PREFACE. V 



fon for many thoufand years *, it was of neceffity tliut Arts and 

 Sciences being thus hereditary, and tranfmitted from father to Ton, 

 fhould have been carried to the greatefl perfed^ion. And lierc we 

 may obferve a very great difference betwixt Egypt and other 

 countries, particularly the country of Greece, where every man 

 was engaged in bufmefs, public or private, of one kind or another ; 

 and where no man was obliged to follow the profeflion of his father, 

 but was at liberty to follow any other he chofe. In fuch a countrv. 

 Sciences and Philofophy may be cultivated if they are once imported; 

 but I think it is hardly poffible that they could have begun, 



3/'/(9, It appears to me that Luxury, which is the bane of all Arts 

 and Sciences, began later in Egypt than in any other country we 

 read of, for which two reafons may be given ; firft, the prodigious 

 numbers of people in the country, which made it impoffible for 

 the few to live in great Affluence and Luxury, otherwife the many 

 mud have been ftarved, which we know was not the cafe : And, 

 fecondly, becaufe they had no foreign Luxury, nor foreign Commo- 

 dities of any kind, as we are fure that Egypt, in anticnt times, 

 had no intercourfe with other nations, but was fhut up as much as 

 Japan is now. And though we may fuppofe that in all times, in 

 Egypt, as well as in other countries, the richer and better fort of 

 people would indulge in all the fenibal pleafures they could procure, 

 yet we are aflured that the Priefts, even iu later times, led a moft 

 auftere life ; fuch as feme Chriftian Monks, called Jfiachorets, did 

 in the fame country, and, as it is fuppofed, in imitation of the 

 ancient Egyptian Priefts, and fuch as many Monks at this day 

 livef. 



4/0, There 



* See what I have faid of this Succeflion of Priefts. Ibid. p. 626, and following. 

 t Upon the fubjedt of the Diet of the Egyptian Priefts, fee what Porphyry has 

 faid in his laft book De Abftinentia. 



