Character of Early Egyptian Science. 51 



Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, p. 43, that, ♦* at the 

 time when Thales went to study in Egypt, the priests of that 

 country had already forgotten, in a great degree, the metaphy- 

 sical doctrines which in former times were kept up in their col- 

 leges." Where is the proof of this to be found ? Had the per- 

 secution of a former Cambyses obliterated all trace of these, 

 and left to us a clear field to suppose they possessed them? 

 Or is it to be found in the assumption that Moses had bor- 

 rowed his metaphysics from the Egyptian colleges ? Or is not 

 this, strictly, reasoning in a circle, and begging a question at 

 each extremity of the diameter ? We shall afterwards see, that 

 the conjecture that Moses borrowed his metaphysics from the 

 Egyptians is altogether groundless; and we shall now return to 

 Thales and Pythagoras. ^ 



We shall readily grant, for in doing so we pay no tribute of 

 respect to the science of Egypt, that both these individuals 

 learnt their peculiar dogmas in the colleges of the Egyptian 

 priests. " Thales thought he had found in water a principle, 

 that is to say, a thing pre-existent to every thing. According 

 to him, water is the original matter from which the world is 

 formed." His disciples were ungrateful scholars, for one found 

 the first principle in infinity, another in air, and a third in fire. 

 P. 43. — Pythagoras was even more refined : " He tried to dis- 

 cover the principle of things in the power of numbers." " He 

 extended the language of arithmetic even to morals, and said 

 justice was always divisible by two." " According to him, the 

 universe was a harmonious whole, and on this account the 

 number of the planets was equal to that of the notes of the 

 gamut. In the centre of this harmony was the sun, the soul of 

 the world, and the principle of motion. The souls of men and 

 of animals participated in the nature of the celestial fire, and 

 also those of the gods, who were themselves only animals of a 

 superior order." — Pp. 44, 45. So, then, if Pythagoras got 

 these notions in the Egyptian colleges, in which, according to 

 the best accounts of him, he remained twenty-five years, we 

 have a proof that their metaphysics was again recovered after 

 the time of Thales; for here arises to our astonished view a 

 complete system, not only of physics, but of metaphysics also, 



d2 



