PREFACE. Ixi 



hold of by thofe who had a mind to ridicule them, thefe they col- 

 leded, and pretended they were the genuine doarines of the School. 

 And thus much for the Hiftory of the Philofophy of Plato and 

 Ariftotle. 



As to the feds of philofophers in Greece which arofe after their 

 time, it is not neceffary to fay much, as it does not appear to me 

 that they added any thing of value to Philofophy. Thofe of the 

 Porch had the greateft vogue in later times ; but it is true of them 

 what Cicero fays, that like thieves, who change the marks of the 

 things they fteal, they did little more than give new names to old 

 thino-s, adding withal fome ftrange paradoxes which they maintained, 

 and which, by their novelty, excited the admiration of many, and 

 made that fed for fome time very prevalent. 



I come now to the Hiftory of Philofophy in later times, after 

 Greece as well as Egypt had fallen : But as it continued the fame 

 Philofophy, differing only a little in form and fliape, I will be 

 very much fliorter upon this period of its Hiftory than on the 

 former. 



After Rome had become Miftrefs of the World, fhe drew to her, 

 among other things, Philofophy, Learning, and Arts, which fol- 

 lowed glory and empire to that great city, forfaking Greece, where 

 they had been fo long foftered and nouriftied ; for Dionyftus the 

 Halicarnaflian tells us, that the Sciences and Arts in Greece were 

 fome time, before his age, become almoft barbarous : But they were 

 revived, as he tells us, in fome degree, under the patronage of the 

 great men of Rome *. As to Philofophy, it appears that the Ro- 

 mans, in antient times, catched a little of that Philofophy which Py- 



thagora*^ 



* De Jntiquls Oratoribus, in initio. 



