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for the above purpose, until more of the treatises on the 
sciences, and some of those on the arts, are translated. 
In entering upon this investigation, it is unnecessary to 
prove, that there was communication between the Hindoos 
and Greeks, because this we have seen, was both direct, 
and by means as well of Egypt as of Persia. But 
it cannot fail to strike one as remarkable, that, accustomed 
as the Greeks were to call all other nations, barbarians, 
they yet speak with respect of the Gymnosophists, or 
naked sages of India, called " Sapientes Indi" by Pliny. 
Also that we so constantly read in the early history of 
Greece, of Grecian sages travelling in Eastern regions, 
not for the purposes of communicating, but for acquiring 
information. We also learn, that many, on their return, 
established schools of instruction, from which emanated 
many important discoveries. These are not more remark- 
able for their value, than for precisely coinciding with 
those we now find recorded in Sanscrit works. At the same 
time, we hear nothing of the sages of the East visiting 
the certainly younger civilization of the West ; and yet 
if we suppose them enlightened enough to borrow, we 
might expect that they had zeal enough to travel, in 
quest of the information, which in any case they evidently 
knew how to appreciate. 
The first point worthy of observation, is the simi- 
larity of the subjects, upon which some of the earliest of 
the ancient Greeks wrote, and those which we now find 
contained in Sanscrit books. The coincidence between 
the philosophical systems of the Hindoos, and those of 
Plato and Pythagoras, who both travelled in the East, has 
been already mentioned. So also the immense mass of 
information collected by Theophrastus, and his general 
observations respecting Plants, and their distribution in 
different countries and soils, resemble in some measure the 
