PYTHAGOREAN WRITINGS. 545 



abftracl:, not according to time. In another place he 

 produces a pafTage out of Philolaus in which the world 

 is termed an eternal effect of the eternal God *. Al- 

 lowing this teftimony to have proceeded from unau- 

 thentic fources ; yet the corrupter of thefe fources muffc 

 have had an authority before him, for enabling him to 

 afcribe to Pythagoras a difcovery of Ariflotle. It is im- 

 poffible therefore that the belief of antiquity, that Arif- 

 totle was the inventor of the hypothecs of the eternal 

 world, was either fo general, or fo afcertained, as our 

 author endeavours to prove. 



That Plato was not acquainted with this philofophy 

 would indeed be furprizing, if we did but know for 

 certain that he was not acquainted with it. It is not 

 expreflly laid down in Timaeus Locrus ; he therefore, 

 as commentator, had no occaflon to touch upon it. 

 That he has not quoted it in other places, might 

 arife from hence, that he did not venture to name it, as 

 being contrary to the received fabulous doctrine. We 

 know that Plato, rendered prudent from the example of * 

 Socrates, is very cautious of touching on matters that 

 ran counter to the popular religion. 



But Ariflotle declared himfelf its inventor, without 

 drawing upon himfelf the cenfure of any for it ? 

 Doubtlefs the author knows too well, from the. literary 

 hiftory even of our own times, that we cannot make any 

 great dependence on authors boafting of their own in- 

 ventions ; for him to rely implicitly on the deductions 

 from this proportion. And Ariflotle, in particular is 



* Stobasus, Eclog. Phyf. lib, i, 24. 



vol. 11. n n known 



