OF THE ORIGIN OF CHEMISTRY. 23 



That the chief of their religious opinions were 

 involved in enigmatical obfcurity, and allegori- 

 cal fymbols, is beyond alldifpute: But it is by no 

 rneans a confcquence, that they each took their 

 rife in phyficui qualities, taken from the very 

 heart of natural philofophy, although it is pofri- 

 ble that they came to treat Afterwards of things 

 more abftracfc, and lefs obvious to the fcnfes. 

 We arc furprifcd at the author of Atlantica, 

 \vhofe very fertile genius, fupportcd by great 

 fhew of erudition, has ventured to tranfport 

 the ifland of Plato to the north ; but we are not 

 Jcfs aftoniihcd at the grc.it undertaking of thofc, 

 who pretend to difcover, in a myflic fenfe, the 

 . pliiiolbpher's (lone, the making of gold and fil- 

 vcr, in the mythologic fables of the Greeks and 

 Egyptians. Certainly, whoever has confidercd 

 thcfe attempts will wonder at the extraordinary 

 coincidence of fQ many monuments, even tho 

 jnoft trifiiing*. But the limits that we havepre- 

 cribed to ourfelves do.not permit a more particu- 

 lar examination. 



Pliny, fpcaking of the Egyptian obcli/k, in the 

 great circus ind Campus Martius, adds :"Infcripti 

 f'ambo rcrum nature intcrpretationemEgyptio- 

 " rum philofophia continent." Some, inflcad of 

 "phifophia/'rcad "opera philofophia:." Which- 

 ii 4 ever 



* Sre the various wrltin^a of BornchJup, alfo the Chc 

 mical Heaven of Tollius in all the f<:nfc of madncfv and Di 

 Pcrncty, who, like all the rclt, h:ia h.imilcd this fubjcc^, in a 

 book lately publiflied, entitled, " lablcs Ejypticnncc ct Grrc 

 " quc dcvoilcds. 



