learned commen- 
 tator on Plato. The element of fire is nothing elfe but 
 a fiery fpirit, or efficacy, which is varioufly diffufed 
 in the fymmetry of the univerfe, for the nourimirig 
 and fomenting all things, according to their refpec- 
 live natures; which vivific natural heat, Mofes calls 
 the Spirit of God. This opinion of the efficacy or 
 fpirituality of fire, Pythagoras probably learned from 
 the Chaldeans. In aclive phyfics, or medicine, 
 Pythagoras and his followers were well verfed; and 
 we are told, that the chief part of their medical (kill 
 confifted in an exaft regimen or right order of diet* 
 Certain it is that no philofopher ever inculcated 
 more forcibly, both by precept and example, the 
 virtue of temperance; he commanded his followers 
 to abftain from all meats which load the ftomach, 
 ingender humours, or inflame the blood. For the 
 great object of Philofophy, he faid, was to prefervc 
 the health of the body and the purity of the mind. 
 Having thus treated briefly of the Natural Philofophy 
 of Pythagoras, it may not be improper to fay fome- 
 
 thing
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. til 
 
 thing of his manner of philofophifing in general, 
 which was chiefly by fymbols. This method he learned 
 from the Egyptians, and which, in facl, is only a part 
 of the dotrine of hieroglyphics, or rather hierogly- 
 phic images exprefled in words. Thus a debauched 
 worthlefs character, he defcribed by the fymbol of a 
 coffin, which is a well-known hieroglyphic image to 
 reprefent natural death, and, by a beautiful figure, 
 conveys to us a true but melancholy idea of the 
 miferable condition of a man loft to all fenfe and 
 goodnefs. The letter Y was another favourite fym- 
 bol of Pythagoras, by which he meant to exprefs 
 tire two roads mankind enter upon, when they arrive 
 at years of maturity; one of which leads to virtue 
 and happinefs, the other to vice and mifery. Re- 
 ceive not a fwallow into thy houfe, fays Pythagoras. 
 This fymbol lamblichus ftrangely explains, by fay- 
 ing, that under it is couched a reproof againft flothful 
 fcholars; whereas nothing is more contrary to the 
 nature of a fwallow, than (loth. The food of that 
 bird is not to be procured without labour, confe- 
 quently he is almoft always on the wing. How 
 much more eafy and natural is it to fuppofe, that 
 Pythagoras meant by a fwallow, a perfon of a light 
 and talkative nature, and that it is dangerous to 
 intruft fecrets to men of that caft. Thefe examples 
 are fufficient to convey to my reader an idea of 
 Pythagoras's method of philofophifing. But I can- 
 not conclude my account of this great philofopher, 
 
 without
 
 112 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 without giving his opinion of the providence of God, 
 which is fo juft and rational, that I want terms to 
 cxprefs my admiration. We have need of fuch a 
 government, fays this great man, as we ought not 
 in any degree to contradict, which alone proceeds 
 from the Deity, who defervedly may challenge a 
 fovereign dominion over all ; for man being fhame- 
 fully variable and fickle in his appetites and paflions, 
 needs fuch a government, from which proceeds 
 moderation and order : to this he adds, that good 
 men are the peculiar care of heaven. Pythagoras 
 was fucceeded in his fchool by his wife Theano, a 
 woman of extraordinary genius, and his fons Te- 
 laugus and Menexarchus. Among his difciples, O- 
 cellus, Architas, Philolaus, and Parmenides, are moft 
 celebrated. From the two former, particularly from 
 Ocellus, Ariftotle is thought to have borrowed much 
 of his logic and metaphyfics. Of Parmenides they 
 tell an idle ftory of his fpending eighteen years in a 
 rock, feeding his mind all that time with logic, as 
 if the only way to become a great Philofopher, was 
 to commence enthufiaft and madman. Philolaus 
 is chiefly known by the value Plato fet on his books, 
 which he purchafed at an incredible price. In 
 fpeaking of the Pythagorean philofophers, I ought 
 not to omit Epicharmus and Timeus, to whofe me- 
 taphyfical writings on being, and ideas, it is fuppofed 
 Plato was not a little indebted. Thus have we traced 
 Natural Philofophy from Egypt and Phenicia, where 
 
 fee
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 113 
 
 fhe fpent her infancy, beheld her gradually unfold 
 her charms during her abode in the Ionic and Italic 
 fchools, and we fhall now fee her in the hands of 
 Plato and Ariftode, {hine forth in her full blaze of 
 beauty. Plato was born at Athens, or as fome fay, 
 in the ifland of Egina. the firft year of the eighty- 
 eighth Olympiad. His defcent was noble; for he 
 reckoned among his anceflors, Codrus, the lafl king 
 of Athens, fo celebrated for his heroic virtues, and 
 moil glorious death. We are told, that whilft he 
 was yet an infant, and lay fail afleep in a thicket of 
 myrtles on mount Hymettus, a fwarm of bees fixed 
 on his mouth, and made an honeycomb. This was 
 confidered as a prefage of his future eloquence. Other 
 fiories of the fame nature are related the invention 
 of men, who know not how to exprefs, without the 
 aid of fiftion, their admiration of a genius fo vaft and 
 tranfcendant. In his youth he is fiid to have compo- 
 fed an epic poem; but on a comparifon with the Iliad 
 of Homer, finding it much inferior, he committed it 
 to the flames, and from that time applied himfelf 
 v.-holly to the ftudy of Philofophy. As Socrates was 
 -his matter in moral, fo Pythagoras feems to have beea 
 his guide in Natural Philofophy. The writers of his 
 life agree, that he travelled into that part of Italy 
 where Pythagoras taught, and that he attended the lec- 
 tures of Architas and Euritus, and was a great admire-r 
 of Timeus the Locrian. From Italy he directed his 
 rcourfe to Egypt, and was accompanied in his voyage 
 P by
 
 Il.{ NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 by Euripides. His object in this voyage, as we are 
 informed by Cicero, was to inftruft himfelf in the 
 celeftial fpeculations of the Barbarians; and during 
 his thirteen years refidence in that country, be no 
 doubt acquired a knowledge of their moll obfcure 
 and myfterious doctrines. Philofophy, in its moft 
 extenfive fenfe, may be confmered as either theore- 
 tical or practical. The object of the former is the 
 difcovery of truth, the object of the latter the prac- 
 tice of virtue. Phyfics, and thofe parts of meta- 
 phfics, which are not immediately connected with 
 theology, belong to the former. The latter includes 
 ethics, ceconomics, politics, and theology. As the Io- 
 nic and Italic Philofophers applied themfelves chiefly 
 to the theoretic, Socrates devoted himfelf wholly to 
 the practical; but Plato, who afpired to the charac- 
 ter of a complete philofopher, was determined to 
 unite in his own perfon, the moft diligent inquiry 
 into the fecrets of nature, to the moft fublime fpe- 
 culations of theology, and to lay down the beft rules 
 for the conduct of life, drawn from accurate obfer- 
 vations on the nature of man, his propenfitics 
 and paflions, and the different relations in which 
 he ftands to God, his country, family, and friends. 
 Such was the glorious ambition of this renowned 
 philofopher, which was crowned with the fuccefs 
 it deferved. But as the fubject of this diflertation, 
 confines me chiefly to Phyfics, or Natural Philofo- 
 phy, I muft either wholly omit, or hut fl'ghtly touch
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1 1 j 
 
 on the moft fublime and important of his doftrines. 
 Let us at prefcnt confider his opinions relating to 
 the origin of the univerfe; and firft, he held that 
 the world had a beginning, and that it was created 
 by God according to the exemplar and idea pre- 
 exifting in the Divine Mind. This exemplar and 
 idea, he fometimes terms the intelligible, in contra- 
 diihnclion to the vifible and created world; by 
 which he meant that the world was framed, not for- 
 tuitoufly or by chance, but according to the dictates 
 oi the moil: perfeft wifdom. That as an architect in 
 building a palace or a temple, acls by defign, and 
 forms it after an image or idea preconceived in his 
 mind; fo this moft beautiful temple of the world, 
 v. as created by God conformable to his divine ideas, 
 of which it was an imitation; and therefore God is 
 fa:d by Plato to have adorned, ordered, figured, 
 conftituted, and framed all things. The general 
 ingredients which enter into the competition of all 
 bodies, according to this great philofopher, are the 
 four elements, fire, water, earth, air; but yet thefe 
 elements are not, properly fpeaking, the firft matter, 
 which he terms chaos, orv/^, and thus defines it: 
 The genus out of which every thing is compofecl; 
 and he fays it is neither fire, nor water, nor earth, 
 nor air, but the common mother and nurfe of all 
 thefe; that it is a kind of anomalous thing, not 
 clothed with tifence, yea little better than nothing; 
 yet the common fuljecl, out of which all things are 
 P 2 formed.
 
 Il6 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 formed. My reader will doubtlefs be flruck with the 
 refemblance this firft matter of Plato's bears to the- 
 iHiiverfe, as defcribed by Mofes, before it was ani- 
 mated by the Spirit of God. And the earth was 
 without form, and void, and darknefs was upon 
 the face of the deep. This darknefs is the fame as- 
 Plato's Erebus, which not only the philofophers, but 
 the moft ancient poets make to be the parent of all 
 things. Plato thus expounds the operations of 
 the Divine Mind in the formation of the univerfe ; 
 the matter of things, fays he, being fubftracled, the 
 mind of the Divine Opificer, by a prudent kind of 
 perfuafion, compelled the fame which was dark, 
 fluid, and unformed, to pafs into light, order, &c. 
 That this prudent kind of perfuafion of Plato, is the 
 fame as the fiat of Mofes r muft be evident to the 
 moft fuperficial reader. Secondly, The body of the 
 univerfe, which he terms vifible and tangible, hr 
 makes, as I obferved before, to confift of four ele- 
 ments, fire, water, earth, and air, conjoined toge- 
 ther by a friendly proportion and harmony. Of 
 thefe, he fays, earth is the moft ponderous and 
 impenetrable ; fire, by its tenuity, penetrates 
 ever}' thing; air every thing but fire; water pene- 
 trates the earth, by which means all things being 
 filled, there is no vacuum. Of thefe elements, fays 
 Plato, God compofed the world, which is tangible, 
 by reafon of earth, and vifible by fire; which two 
 extremes are joined together by air and water, with 
 a proportion,
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1 tj 
 
 proportion, that mod excellent bond. For fire, 
 from its penetrating nature, renders all things vifi- 
 ble, and nothing is tangible, but what has a folid 
 bafis; now nothing is folid but what partakes of the 
 earth. From this friendly junction of the elements, 
 there refulted beauty, harmony, and perfection; and 
 God furveying the works of the creation, according 
 to Plato, rejoiced, or in the more energetic language 
 of Alofes, faw that they were good, i. e. fitted for 
 the ends for which they were defigned: befides the 
 beauty, harmony, and perfe&ion above mentioned, 
 Plato afcribes to the univerfe feveral other qualities 
 or affections, fuch as generation, which he defines 
 to be a motion to effence, mobility, figure, colour, 
 &c. By the foul of the univerfe, I am of opinion, 
 that he fometimes means that providential care with 
 which God preferves and governs all things ; at 
 other times, only thofe vital energies, communicated 
 by God to the various parts of the creation, and by 
 which they all regularly tend to their appointed end. 
 Thefe energies have been termed by fome philofo- 
 phers, Plaftic Nature, or the divine art embodied. 
 Plato was of opinion that the heavenly bodies were 
 of aa igneous and fiery nature; that the moft glorious 
 of all beyond comparifon was the fun, whofe rays 
 illumined all things; that of the fiars, the greater 
 part were fixed, feven only being erratic ; that the 
 icoon performed her revolution in twenty-nine days 
 and a half; that the fun paffed through the figns of 
 
 the
 
 Il8 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 the zodiac, and completed the feafons in a year: 
 of the other erratic ftars, each had its particular 
 revolution. The fentiments of this great philofo- 
 pher on the ordinary phenomena in the lower 
 world, fnch as tufts of wind, rain, thunder, &c. 
 are not accurately known, but we have reafon to 
 believe they were not very different from what were 
 taught in the Ionic and Italic fchools before his time. 
 Animals and plants, Plato feems to have ftudied very 
 attentively, and by an inveftigation of their properties, 
 considerably to have improved the fcience of medi- 
 cine. Let us before we take our leave of Plato, fee 
 what are his fentiments on man, who unquefti- 
 onably is the nobleft animal of the creation; and 
 firft, this great philofopher tells us, nearly in the 
 words of Mofes, that man is a kind of imitation of 
 God, and his mafter-piece; that he confifts of foul 
 and body, that the foul is ingenerable and immortal, 
 and as to its capacity infinite, never fatisfied, but with 
 the firft, truth and chiefeft good; and it becomes the, 
 body to ferve, but the foul to rule, becaufe it is moft 
 like to the divine, immortal, intelligible, moft uni- 
 form, and perfect being ; that truth is the proper 
 object of the mind, which he terms its life and food. 
 Wifdom he defines to be a knowledge of beings 
 eternal; intelligence, a knowledge of firft principles; 
 fcience, a demonftrative knowledge; opinion, he 
 fays, is fomething that partakes of fcience and ig- 
 norance; art, an imitation of nature, &c. For the 
 
 body
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. lltj 
 
 body it is as neceffary to prcferve it in health and 
 vigour, as to improve the mind by knowledge ; and 
 Plato gives us many admirable rules for the confer- 
 vation of health, and the cure of difeafes. Like 
 Pythagoras, he held geometry and arithmetic, to be 
 fciences preparatory to the ftudy of Natural Philofo- 
 phy. I {hall conclude my account of this great 
 philofopher, withtheobfervationof Ludovicas Vives: 
 That there are three things which gained not only 
 Greece, but the whole world to Plato, viz. his in- 
 tegrity of life, his holy precepts, and his eloquence. 
 The moft renowned of all Plato's difciples, was 
 Ariftotle, a man, who, with incredible acutenefs, pe- 
 netrated into the moft fecret receffes of nature; 
 \vhofe genius, vafl and capacious, comprehended 
 the whole material and immaterial world; and whofe 
 difcriminating judgment could clearly arrange, and 
 accurately define the moft complex operations of the 
 human mind. He differed not lefs from his great 
 mafler in the ftriking features of his character, than 
 in his method of treating philofophical fubjets. 
 The ftyle of Plato is figurative and poetical ; we fee 
 an artful arrangement of periods, and ftudied har- 
 mony of cadence; and frequently on the moft ab- 
 ftracl fubjefts, he addreffes himfelf to the reader's 
 imagination, arid clothes his fublime ideas in the 
 thin and tranfparent robes of fable and allegory. 
 On the other hand, Ariftotle fpeaks only to the 
 underftanding; relying on the force and ftrength of 
 
 his
 
 I2O NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 his reafoning, he rejefts all extraneous ornaments, 
 and delivers hirnfelf with a pregnant brevity; not lefs 
 frugal of his words, than liberal of his fenfe. From 
 their different characters we may likewife account 
 for the different genius of their Philofophy. Plato, 
 whofe imagination was luxuriant, and whofe feelings 
 were acute, was fenfibly alive to religious impref- 
 fions, and his writings abound with the moftfublime 
 ideas of the Deity, his power, wifdom, and good- 
 nefs, manifested in the creation and prefecvation of 
 all things, and the moft eloquent and perfuafive ex- 
 hortations to a life of piety and virtue, from the 
 powerful motives of grateful love and reverential awe. 
 But in Anftotle, judgment was predominant; and 
 he feems not to have poflefled any great fhare of 
 imagination or fenfibility. Although he was led by his 
 underftandingto acknowledge a h'rft caufe, which was 
 God, to whom he afcribes the ufual attributes ; yet 
 on two fubje&s, of all others, the mofl important to 
 mankind, viz. The providence of God in the go- 
 vernment of the world, and the immortality of the 
 foul, he exprefTcs himfelf with a degree of doubt 
 and uncertainty. This fcepticifm proceeded from 
 the rule he had laid down, not to believe any thing 
 which he could not bring to the level of his under- 
 ftanding. It muft be confefTed that his writings 
 contain many excellent doflrines, viz. That nature 
 is the inilnzment of the Deity, acling not according 
 to the r.ccdiity of material motions, but for ends and 
 
 purpofes,
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 121 
 
 purpofes, though unknown to itfelf ; that man, in the 
 moft extenfive fenfe of the word, is a free agent, and 
 that morality is natural to him: this he admirahly ex- 
 plains iii his ethics and politics. In a word, Ariftotle 
 writes, as if he were addreffing himfelf to a mere in- 
 telligence. Plato confiders man as a compound crea- 
 ture, and at the fame time that he informs his un- 
 derftanding, he endeavours to ftrike his imagination, 
 and move his paffions. Having thus given a compara- 
 tive view of the merits of thefe two great philofophers, 
 I (hall proceed to eonfider Ariftotle's opinion touching 
 the origin of the univerfe; and firft, he held in a 
 limited fenfe, the eternity of matter. This notion 
 he adopted, becaufe he found difficulties in con- 
 ceiving a creation out of nothing. He feemsin his 
 idea of the firft matter, to follow the opinion of 
 Plato; for he ftyles it, unformed, indeterminate, 
 indigeftive, a mere paifive power, capable of any 
 form ; and fays, that there are three principles 
 of nature, privation, form, and matter, which laJt 
 is the common fubjeft of both. The exemplars and 
 divine ideas of Plato, Ariftotle rejected as unintelli- 
 gible; for the reft, in his Phyfics, he appears to have 
 adopted the doctrines of his mailer Plato, though 
 he expreffes himfelf in different terms; and it muft 
 be confeffed, that on many fubjecls he explains his 
 meaning with much greater accuracy. In the fcience 
 of meteorology he far exceeded him ; and in his 
 hiftory of animals, he mews fuch a knowledge of their 
 Q various
 
 X22 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 various natures, as could not pofiibly be acquired 
 by any fingle man, unlefs afiifted by tlie bounty of 
 an Alexander, who ordered animals to be brought 
 from different parts of the world for his infpeclion. 
 Logic, or the art of arranging our ideas, is pofTelTed 
 in a certain degree by all mankind; for without it 
 no difcourfe could be held : but how imperfecl this 
 art is in uncultivated minds, is evident from the con- 
 fufed perceptions of favages, and the ftrange junc- 
 tion of diflimilar ideas, fo obfervable in the conver- 
 fation of children. Let us trace the progrefs of this 
 art : as fpon as mankind begin to exert their rational 
 faculties, they obferve certain characleriflic di (Ter- 
 ences, which diftinguim the animal from the vege- 
 table, and the vegetable from the mineral' world. 
 Thus general ideas are formed, which may be con- 
 fidered as the bafis of knowledge; afterwards, from 
 a more accurate furvey of nature, they difcover that 
 thefe general ideas of animals, vegetables, and mine- 
 rals, may be fubdivided into an infinite number of 
 fpecies, agreeing in fome common qualities, which 
 mark the genus, and differing in others, which diftin- 
 guifh the fpecies: thus, by claffing every individual 
 under its proper genus and fpecies, men learn to think 
 and fpeak with accuracy; but before this can be 
 done, the human mind muft have made great ad- 
 vances in fcience; for in the fcale of nature, we 
 find one fpecies difcniijtnated from another, by fuch 
 nice diflinftions, as to efcape all but the philosophic 
 2 eye :
 
 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 1&3 
 
 eye: to which I may add, that the number is fo 
 infinite, as to exceed the comprehenfion of the moft 
 enlarged underftanding, fo that our knowledge of 
 the works of nature, muft be always imperfeft. This 
 method of arrangement, which was at firft employed 
 on thofe ideas, which are derived from fenfible ob 
 jefts, was afterwards applied to abftraft and metaphy- 
 fical conceptions. Zeno is faid to have firft given 
 to logic a fcientific form; but the improvements it 
 afterwards received from Ariftotle were fo great, as 
 to eclipfe the glory of all who went before him. 
 This great man, under ten general heads, fo well 
 known by the name of the Ten Predicaments, in- 
 cluded every difference by which one individual is 
 diftinguifhed from another; and it is not eafy to 
 conceive a greater effort of the human underftanding, 
 than thus to reduce the infinite variety of nature, 
 within fo fmall a compafs. The fyllogifm is un- 
 queftionably of Ariftotle's invention; for although 
 in Plato and other writers who preceded him, we 
 frequently fee a method of ratiocination, yet we have 
 nothing like a fyllogiftic or artificial arrangement of 
 argument. To conclude, in the exa&nefs of his 
 definitions and divifions, and in the clearnefs of his 
 dcmonftrations, Ariftotle not only excelled all the 
 writers who preceded him } but to this day remains 
 unequalled; and one may venture to pronounce, 
 that logic and metaphyfics, fince his time, have re- 
 ceived no real improvement. In Natural Philofophy, 
 
 it
 
 124 NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 it mull be confefled, that the Greeks in the age o 
 Alexander the Great, were much inferior to th 
 moderns ; and I cannot finifh thefe diflertation 
 better, than by obferving, that in thofe arts anr' 
 fciences which depend on elegance of tafte, fp right 
 linefs of fancy, and vigour of genius, the Greek 
 were our fuperiors ; and the only advantage w. 
 have over them, is in thofe ufeful arts and curiou 
 inveftigations, in which labour is exerted rathe 
 than genius, and which cannot be brought to per 
 fe&ion, but by the fucceflive induftry and experienc 
 of many ages. 
 
 FINIS.
 
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