Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 253 



this age, he would have been accounted ridiculoufly fuperftitious : 

 But Synefius was a Platonic philofopher ; and, befides the Greek 

 philofophy, which he appears to have ftudied moft diligently, he was 

 learned in the theology of the Egyptians and Chaldaeans, as we are 

 informed by his commentator Nicephorus in his preface to his com- 

 mentary. And it is well known that all the philofophers of thofc 



times, 



p!iorus, a learned Greek of later times ; in the Preface to which he has given a 

 •wonderful account of the learning and philofophy of Synefius, fpeaking of him as 

 a man infpired, and exalted above humanity. And as to his ftyle, it is praifed by 

 Adrian Turnebus, in a ftyle almofl as attick and as elegant as Syncfius's own flyk. 

 See what he has prefixed to his edition of his works, which is the edition that I 

 have ufed : See alfo what I have further faid of him, vol. i. p. 260- 



I will fubjoin to this note Nicephorus's words, fpeaking of his learning, bccaufc 

 I think them remarkable. • It was confefled,' he fays, by all, ' ou ftotc iatrn «crx 



' T«» EA^nvae Aoy«» trri «ra<«iA«», w«i''>l5 •? »*■(" <rvtuf»o-rtit xxTtrriittci (Xutia-itf), aAA« xost 

 '' Tti>XtcxiuiKt)t t$cc<rntTni airxfTitt i^ymf »ui i<r»o xv iify^xufiuTOiv rut ir»\»tTtt^ Aiywri- 

 ' »ii IxufcuTTvhyTtt' /ii/iXi» tcxi /nvrriKict TtA»T«i T015 itrnTX }Ci*"'i ^x^t^oc-xv, koi irx AlA- 

 ' ^mf iiiyj<.xrnTxt iuX'yt, tvti lovrm]/ uttKirrtf tfCHttt c «»/ig ' Where we have mention- 

 cd all the foreign philofophy, (I mean befides the Greek), which was ftudied at that 

 time; ift the Chaldaic Myfteries, or •^yi*, as they are called by Nicephorus, by 

 which, no doubt, are meant thofe Chaldaic Oracles which we have publiflied with 

 the Commentaries of two learned Greeks of later times, Pietho and Pfellus ; and 

 thefe Oracles, 1 imagine, were nothing elfe but a colkftion from the writings 

 of the antient Divines and Philofophers of Chaldea : Next the Myftical Philofophy, 

 preferved in the antient books of the iiji>y;«^f<«THs or Sacred Scribes, of the Egypti- 

 ans, that is, as I underftand the word, they who underftood and could write the 

 facred Charafter, to which only thofe Myfterics were committed : And, lad of all, 

 the Dodrine of the Theologians of Delphi. Till 1 read thefe laft words, I be- 

 lieved that the Oracles, fo often quoted by Plotinus, Porphyry, Jamblichus, Pro- 

 clus, and Synefius himfelf, were only the Chaldaic Oracles. But jt appe.irs from 

 thefe words of Nicephorus, thnt the Delphic God, after he had ceafed lo be poli« 

 tical, and could no longer dirett the affairs of men by his councls, ftill k pt up 

 fome authority, by didating in matters of philofophy: And ptihaps fome of the 

 Oracles, quoted by Synefius in this work, and which are not fo be found in the 

 above mentioned collection of the Chaldaic Oracles made by Pietho and Pfellus, 

 aic from the Delphic Priefts. This, I think, is a curjous anecdote of Jueraty hiftory. 



