236 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



others; for, as the people lived altogether in cities, (and indeed they 

 could not live otherwife during the months that the country was 

 overflowed), and as thofe cities were raifed upon mounts, at a great 

 expence of labour, to fecure them againft the inundation, we mufl 

 fiippofe that they confifted of a great number of houfes, and were 

 inhabited by many men, who otherwife could not have lived in the 

 country. The way that we commonly judge of the populoufnefs 

 of countries, is by the numbers of the individuals living in it ; and 

 we fay, that in fuch or fuch a country there are fo many millions of 

 men. But to afcertain this, is a matter of very great difficulty; nor 

 do I know, that the numbers of people in any country have been 

 properly afcertained in that way. Whereas the cities in a country 

 may be eafily numbered : So that, I think, that, in counting the 

 cities in Egypt, there could hardly be any miftake. 



This number of people will not appear incredible, even in fo fmall 

 a country as Egypt, which was no more than a valley betwixt the 

 Arabian Mountains on one fide, and the Lybian on the other, if we 

 confider the manners and cuftoms of the people. Among them, I 

 am perfuaded, every man was married; and, that, they held it to be 

 a religious duty to communicate to children the life that they had 

 got from their parents. This is the opinion of the Indians at this 

 day; and, as I am perfuaded they got their cuftoms and manners, as 

 well as their polity and their arts and fciences, from the Egyptians, 

 I think it is highly probable, that they adopted this Egyptian cuf- 

 tom likewife. Then there was no fuch thing as expofing children 

 among the Egyptians, iuch as was pradtifed among the Greeks and 

 Romans ; but all their children, legitimate and illegitimate, were 

 brought up, and at the fmalleft expence, chiefly upon the herbs 

 which the river produced, as Diodorus Siculus informs us. 'Then 

 that vice, which was fo common among the Greeks and Romans, 



and 



