Chap. III. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 295 



CHAP. Ill, 



'The conformity in fa many particulars^ betwixt Egypt and India^ coidi 

 not have been by accident^ — nor could each of thefe nations have 

 been the original inventors. — The one muft have copied from the 0- 

 ther.—-The quefion then^ which was the original ^ which the copy 7 

 — No third nation^ from which tbofe two nations could have taken 

 their inflitutions and cuflo7ns, — fuch a conformity could not have 

 been produced in the ordinary way of commerce, — The two nations^ 

 therefore^ mujl have mixed aud lived together for fame time. — The 

 Indians did not go to Egypt.— Therefore the Egyptians came to In- 

 dia. — This proved not by argmiietit only^ but by fa5ls;—a particu- 

 lar account given by Diodorus of the expedition to India by Ofiris^ 

 — alfo of that of Sefo/lris to the fame country. — Both thefe expedi- 

 tions by land. — But Sefoflris was not the frfl Egyptian King that 

 went to India. — This attefled not only by the facred books of the 

 Egyptians^ but by a tradition prcfcrved among the mofl learned of 

 the Indians. — In that tradition a memorable Jlory preferved^ of Ofi- 

 ris having faved his army from a pefikntial difcafe by carrying 

 it to a hill called Mjj^o?. — Hence the Greek fable. — Summary of 

 the evidence of Oftris having gone to India. — Objedlion to th^ ac- 

 count ofOfiris^s expedition, that Herodotus fays nothing of it. — This 

 anfwered. — The tradition alfo mentions that Hercules was in India, 

 and clothes and arms him very properly. — The abfiirdity of the 

 Greek fable, co7icerning the cloathing and armour of Hercules. — 

 Memorials of Ofiris in India, to be feen in the days of Alexander, 

 and even of Diodorus Siculus. — Strabo did not believe in the expe- 

 dition of Oftris. — A reafon given for that. — The Egyptians could 



not 



