Chap. III. ANTIENTMETAPHYSICS. 299 



country. Now, if this be not proof of a fad, I defire to know 

 how any fa£l of antient hiftory can be proved. 



The learned reader may objedt, that Herodotus, who certainly 

 was very well informed of the hiftory of Egypt, and has given us, 

 as far as he has gone, a moft accurate and diftindt account of it, has 

 not faid a word of the expedition of Ofiris into India, the moft me- 

 morable event of that hiftory. But it is to be obferved, that he 

 has faid nothing of the actings or fufferings of any of the Daemon 

 Kings, though, I am perfuaded, he knew more of it than Diodorus, 

 or any author who has written of Egypt. But what he knew, he 

 had learned from the Priefts under the feal of fecrecy, in the fame 

 manner as the Eleufinian myfteries, in Greece, were communicated 

 to the initiated. Among other things, it is plain that he knew 

 where fome of them were buried ; but this he thought it was unlaw- 

 ful to reveal *. From thence, I think, it appears, that the Priefts 

 wanted that the vulgar fhould believe their Dxmon Kings to be 

 truly what they called them, Gods^ that is, immortal. All, therefore, 

 we learn from Herodotus of the Egyptian Gods is, that there were 

 three races of them, of the laft of which, he fays, Ofiris was one ; 

 and, he tells us, fuither, that the Greeks borrowed the names and 

 adventures of the Egyptian Gods, and afcribed them to men of their 

 own countiy. 



Hercules, too, the Indian traditions faid, had been in India; and 

 they drefled him very properly in a lion's fkin, (fkins being the firft 

 cloathing among men), and armed him with a club, which was the 

 firft weapon ufed by men, and is at this day ufed by the Ourang- 

 Outang. This was a very proper drefs and armour for a man who 

 lived in times fo very antient ; (for he was one of the fecond race 

 of the Egyptian Gods confifting of twelve) ; but it was moft abfurd 



P P 2 in 



* Tat/Ta Ko; iv-r ckk aasdif is the cxprefEon he ufes. 



