Chap. VIII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. i8i 



of the form of polity in thofe ftates, which they governed. They 

 pretended to be iomething «iore than men, 



as Homer calls them, being the Sons, as they fald, of Gods. But 

 the Gods of Greece, as I have obferved elfewhere, were not even 

 Demons, but mere mortal men, who came to Greece from Crete*, 

 but originally, I am perfuaded, from Egypt, from which Greece got 

 its arts, and a great part of its inhabitants. The Arcadians, who 

 were the moft antient people in Greece, and called themleives t^oo-i- 

 Xtivoi^ that is more antient than the moon, were a colony from Egypt; 

 and fo were the Athenians the firft people in Greece f. And Hero- 

 dotus has told us, that the leaders of the Dorians, a molt antient 

 tribe in Greece, were all from Egypt : And one of them Hercules, 

 of whom they made a God, was originally an Egyptian, as the fame 

 author tells us, both by the father and mother.. 



The governments in thofe ftates of Greece, where thofe heroes 

 ruled, were, I think, perfedl models of what may be called a 

 free government ; for the kings there had for their council the el- 

 derly men of the ftate, which vpas what they called the /SoyXjj yi^ov 

 rut. With them the Kings deliberated : Anj what was determined, 

 was reported by the King to a general aflembly of the people. So 

 that it was no law till it had their approbation; and that was obtain- 

 ed by the King haranguing them : So that they were perfuaded 

 before they adled. And for that reafon it was neceflary that the 

 Kings fliould excel not only in council and in fight, as Homer fays, 

 but in eloquence. And accordingly Phoenix taught Achilles. 



A 



* Dlod. Lib. 5. cap, 77. 



f See what I have faid upon the fubjeft of the Athenians and Arcadians, being 

 Egyptian colonies, in Vol. I. of Orig. of Lang. 2d. edit. p. 636. and following. And 

 in Vol. V. p. 1 01. 



X Iliad. 9. V. 443. 



