Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 347 



in any other country to which it was earned, hclng preferved there, 

 as a precious depofit, in the hands of a body of men more refem- 

 bling the priefts of Egypt, who certainly fpoke it in the greateft pu- 

 ritv, than anv other body of men now in the world. No other 

 nation, I am perfuaded, got it in Inch purity as the Indians did ; cr 

 if they had got it, they could not have preferved it fo pure, not hav- 

 ing amone them fuch a fociety of men as the Bramins of India. And 

 my wcnt.er i?, th;it fo niuch of it lias been prefenfcd in fome na- 

 tions, and particularly among the Goths, who have always been 

 reckoned a barbarous nation ; nor is it, I think, at all to be won- 

 dered, that fo little of it has come to other nations, or has been pre- 

 ferved among them. 



x-iS to the Celtic, it is no doubt true that the Greek and Latin, 

 the Oriental languages, and all the languages now fpoken in Europe, 

 have a great conne<flion with it. But this does not prove that all thefe 

 languages are derived from it, but only that they all came off from the 

 fame common ftock : And particularly as to the Greek, we are fure 

 that it came directly from Egypt, being imported by the Egyptian 

 colonies w^ho fettled there, and by the governing men who came with 

 them, fuch as Cecrops, who no doubt would bring with them their 

 language, as well as their other Egyptian arts *. Now, if the 

 Greeks, who were certainly a mod ingenious people, and appear to 

 have cultivated arts and Iciences very much, even in early times, 

 did not invent their own language, how can we fuppofe that a bar- 

 barous people, fuch as the Celts and the Goths, invented theii's. 

 It is evident, therefore, I think, that they muft have got their lan- 

 guage from Egypt, as well as the Greeks, though I believe not fo 

 diredly and immediately, but through the channel of other nations. 



X X 2 The 



' * See upon this fubje£t what I have faici in the 13th chap, of book 3d of vol. I. cf 

 the Orighi ot Language, where I think I have removed every fhadcv of doubt con- 

 cerning the origin of the Greek language being from Egypt. 



