Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 145 



The next morl: antlent nation in tlie world is that of India, and 

 which undoubtedly exifts at this day. The ftatureof the people in that 

 country, at the time of Alexander the Great, was live cubits, that is, 

 feven feet and a half *, though they were then an old nation, very 

 much older than any nation now In Europe : But, at prefent, it is 

 well known that they are but a diminutive race, lefs, for the greater 

 part, than we are. 



From the Egyptians and Indians I defcend to the Greeks, a nation 

 but of yefterday, compared to them, but whofe cuftoms and man- 

 ners we know very much better, even as far back as the time of the 

 Trojan war ; for thefe Homer has defcribed fo accurately, that, 

 by ftudying diligently his two poems, we may know the manners 

 of that age almoft as well as thofe of our own. What he has faid of 

 Vol. III. T the 



of them mixed with Greeks and other foreigners, the Egyptians were fubfufculi 

 et atrati, that is, were become Mulattoes, inftead of Negroes, (Lib. xxii. Chap. i6. 

 p. 268.). 



ir this be fo, what fliall we think of the learning of Mr David Hume, who has faid, 

 in one ot his EfTays, that no black men did ever excf. 1 in any art or fcicnce, and that 

 they are by Nature incapable of fuch excellence ; when there is nothing that a fchoiar 

 knowb With more certainty, than that the antient Egyptians were not only men of ex- 

 cellent natural parts, of which Herodotus furnifhcs feveral proofs, but exceeded all 

 thofe of their dge, or of any age that has been fince, in all arts and fciences, and 

 were as eminent for their valour and their conquefls, as for their wifdom and po- 

 licy. 



It is proper, however, to obferve, that it appears, from fome Egyptian bulls that 

 are to be ftcn in Mome, that, though the Egyptians were black, and had woolly 

 hair, and likewife features very different from the Greek and Roman features, yet 

 they were not thick-lipped nor flat-nofed, like the African Negroes, but were more 

 like the Eafl Indians. But I hope the reader will not believe that the qualities of the 

 mind d-pend upon the features of the face, any more than upon th€ colour of the Ikin 

 or the nature of 'he hair. 



* A'Tian's Expedition of Alexander ^ Lib. v. where he fays that the ftature of King 

 Porus was above five cubits. 



