Chap. VII. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. i^y 



That men, who had conftituted fo perfe£l a polity, as I fliall fliow 

 the Egyptian was, who had alfo invented thofe arts which I have 

 Ihown the Egyptians invented, and other arts and likewife fciences, 

 of vi'hich 1 fhall fpeak in the fequel, fliould not have difcovered, that 

 there were, in this univerfe, beings of power and of wifdora infinite- 

 ly fuperior to man, is a thing very impoffible, and indeed, in my 

 apprehenfion, abfolutely incredible. But the matter does not reft 

 Upon theory or argument : For it is a fadl uncontravertible, that 

 they were a moft religious nation, I believe as religious a nation as 

 ever exifted : Herodotus fays, the moft religious ot all nations *. 



Whether their religion was what may be called a true religion, is 

 not the bufinefs of this part of my work to inquire ; for I here 

 confider religion only as a political inftitution ; and I inquire, ^r/?, 

 Whether religion among the Egyptians produced fuch bad confe- 

 quences, as it is known to have produced among other nations, fuch 

 as that abomination of human facrifices, which we know were prac- 

 tifed in other nations, particularly among the Carthaginians f, like- 

 wife among the Greeks, the Cananires, and even the Jews. But a- 

 mong the Egyptians, fuch an abomination was abhored, and was never 

 pradifed, as Herodotus has told us %, In other nations religion has 

 produced, particularly in modern times, great diforders in the ftate, 

 civil wars, perfecutions, and maffacres. But we hear of no fuch ef- 

 feds of religion in Egypt. Secondly^ If religion, fo much as there 

 ■was in Egypt, produces no bad effeds, it muft necefLrily produce 

 fome good ; for it is impoffible that it can be a thing indifferent. 

 I therefore hold it to be certain, that the piety of the Egyptian& 

 muft have had a great effed upon their morals, and made them bet- 

 ter citizens and fubjeds than otherwife they would have been ;, 



for 



* Lib. 2. cap. 37. 



•}- Diodjru--. lib. 20. cap. 2^, where he tells us, that the Carthaginians, upon one 

 occaGon, facrificed 500 children, of their nobleft families, to appeafe the wrath of Saturn. 

 % Lib= 2. cap. no. 



