Chap.III. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. ^i;^ 



arts and fciences from Egypt. And, I am perfuaded, as I have 

 elfewhere obferved, that more of the learning and philofophy went 

 from Egypt to India, than went from Egypt to Greece, and from 

 thence came to us. I hold, therefore, that it is chiefly in India that 

 we are to fearch for thofe arts and fciences, and that ivifdom or phi- 

 lofophy^ as the word ought to be tranflated *, which Mofes learned 

 in Egypt : And, I think, it does great honour to Britain, that we 

 have fent to India fo great a fcholar as Sir William Jones, who, 

 with the affiftance of the learned Ibciety which he has there form- 

 ed, will in time produce to the world the treafures of learning to- 

 be found in India. He is by this time, no doubt, mafter of the 

 key of their knowledge, I mean the Shanfcrit language; which, in 

 a letter that I had from him two or three years ago, he told me, he 

 had then difcovered, to be a mofl: perfed language, more perfed: than 

 even the Greek. Now, in this language, all the books upon arts 

 and fciences in India are written. 



Thus, I think, I have proved, not only that the Egyptians were 

 in India, but that they carried with them to that country, religion 

 and polity, arts and fciences: And, that their religion and arts were 

 from India propagated to the neighbouring countries, not only thofe 

 upon the continent, but to the iflands fuch as Ceylon and Japan, 



If this be fo, it muft appear very furprifing, that the French acade- 

 mician, M. de Guignes, who has w'ritten three differtations upon the 

 religion and the arts of India, publilhed in the 40th vol. of the Memoirs 

 of the French Academy, fhould never have thought of deriving the 

 reHgion and arts of India from Egypt, but has made them to be all 

 of their own growth, which, as I have faid f, was impoflible among 

 a people, who, I have fhown, were in antient times altogether bar- 



VoL. IV. R r barous 



* Origin of Language, vol. 5. p- 3c i. 

 f Page 312. of this vol. 



