Chap. XI. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 239 



that of other nations, than in any thing elle that I have mentioned. 

 They were the greatefl conquerors of whom we read : Their Dae- 

 mon King, Ofnis, overran a great part of India : And their human 

 King, Sefoftris, went ftill farther in that countr)^, and paft the Gan- 

 ges, which neither Ofiris nor Alexander did; and he appears to have 

 overnm all the reft of Aha, and a part of Europe as far as Thrace, 

 But they made no provinces of the countries they conquered, as the 

 Romans did ; nor impofed any tribute upon them. Ofiris overran 

 that great country of India, for no other purpofe, as appears, except 

 to introduce among them civility and arts ; and Sefoftris, though he 

 was in India too, and made great conquefts in Afia, and even in 

 Europe, and though he made captives whom he employed in the 

 way I have mentioned *, impofed no tribute upon the nations he 

 conquered, nor gave them any king or ruler, but left them to chufe 

 rulers for themfelves, and to be governed by their own laws. 



The Egyptians, therefore, did not eredl a great Empire, fuch as 

 thofe of the AiTyrians, Medes, Perfians, Macedonians, and Romans; 

 which I hold to have been the principal caufes of the prefent defola- 

 ti on of the Earth : Whereas the Egyptians peopled feveral coun- 

 tries with their colonies, and propagated their arts and fciences to the 

 moft diftant parts of the earth. The polity of the Egyptians, therefore, 

 not only made themfelves very happy, but may be faid to have been 

 a blefling to human kind, and the greateft blefTmg that man can be- 

 ftow upon man, if it be true, as I think I fhall fhow it is, that from 

 Egypt all arts and Iciences are originally derived. 



Such being the nature of the Egyptian government, both at home 

 and abroad, I think I may conclude, that it was more perfect than 

 any government that ever exifted on this earth, or was imagined by 



the 



* See p. 227. 



