546 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 16Q3. 



had omitted taking notice of them, though in the second part he has inter- 

 mixed them with the theory throughout. 



In the 1st chapter he inquires whence this knowledge is to be brought, 

 which he conceives to be all from the postdiluvian records, which were all con- 

 veyed by Noah from the antediluvian, and dispersed among his posterity. Next 

 he inquires where any footsteps of it are to be found among these. And since 

 he finds the ancients divided the nations of the world into four heads, compre- 

 hending the whole race of mankind, viz. the Scythians towards the north, the 

 Celti towards the west, the -Ethiopians towards the south, and the Indians 

 towards the east, he follows the same order in his inquiry. Among the first 

 he finds no ancient footsteps of philosophy, and he doubts whether ever they 

 had any. 



Among the Celti he finds philosophy to have existed, viz. among the Druids 

 and Semnothei. They professed to understand the order and motions of the 

 heavens, and the will of the gods: and that Strabo says, they taught the 

 world's periods by water and fire, and held a transmigration of souls, as the 

 Pythagoreans after them. Of this class were such philosophers as were to be 

 found anciently among the Germans, Britons, Spaniards and Italians ; of some 

 of which Strabo affirms, that they had poems of their laws, &c. of 60OO years 

 standing. Those among the Hetrusci, Diodorus Siculus says, studied philo- 

 sophy : and Plutarch says, they had the notion of the annus magnus, or periods 

 of revolutions, and that the Romans had their sacred rites from them. 



Among the ^Ethiopians the Gymnosophists were famous ; but we can find 

 very little information what their philosophy was. They had a very ancient 

 use of letters ; and had colleges of priests, who taught philosophy and theo- 

 logy. These are said by Lucian to have been the first astronomers, and to have 

 taught the Egyptians. 



In the 3d chapter he comes to the Orientals or Indians, comprehending all 

 the Asiatics, and some of their neighbours, as the^gyptians and Greeks. He 

 begins with the most eastern nation, the Seri or Chinese. Celsus and Dionysius 

 call them atheists, because they had no idol-temples or worship ; and Barbarians, 

 because they had no commerce with other nations. They have very ancient 

 histories ; some that mention the flood and the beginnings of things. Passing 

 from these to the south, he meets with the Brachmans, philosophers celebrated 

 in all ages for their devoting themselves wholly to contemplations ; they are of 

 unknown original. 



In the 4th chapter he inquires concerning the Assyrians and Babylonians, 

 who were the first empire after the flood : these are accounted the first who 

 cultivated literature and had public schools at Babylon, which continued so till 



