Chap.Xm. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 257 



us Siculus informs us ''', and which, as he obferves, muft have multi- 

 plied very much the breed of fowls. This fecret is known in Eu- 

 rope, and has been practii'ed by way of curiofity, but, as travellers 

 informs us, is ftill a common pra<3:ice in Egypt. 



Hitherto, the arts I have mentioned, invented in Egypt, are arts 

 of ufe, fome of them of the greateft ufe, fuch as agriculture and the 

 other arts conned:ed with it; others of them arts of conveni'Snce, 

 and fome of ornament merely. But I am now to proceed to fpeak 

 of an art of abfolute necefuty in the civilized life, without which 

 there could have been no civility, nor any arts invented worth men- 

 tioning. By this defcription the reader will underftand, that I mean 

 language ; which, I fay, was invented in Egypt, and formed into an 

 art there, as well as the other arts I have mentioned. But, before 

 I come to fpeak of it, I will mention another art, which is one of 

 the fmeft of the liberal arts, being that which gives us the greateft 

 pleafure, and which, if properly applied, may be made highly ufe- 

 ful. The art I mean is mufic. This art, as I have fhown, is fo 

 much connected with language, that there cannot be a perfect lan- 

 guage, which is not more or lefs mufical f ; and, therefore, it is 

 not improper to fpeak of the invention of it, before I come to fpeak 

 of the invention of language. 



That this an was praclifed in E^ypt, and for a very good pm-- 

 pofe, — the infpiring fentlments of devotion, as I have oblerved elfe- 

 whereif, is a faft that cannot be difputed, being attefted both by 

 Herodotus and Plato. And Plato, in the pafi'age I have quoted from 

 him, fays II, that it was employed for another excellent purpofe, the 



Vol. IV. K k forming 



* Lib. I. cap. 61. 

 t Page 117. 

 J See p. 167. and i68^ 

 !t Ibid. 



