36o ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



the firft line of Virgil's ^neid was all Celtic words, except the pro- 

 per name of Troja ; and, as I have obferved in the paffage laft 

 quoted, the word Sba/i/crit, which is the name given by the Bra- 

 mins to their language, denotes, in the dialedt of Celtic fpoken in 

 the Highlands of Scotland, antient writing. 



To thefe obfervations I will add one more. It may at firft fight 

 appear very furprifing, that there Ihould be fo many languages, I 

 do not know how many hundreds, all different from one another, and 

 yet all derived from the fame original language. But language, 

 pafTm"- through fo many mouths, not only of the fame nation, but 

 of fo many diflerent nations, and travelling all over the globe, is 

 the moft changeable of all the arts, I may fay of all the things be- 

 longing to men. Alphabetical charafters, which certainly came 

 from Egypt where they were invented, one fhould think much more 

 fixed and permanent than the found or fenfe of language. Yet, 

 though there were but two kinds of them in Egypt, the one, which 

 they called their facred characters, the other, their popular, when 

 they went to other countries, they multiplied to 74 different alpha- 

 bets, of which fpecimens are given us in a book publifhed in Rome 

 upon the writing art, written by a countryman of mine, of the 

 name of Elphingfton, as I remember. Now, I doubt whether any 

 one of thefe alphabets had the exadl figures of either of the Egyp- 

 tian alphabets : And we are to confider, that the writing art travelled 

 to verv few countries, compared to the number of thofe to whom 

 the language of Egypt was propagated ; for it is only a few nations 

 of learning, that have the ufe of written characters. 



And thus, I think, I have proved, both by fa£t and argument, 

 that Egypt was the parent country of all arts and fciences, even of 

 that parent art, without which there could have been no other art, 

 nor even civil fociety itfelf. 



It 



