256 A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. Book. II. 



and that we have been alfo taught by them to make that artificial 

 defence againft the weather, which we call a houfe^ inflead of thofe 

 rocks and caves which were the only protedion that men had againft 

 the injuries of the weather in the natural ftate. And in this way, 

 I think, I have fhown, that the Egyptians were the inventors of all 

 the neceflary arts of life in the civilized ftate. And if I can further 

 prove that they were the inventors of language, without which no 

 other art could have been invented, I think I fhall have proved, 

 what I have frequently thrown out in the courfe of this work, that 

 Egypt was the parent country of all arts and fciences, arid even of 

 civil fociety itfelf, which could not have been formed or carried on 

 without the ufe of language. For the purpofe of agriculture and 

 building, metallurgy was neceflary. The Egyptians, therefore, firft 

 taught men to dig into the bowels of the earth, and from thence to 

 bring forth metals. But thefe could have been of little or no ufe 

 without the ufe of fire, a thing, as I have ftiown *, unknown to 

 nations who are fo far advanced in the civil life, as to have got the 

 ufe of fpeech. Of. this fo ufeful invention, therefore, we muft 

 give the honour to the Egyptians. And there was one ufe of 

 fire, which was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, but was 

 pradiifed in Egypt, 1 mean the making of glafs ; for Maillet, 

 the French Conful in Egypt, in the account he has given us of 

 that country, tells us, that he has feen windows of glafs in fome 

 cafes of mummies. We owe, therefore, likewife to the Egyptians 

 this invention, which in modern times has been of fo much ufe and 

 ornament to us. And the fame Maillet tells us, that there has been 

 found, in the cafes of fome mummies, pieces of glafs coloured, re- 

 fembling precious ftones, like the French pafte. And there is the 

 art of hatching chickens and other fowls in ovens without the in- 

 cubation of the females, which was difcovered in Egypt, as Diodor- 



us 



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