2)6 A NTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IF. 



pie had no fhare. Mufic they ftudied and pradifed : And, I 

 think, there is no doubt, that the Greeks learned from them to car- 

 ry their tetrachord, which was their moft antient mufic rifing no high- 

 er than a fourth, up to the odave, and fo to compleat the diatonic 

 fcale. But mufic was not ufed among the Egyptians, as it was a- 

 mong the Greeks, for pleafure and entertainment; but was confined 

 to the ufe of religion : And, therefore, no alteration or innovation 

 was allowed in it any more than in their religion. Whereas among 

 the Greeks it appears to have been one of their greateft pleafures, 

 and a neceffary part of another pleafure of theirs, of which the 

 Greeks, and particularly the Athenians, were exceedingly fond ; I 

 mean theatrical reprefentations, but of which there were none in E- 

 gypt. I am perfuaded, therefore, that the Egyptian mufic was 

 much more fimple thaa the Greek ; and that they ufed neither the 

 chromatic fcale of mufic, nor the enharmonic, by which the tone 

 was divided into three and into four parts, but ufed only the di- 

 atonic fcale. Nor had they" thofe divifions of mufic into different 

 moods, called Ionic, Phrygian, and Dorian. Sculpture and Painting 

 were praQifed in Egypt ; and, I am perfuaded, the Greeks got 

 thofe two arts from that country, as well as every other; but they 

 improved them very much. And, in general, they appear to have 

 been formed by nature for the cultivation and improvement of what 

 we call the fme arts, that isj arts of elegant pleafuie: And, accord- 

 ingly, in thefe they excelled mankind. 



As a King was a neceffary part of the government of Egypt, it is 

 proper that 1 fliould fpeak'of the eledion of their Kings; a fubjecfl 

 on which I find nothing vi'ritten in any author antient or modern. 

 That the royalty was hereditary in any family, there is no reafon 

 to believe. The King, therefore, mud have been elected : And it 

 would no doubt happen, that if the fon of the preceding King was 

 thought worthy, he would be eleded ; and, accordingly, there are 

 many examples in the hiflory of Egypt, given by Herodotus, of 



Kings 



