274 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



dry facts. — The Egyptians, therefore, the inventors^ a?id the ordy 

 inventors of Language. — Hoiv Language and other arts were tranf- 

 mitted from Egypt to other Countries., is an important part of the 

 Hifory ofMan.—T'bis to he treated of in the folloiviug Book. 



N the preceeding chapter, and other parts of this work, I have 

 been at great pains to fhovv the diificulty of the invention of 

 language ; and this for feveral reafons. Fi'f, it is an art of fo com- 

 mon ufe, (much more common than any other art among men), and, 

 in appearance of fuch eafy ufe, being pradtifed by men, vi'omen, 

 and children, that fome believe it to be natural to men, and among 

 others a great writer, of whom I have made already a good deal of ufe, 

 and fhall make more in the fequel of this work ; — Mon. Gebelin, 

 author of the Monde Primitif who believes that there exifted a natu- 

 ral language among men, from which all the languages now fpoken 

 are derived. 



My fecond reafon is. That as language is the parent of all o- 

 ther arts, without which no other art or fcience could have been 

 invented, and confequently man muft have remained in his fallen 

 ftate, that is an animal, with only the capacity of intelled, fo that 

 he could have made no progrefs in this life towards the recovery of 

 his former ftate, it was proper that every thing concerning this art 

 fhould be fully explained, particularly the difficulty of the invention 

 of it ; which I think I have fhown to be fo great, that it never could 

 have been invented, if a wife and good God had not interpofed to 

 aifift man in this firft ftep of his progrefs. 



My third x^dSon is, that it tends to prove, what is to be the fubjed: 

 of this chapter, that the art muft have been invented in Egypt, where 

 fo manv other arts were invented, and particulcwrly mufic, (an art, as I 



have 



