PREFACE. iu 



the firft Stage of the ProgreiTion of Man is not the fubjed of what 

 is commonly called H'ljlory, I have been at great pains to collet 

 Fads concerning that ftate from Travellers both dead and living, 

 and to compare them with the Fads related by ancient Authors ; 

 and I find fuch a wonderful conformity betwixt them, as I have 

 obferved in many inftances, that I have as little doubt of that part 

 of the Hiftory of Man, as of any period of his civil Hiftory* 

 The Reader, though he be not inclined to Philofophy, will be 

 pleafed to read thefe Fads; nor will he like them the worfe that 

 they are arranged under certain heads, and applied to prove fomc 

 general propofitions. For my own part, I fet no value upon any 

 Fads either of the Hiftory of Nature or of Man, that do not tend 

 to eftablilh fome Syftem of Philofophy, or from which fo;ne Science 

 can be drawn. 



My chief defigti in this Preface is to give a (hort Hiftory of this 

 Philofophy which I want to revive : And it is the more proper, 

 that, befides Plato and Ariftotle, names well known even to thofe 

 who are ignorant of Ancient Philofophy, I have mentioned, in 

 this Volume, feveral Philofophers of a later age, fuch as Porphyry, 

 lamblichus, and others of the Alexandrian School, who are not 

 known any more than the School to which they belong, except 

 to a very few in this age, who have made a ftudy of the Ancient 

 Philofophy. 



That Egypt is the native country of all Arts, Sciences, and 

 Philofophy, and that from thence they have been derived to all 

 the Nations, if not of Afia and Africa, at leaft of Europe, I hold 

 to be a fad inconteftable ; and the reafons why it muft have been 

 fo, are to me very evident. For, in tlic firft place, it is certain that 

 the nomade life, which I believe was originally the life of all 



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