ANCIENT SCIENCE. 



FIG. 2. THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS. 



were in Egypt, as in all other countries before the appearance of the 

 Greek philosophers, the sole depositaries of the existing scientific 

 knowledge. Thus it has been in Chaldasa, in India, in China, in 

 Japan, and among the ancient races of Mexico and Peru, Among 

 the Greeks we first recognize the existence of a class of men who de- 

 voted themselves entirely to the cultivation of knowledge, while de- 

 taching themselves altogether from the sacerdotal character. These 

 were the philosophers, or Grecia4 sages, whose lives, as free from po- 

 litical ambitions as they were from theocratic pretensions, were solely 

 occupied in the endeavour to extend the domain of human intelligence. 

 Thales appears to have been somewhat advanced in years when he 

 went to Egypt, yet, if we may believe the Greek historians, he made 

 so rapid a progress in mathematics that his instructors were astonished 

 by his acquirements. It is expressly related that the Egyptians were 



