Ixvi PREFACE. 



Th^re is another Philofopher, who lived about the age of Pro- 

 elus, that is, in the fifth century, who is not accounted an author 

 or fucceffor of any School of Philofophy ; but who, in my opinion,, 

 was a very great Philofopher. His name is Hierocles : He was an 

 Alexandrian by birth, and taught Philofophy there. We have from 

 him a Commentary upon the Aurea Cann'ma of Pythagoras, which, 

 !• think, is the beft piece of practical Philofophy that ever was writ- 

 ten, containing, at the fame time, a great deal of the divine Phi- 

 lofophy of the School of Pythagoras, which the Author appears to 

 have ftudied moft diligently. There is alfo a work of his, or rather 

 a fragment of a work, which Phocius has preferved to us, and, I 

 think, is likewife of very great value. It is entitled 7rep< '/r^ovoiug zar 

 hf^u^f/.svr,g, de Providentia et Fato^ wherein he has reconciled the 

 Order of Providence, or the Decrees of God, with the F7'ee Will of 

 Man, better than any other Author I have read : His ftyle, too, is 

 very good as well as his matter, and well deferves the eulogium of 

 Phocius upon it, that it is not too much adorned, nor too Attic (to 

 ufe a phrafe of his, mentioned above), but plain and fimple, and. 

 very well fuited to philofophical fubjeds.. 



Before I proceed further in the Hiftory of the Philofophy of thofe 

 later times, I will make an obfervation or two upon the philofo- 

 phers of this great Alexandrian School: And, in the firft place, it 

 is to be obferved, that thefe philofophers joined together the Philo- 

 fophy of Plato and Ariftotle, and maintained that they were the 

 fame, and that the mafter and fcholar did not differ in any thing 

 material. Ammonius Saccas, the founder of the School, firfl: began 

 this reformation of Philofophy, as Phocius informs us in the begin- 



ning 



thtca Graca, a moft wonderful colleftion to be made by a fingle man, concerning 

 the lives and writings of all the antient Authors, and of fingular ufc to any map. 

 who defires to be informed of the Hiftory of Learning and Philofophy, 



