Religion, came to be overlooked by Men of Parts and Inquiry, who endeavoured to search after a better Philofophy. From Pherecydes the Son of Badis, to the Times of Ariftotle, are about 300 Years, and during all that Space of Time, Philofophy, in all its Branches, was cultivated by the greatest Wits of Greece, with all poffible Industry; but they had only Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato, who were the eminent Masters, all the other Philofophers must be ranged under thefe, as being only Explainers or Commentators upon the Works of thefe, or at most the Builders of an Hypothesis, from fome Hints given by them. Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato, were the Originals of the Greek Learning, and it is remarkable, that they did not invent that Part of their Philofophy which I am treating of, but they travelled for it, and collected it from the Records of other Nations.

Thales, we find (a), travelled to Egypt, and after having spent fome Years there, he brought home with him a few Tra

(a) Laert.

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ditions, which, tho' but few, obtained. him the Credit of being the first who made a Differtation upon Nature, (a), for in Truth, all before him was Fable and Allegory, but Thales was fo far from having furnished himself with all that might be collected, or from pretending, to build a Theory of Natural Knowledge upon Principles of Speculation, that he advised (b) Pythagoras, who ftudied for fome time under him, to finish his Studies in the Way and Method that himself had taken; and according to his Directions, Pythagoras, for above forty Years together (c), travelled from Nation to Nation, from Greece to Phoenicia, from Phenicia to Egypt, and from Egypt to Babylon, fearching every Place he came at, and gathering all the Traditions he could meet with, omitting to converfe with no Perfon eminent for Learning, and endeavouring to collect from the Egyptians and the

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· (α) Πρῶτο δὲ καὶ περὶ φύσεως διελέχθη Id (6) Jamblic. de vit. Pythag. (c) Porph. de vit: Pyth. & Jamblic. Voff. de Philof. Sect. 1. 2. c. 2. §. 2. Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. Id. Strom. 5. Eufeb. Præp. Evang. 1. 9. c. 6. Jofeph. contra Apion. Orig, adv. Celf. 1. 1.

Jews,

Fews, and all others he could meet with, every ancient Dogma. Thefe were the Purfuits of Pythagoras, and this his Courfe of Study, and from his diligent Searches he acquired a great Stock of ancient Truths, collected in fuch a manner, that 'tis no Wonder he afterwards taught them with an Air of Authority condemned by Cicero (a), who would have fet Philofophy upon the Bafis of Reafon and Argument; but Pythagoras took up his Notions upon the Authority of others, and could therefore give them to his Difciples no otherwife than he had them. His aros on was the Proof of what he afferted, for he had collected, not invented his Science, and fo he declared or delivered what he had gathered up, but he did not pretend to argue, or give Reasons for it.

If we look into the Writings of Plato, we may fee that he confeffed what I am contending for, in the freeft manner. He never afferted his Phyfiology to be the Product of his Invention, or the

Result of rational Inquiries and Specu lations, but acknowledged it to be a Collection of Traditions gleaned up from the Remains of those that lived before him. In the general, he afferts (a), that the Greeks received their most valuable Learning from the Traditions of Barbarians more ancient than themfelves; and often speaks of Phoenician and Syrian, i. e. Hebrew Fables (b), as the Ground of many of their Notions. He particularly inftances a Phoenician Fable (c) concerning the Fraternity of Mankind, and their firft Derivation from the Ground, or Earth; and confeffes (d) that their Knowledge of the Deity was derived from the Gods who communicated it to Men by one Prometheus; nay, he calls it a Tradition which the Ancients, who, fays he, were better, and dwelt nearer the Gods than we, have tranfmitted to us. In his Treatise De Legibus (e), he makes mention of an ancient Tradition about the Nature of God. And in his Phedo (f),

(e) De

(a) In Cratyl. p. 426. (b) See Bochart's Phaleg, 1.4. c. 24. () Lib. de Rep. 3. p. 414. (d) In Phileb. p. 17. Legib. 1. 3. (f) In Phadon. p. 96.

treating

treating of the Immortality of the Soul, he introduces Socrates, reminding his Friend, that they had an ancient Tradition afferting it, and that the furest and best way to prove it was by the Divine Account or Tradition of it. In his Timaus (a), being about to treat of the Origin of the Universe, he lays down this Preliminary, It is juft, that both I who difcourfe, and you that judge, should remember that we are but Men, and therefore receiving the probable Mythologic Tradition, it is meet that we inquire no further into it. In his Politicus (b), he gives a large Account of Adam's State of InInocence, in the Fable of Saturn's Golden Age, which he was fo far from taking in the literal Senfe of the Poets, that he complains of the Want of a fit Interpreter to give it its true Meaning. In the same manner his Fable of Porus's getting drunk in Jupiter's Garden, was very probably derived fom the ancient Accounts of Adam's Fall in the Garden of Eden. In fhort, Plato's Works are

(6) P. 272.

(a) In Timeo p. 29.

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