( 8o r ) 
fertbns remains but only that all things were generated out of Water*. Which; 
is agreeable to St. Peter and Mofts. Poflibly more particulars of his Doetrhe 
may be found among his Followers, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxag>ras> 
ArsbiUits. Anax&goras then makes a mind to Regulate Matter, and move it, 
and was therefore called He ranges the four Elemenrs by Gravity, and 
is fiid to have introduced Vortices. As for the Heavens, the fonians much 
promoted the Knowledge of them*, i. e. They held the Heavenly Spices to 
be JE hct i the Srars, Fire > the Planets opaque Bodies : That tile Moon had 
Hills and Vales_, and was Habitable, and chat it was enlighcned by the Sun, 
which was a^mofl pure Fire. He held alio the Rotation of the Earth, as 
alb the Annual Motion about the middle of the World, as Tbeon Smyrneus 
affirms. To (hew the Reafon why it is fo difficult to find w^st were their true 
thoughts, He quotes this P'affage of Plutarch. This Dj&rrne ( that is, con- 
cerning the Heavens ) was not celebrated and fame us, but hidden an^ kept 
fecrec, and it was difcourfed of with great Cation among a few under an Oath 
of Secrecy ; for Phjlofophifings concerning the Heavens would not be endured, 
becaufe thofe feemed to reftrain and bind up the Divine Numtn to Caufes with- 
out Reafon, and to blind Powers, and to involuntary Effects upon which Ac- 
count Protagoras was banimed, and Anaxagoras put in Irons. Socrates alfo 
for the Name of a Philofopher was put to Death. Whence the Author ob- 
fvfves, that in all Ages it has been very dangerous for Philcfcphers to fpeak 
plain Truth amongft the Vulgar. 
Id the Eleventh Chapter he enquires concerning the Doftrine of Pythagoras 
and the Italic Philofopby, where he finds that either Pythagoras wrote nothing, 
pr if he did, even the Hiftory of them is loft: So that nothing of hisPhy- 
Ifiology is remaining fave only his Theory of the Heavens, which is called the 
Pytbagoric\ Syfiem *, he placing the Sun in the Centre, and the Earth moving 
round it \ the Moon as an An rid hone or oppofire Earth enlighmed by the 
Sun, the Comets to be above the Air, or between that and the Planets*, that 
the Heavens were fluid /Ether, and the Stars fo many Worlds. We know not his 
Sentiments about the Ccfmogonia, or Terrefirial Produciions,for he morebufied 
himfelf about Cosleftial Speculations, and about AbO.rafts and fnrellcctuals, as 
did alfo his Followers, who treat of the Anima Mand'u confining in Harmony 
indivifible and divifible the fame, and an other (as they Pirate it) and fucii 
other Airy Notions as have no Foundations in Nature. But Ocellm Lucanws, 
another Pythagorean^ makes the World Eternal, both for Matter and Form, as 
he does alfo the Race of Mankind. But indeed cl ere is little in this Author 
that favours of Pythagoras his Do&rine ; and Plato' differs wholly from him, 
aflerting the World to be made by God, mi to be corruptible. Yet it mufl be 
granted that both the Pythagoreans and ?latsnijls incline to make the Matter 
Eternal, but the Form Variable , and they had both their Vulgar Do&rines, 
and their Secret Doftrines. And though the Aurhor cannot find any 
but common -fenfe in his Myftical Numbers, yet lie thinks there might be fbrre- 
what more, which is now loft to Maoki&d : The chief of tnefe was his Te- 
trafftii the Seventh was not Ignoble, but the Tenth the N >b!eA and n o?l per- 
fect of all. But of the Reafon and Signification of thele neither any of the 
Ancients nor Moderns give any Satisfa&ive Solutions or Explications. Yet all 
the A» v rients aflert this to be the Doftriae of Pythagoras. And therefore after 
having run over many of their thoughts, the Author thinks that Numbers will 
M m produce 
