ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. 2$g 



amen to prove that all our reafonings were nothing 

 more than mere combinations of words. 



From /Egypt then that Pythagoras borrowed this 

 dodtrine, was affirmed by all who were not ignorant or 

 impudent enough to alledge his journey to India, and 

 his long intercourfe with the wife brachmans and 

 gymnofophifts. But as this was abetting the prejudice 

 concerning the lofty wifdom of the /Egyptians, which 

 had now been exploded for feveral ages 5 they con- 

 tented themfelves with that anfwer, without reflecting 

 that it gave rile to a farther queffion, How came the 

 iEgyptians by this notion ? 



It occafioned no fmall furprife when accounts were 

 firft brought from the Eaft Indies, that this opinion* 

 formed a confiderable part of the religious fyftem of 

 the inhabitants. With aftonifhment it was found with 

 the nations on this fide the Ganges, in Arrakan, Pegu, 

 Si am, Kamboia, Tonquin, China, Cochinchina and 

 Japan ; and now the queftion was, Whether the Afiatics 

 had fetched it from Africa, or the Africans obtained it 

 from Alia. But, lince the /Egyptians had been put in 

 pofTeffion, by the antients as well as the moderns, of 

 the principal difcoveries and the fublimeft wifdom ; fo 

 nothing was more natural than to attribute to them 

 the firft difcovery of the tranfmigration of fouls, and 

 to fearch for arguments from every quarter in fupport 

 of this aflertion *. 



But, even fuppoling that this were fo clearly ascer- 

 tained as it is not ; fhould we be advanced one ftep 

 nearer to the origin of this curious hypothecs ? Its 



Ksempfer's hiftory of Japan, book i. p. 48. edit, Dohin. 



s a birth 



