Chap. r. APPENDIX. 



'121 



And here I conclude what I have to obferve concernhig the New- 

 tonian aftronomy. The reader will not wonder that I have been at 

 io much pains, in this and the two preceding Volumes, to eftablifh 

 upon right principles this aftronomy, which 1 confider as a fy- 

 ftem of fcience doing more honour, not to the Englifh nation 

 only, but to modern times, than all our much boafted difco- 

 veries put together ; and I do not know but that it is the greateft 

 difcovery in fcience that ever was made by a fmgle man. llie true 

 fyftem of the heavens w^as known to the Pythagoreans, and was no 

 doubt one of the many valuable fciences which Pythagoras learned 

 fromthe Egyptian Priefts, andbrought with him into Greece and Italy; 

 and there is good rcafon to believe that thefe fame priefts knew the 

 laws by which that fyftem is governed. But this, with a great deal 

 more of valuable knowledge, was loft in that Ibipwreck of learning 

 and philofophy which happened in Italy, by the deftrudion of 

 the Pythagorean colleges there, and of which fome planks only 

 were picked up, and faved by the philofophers of Greece*. Another 

 great difcovery in fcience was the logic of Ariftotle, without which 

 we fhould not have known Vv^hat fcience itfelf is. But this like- 

 wife, I believe, came from the Pythagoreans, and originally from 

 the Egyptian priefts ; thus much, at leaft, is certain, that the 

 book upon the Categories, the foundation of the whole fyftem, 

 was the work of a Pythagorean philofopher, which Ariftotle has 

 done little more than tranflate from the Doric to the Attic f . But 

 thofe difcoveries were the v/ork of ages, and of a fucceftlon of men 

 for thoufands of years, in the colleges of priefts in Egypt ; whereas 



Vol. III. s' s ' Sir 



* See Introducllon to Vol. i. p. ^ii. -, Origin and Progrefs of Language, Vol. ii. 



p. 262. -, Vol. lii. Book iv. Chap. 24. Avhcre the reader will find a lliort hiftory of 



the fate of learning in the diiferent ages of the world, which he may think it worth 



his while to read. 



t Origin and Progrefs of Language, Vol. i. fecond edition, page 72. and foU 

 lowing. 



