Earliest History of Man. 329 



Christ there were already four ; the Indians, the Chinese, the 

 Babylonians, and the Egyptians. 



The Chinese having always kept themselves separate, the 

 progress which they might have made could only benefit them- 

 selves, and could in no degree contribute to the general civili- 

 zation. Thus, in the history of the sciences, they are never 

 mentioned. As to the other three, so great a similarity is ob- 

 served in their general doctrines, and in the emblems under 

 which these doctrines are veiled, that they must evidently have 

 had communication together. 



The subject of metaphysics being the same for all nations, it 

 will readily be conceived how several of them may have arrived 

 separately at the same system of religious philosophy. It will 

 also be conceived how they should have agreed in the choice of 

 emblems, as these emblems are in general taken from among the 

 natural bodies which men have more commonly around them. 

 But how can the identity of political constitutions be accounted 

 for, unless on the supposition of a communication. We know 

 what is the organization of Indian society : it is at present pre- 

 cisely what it was before the Christian era. The people are di- 

 vided into four principal castes. First come the Brahmins, the 

 depositaries of science, and the ministers of religion ; then the 

 soldiers, those to whom exclusively the defence of the country 

 was formerly intrusted. These men have the privilege of hear- 

 ing the sacred books read. Then come the merchants, and 

 lastly the artizans. In the two last castes, the different profes- 

 sions form so many hereditary subdivisions. This singular con- 

 stitution, which could only have originated from a powerful ge- 

 nius, and which, before it could have been established among a 

 single people, would have required the use of very extraordi- 

 nary means, presents itself again in Egypt. Doubtless, no one 

 will imagine that mere chance could have produced a coincidence 

 of such a nature. 



A similarity still more surprising, because manifesting itself in 

 things of a more arbitrary nature, is that observed in the mo- 

 numents of the three nations. The columnar architecture, it is 

 true, might have originated at once in the artificial caves of 

 Upper Egypt, and in the subterranean pagodas of India, since 

 it were natural to think of supporting by pillars wrought in the 



