Chap.XV. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 279 



ans, as I think I have proved it was not, there was no other people 

 at that time that could have invented it; for as to the Babylonians, 

 and their Priefts the Chaldseans, it is well known, to thofe who have 

 fludied antient liiftory, that they were a colony of the Egyptians. 



But it will be faid, fuppofmg the Egyptians were the inventors, 

 and the only inventors of language, and that the antient Egyptian 

 language was that primitive language, from which all the other lan- 

 guages of the world have been derived, how fhould this language 

 have come from Egypt to all the other countries of the world? This 

 is no doubt a matter which deferA'cs mature confideration ; and as 

 the tranfmiffion of arts and fciences, and particularly of the parent 

 art, language, from one country to another, is a very important part 

 of the hiftory of man, I intend it for the fubjed of another book, 

 which will conclude the hiftory I have undertaken to give, of arts 

 and fciences. 



BOOK 



