268 ON THE GODS OF GREECE, 



dence continually increafing as I advanced, a parallel 

 between the Gods adored in three very different na- 

 tions, Greece, Italy, and India; but which was the 

 original fyftem, and which the copy, I will not pre- 

 fume to decide ; nor are we likely, I prefume, to be 

 foon furnifhed with fufncient grounds for a decifion. 

 The fundamental rule, that natural, and mojl human, 

 operations proceed from the Jimp le to the compound, will 

 afford no affiftance on this point ; fince neither the 

 Afiatick nor European fyftem has any fimplicity in it; 

 and both are fo complex, not to fay abfurd, however 

 intermixed with the beautiful and the fublime, that the 

 honour, fuch as it is, of the invention, cannpt be al- 

 lotted to either with tolerable certainty. 



Since Egypt appears to have been the grand fource 

 of knowledge for the wejlern, and India for the more 

 eajlern, parts of the globe, it may feem a material 

 queftion, whether the Egyptians communicated then- 

 Mythology and Philofophy to the Hindus, or con- 

 verfely : but what the learned of Memphis wrote or 

 faid concerning India, no mortal knows; and what the 

 learned of Vardnes have afferted, if any thing, con- 

 cerning Egypt, can give us little fatisfaftion. Such cir- 

 cumftantial evidence on this queftion as I have been 

 able to collecl, fhall neverthelefs be ftated ; becaufe, 

 unfatisfa&ory as it is, there may be fomething in it 

 not wholly unworthy of notice; though, after all, what- 

 ever colonies may have come from the Nile to the 

 Ganges, we fhall, perhaps, agree at laft with Mr. 

 Bryant, that Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, and Italians, 

 proceeded originally from one central place, and that 

 the fame people carried their religion and fciences into 

 China and Japan : may we not add, even to Mexico 

 and Peru ? 



Every 



