PREFACE. Ixix 



They were not perhaps by Nature much better men than we ; though 

 I am perfuaded Pythagoras was by nature as well as by education a 

 man far fuperior to any man of his time, or that has been fince 

 and even fomething above man ; yet by means of Philofophy there 

 were fome of them exalted to a communication with fuperior minds^ 

 and to a degree of perfedion and felicity much beyond human na- 

 ture in its ordinary ftate, if we can believe what is related of them 

 by cotemporary writers, who had the beft opportunities of being 

 well informed concerning them, being their fcholars and mod in- 

 timate companions ; as Porphyry was of Plotinus, whofe Life 

 he wrote, and Eunapius of Jamblichus, whofe Life alfo he wrote. 

 Such teftimonies I cannot rejed:, unlefs I could be convinced that 

 there were no Superior Powers who took any concern about. 

 men, or that there is no manner of life, or courle of ftudy, that 

 can raife a man above the ordinary level, and exalt him to that 

 communication with fuperior minds, which every Philofopher 

 knows is the greateft perfedion and happinefs that human nature is 

 capable of. 



Having carried down this hiftory of Philofophy to the invadon of 

 Egypt by the Saracens, and there pofTeffing themfelves of Alexandria, 

 then the feat of Philofophy and Learning, there remains very little 

 more to be faid upon the fubjed. Conftantinople, after that events 

 was the only place where any Science or Philofophy remained ; but 

 there the antient difpute betwixt the followers of Plato and of Ariftotle 

 was revived, and continued down to the taking of Conftantinople by 

 the Turks. At the head ofthofe two fadions of Philofophers were 

 Georgius Gemiftius Pletho, and Georgius Trapezuntius, the one 

 on the fide of Plato, the other the friend of Ariftotle ; and their 

 difpute continued, after they had both fled from. Conftantinople, and 

 taken refuge in Italy.. 



The Reader may, perhaps, be furprifcd to hear, that even under 



the dominion of the Turks, the moft indocile and uncultivable of 



**• all 



