314 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



barous and lavage. And it is the more furprifing, that, in the fame 

 volume, he has publiflied a diflertation, to prove that the Chinefe 

 got their religion and philofophy from the Egyptians ; and, in ano- 

 ther volume of thefe memoirs, he has maintained, that they were ori- 

 ginally an Egyptian colony. Now, if the Egyptians travelled as far 

 as China, and introduced a religion and philofophy there, it would 

 be very extraordinary, if they had not taken India in their way, 

 and carried to that country, likewife, religion, arts, and faiences. 

 But it appears to me, that M. de Guignes did not know, or did not 

 believe, that the Egyptians ever were in India ; for that they had 

 religion, arts, and fciences, among them, he acknowledges, when 

 he fays, that they carried them to China. 



Among other things that they carried to China, M. de Guignes, in a 

 very ingenious treatile that he has written upon the comparifon of the 

 hieroglyphics of Egypt with the Chinefe written language, has fhown 

 a wonderful connection betwixt that language and the hieroglyphics of 

 Egypt. And tliere is one fimilarity, which, I think, it is not improper 

 here to. take notice of, as it fhows that the Egyptians invented one art 

 more than thofe I have mentioned. The ait I mean is the notation 

 of numbers, not by words, but by certain figns or marks, fuch as 

 are necelVary in fetting dov/n and operating upon numbers; which 

 could not be done, if they were many in number, by words. M. 

 de Guignes has particularly obferved, that, in the Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphics and the written language of China, the number ten is 

 exprefled by the fame mark, viz. the letter X. It was marked 

 in the fame way by the Romans ; and it is fo at this day by us, in 

 imitation of them : And as the Romans were a moft antient colony 

 of Greeks, who came to Italy 17 generations before the Trojan 

 war, as the Halicarnafiian informs us, I can have no doubt, but 

 that it was the antient mark for that number among the Greeks, 

 which they got, with their other arts and i'ciences, from the Egyp- 

 tians, 



