Chap. XVri. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 233 



The reader may thhik, that, in a metaphyfical work of this kind, 

 I have faid nnore upon tlie art of mufic than was neccflary or proper: 

 But, as I hold that mufic muft have been pradifcd even before lan- 

 guage, I think it was the firfl: ftep that man made in his progrefs 

 from a quadruped, or a vuttiim et turpe pcciis^ fuch as Horace fays 

 man was in his natural ftate, to an animal that came at lafl to excel 

 in fo many arts and fciences, and to be pofTeired of fiich intelligence 

 as to be worthy of being the governing animal here on earth. The 

 beginning of fuch a progrefs, the moft wonderful progrefs of anv 

 animal we know, and I think the moft wonderful thing on this 

 earth, deferves very well the attention of the philofophev, and indeed 

 of any man who defircs to know the hiftory of his own fpecics. 



But not only did the Egyptians invent the neccflary arts of life, 

 and thofe fine arts I have mentioned, particularly mufic, but they in- 

 vented alfo fciences ; of one of which, I mean geometry, I have 

 fpoken in this volume*. But from the learning to be found 

 at this day among the Bramins of India, where are prefer vcd 

 the language and the fciences, as well as the polity, of Egypt, 

 we know that many other fciences were invented by tlie Egyp- 

 tians ; and particularly logic, by which wc are taught to know the 

 operations of our own intelledl, and what fcience truly Is : For 

 the dodrlne of the fyllogifin is pcrfc6lly well underftood and 

 pradifed by the Bramins ; and Sir William Jones has told u^, 

 that they have ftvcral philofophical fchoola, in which are taught 

 all the metaphyfics of the Academy, of the Stoa, and of the 

 Lycaeum ; and as to arts he fays, that they have many works upon 

 grammar, logic, rhetoric, and mufic f. And there Is a Jcfult, Fa- 

 ther Pons, a mlflionary in India, who fays, that befides other parts 

 of philofophy, they have a logic and the dodrine of the fylloglfm 

 as perfed as Is to be found In Ariflotle : And he adds, that they have 



Vol. VI. G g as 



• P. 177. t Sue Vol. IV. of ihc "Work, p. 312. 



